Space, Power and Transformation: Settlement Dynamics in Protohistoric Latium from the Early Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age

The ways in which protohistoric communities occupied their territory were not neutral choices, but reflected power, control, access to specific resources and collective identities that transformed over time. Tracing these transformations during the Bronze Age makes it possible to read the landscape as the outcome of oriented decisions. This paper analyses two areas of Latium — the Monti della Tolfa, Cimini e Vicani and the Colli Albani — through an integrated approach combining quantitative spatial analysis and LiDAR survey. The former allows the relationship between settlement intensity and environmental characteristics to be modelled for each chronological phase. LiDAR has enabled the identification of previously unknown contexts in areas that are difficult to access through traditional survey, broadening the documentary basis on which interpretations rest. The results reveal two distinct moments of change. The first occurs in the Recent Bronze Age: in contrast to the preceding phases, which were characterised by widespread occupation of lowland areas, communities begin systematically occupying upland positions, redefining their relationship with the territory in terms of control, visibility and access to resources. Similar dynamics appear to be recognisable, with a limited documentary basis, in contexts of the northern Umbrian-Marchean Apennines, suggesting processes of broader geographical reach. The second moment is the Early Iron Age, in which the two territories clearly follow opposing trajectories: the Colli Albani towards forms of regional topographic dominance associated with agrarian intensification, while the Monti della Tolfa, Cimini e Vicani shift towards wide plateaux and coastal areas. These are choices that anticipate two distinct models of urban organisation in the Iron Age of central Italy. The paper therefore aims to show how the integration of quantitative analytical tools with a theoretically oriented reading of the landscape makes it possible to move beyond the simple distribution of sites, recovering the logic that governs it and opening new questions about the relationship between space, community and power in the protohistory of central Italy.