Territori e viabilità nella piana brindisina fra età dioclezianea ed età longobarda. Ripensare gli studi pregressi

This paper presents a re-analysis of legacy survey data to study the late antique and early medieval road system of the Brindisi plain. Using the available survey datasets and taking into consideration the heterogeneity in recording methods, a standardized database of archaeological sites has been created and analyzed through archaeogeography approaches. The results suggest that the important role of vici, independent or linked to latifundia and the villa landscape, continued during the Ostrogothic period despite the economic decline of the area. Villages seem to have remained the main attracting poles in the countryside due to the establishment of Christian churches which, considering their location at the main intersections and road axes, possibly became control centers of the territory in the Lombard period.