Landscapes of Early Roman Colonization Project – Aesernia survey [data-set].

The character of Roman colonization and its consequent impact on the conquered areas of Italy and beyond have recently become the subject of an intense and dynamic scholarly debate. Understanding the nature of Roman colonization in the mid-Republican period (ca. late 4th-2nd centuries BC) is particularly critical, because the establishment of colonies is thought to have been a key factor in Roman expansionist and imperialist strategies developing in that period. Recent studies have criticized traditional views of Roman colonies, and the possibility that the mid-Republican colonial settlements differed intrinsically from the colonies established in the late Republican and Imperial periods has come into view. The debate so far has mainly focused on the primary urban centers that are associated with the colonies. However, it has become clear that understanding the colonial settlement organization as a whole, including both the central settlement and the wider territory, is fundamental for assessing traditional and new hypotheses on Roman colonization and its impact on the wider environment and local society. With a view to contribute to this debate, in 2011 we started a large-scale landscape archaeological project in the territory of the colony of Aesernia, located in the modern province of Isernia, Molise, in Central-Southern Italy. According to the literary sources, Aesernia, a colony of the so-called Latin right, was established by Rome in 263 BC in mountainous territory that Roman armies had conquered from the Samnites during the Samnite-Roman conflicts. The case of the colony of Aesernia is especially relevant in current discussions about the character and impact of Roman colonies, precisely because it was established within what has traditionally been seen as a fundamentally different, non-urbanized society and settlement reality than that commonly associated with Roman colonies, and Graeco-Roman civilization in general. Tracking and understanding the behavior of early Roman settlers in this particular area may therefore yield important insights into the socio-political set-up of Roman colonies, the economic basis of the colonial community, and Roman colonial ideologies and attitudes towards settlement and landscape. Also, the longer-term developments in the landscape surrounding the settlement of Aesernia throughout the Republican, Imperial and late Roman periods allow us to follow the functioning and development of an Italic-Roman town over time. Tesse D. Stek (excerpt from Stek, T.D. et al. 2015, ‘An early Roman colonial landscape in the Apennine mountains: landscape archaeological research in the territory of Aesernia (Central-Southern Italy)’, in Analysis Archaeologica 1, pp. 229-230). Please cite this Record as: Stek, T.D., Pelgrom, J. & Kalkers R.A.A. 2019. Landscapes of Early Roman Colonization Project – Aesernia survey [data-set]. Fasti Online Survey [distributor]. Permalink: http://www.fastionline.org/survey/site/AIAC_444