Observations on daily Life in the communal town of Leopoli-Cencelle

The civitas of Leopoli-Cencelle, founded by Pope Leo IV (9th cent.), is located in the Tolfa Mountains on the northern edge of the Province of Rome. The site has been the object of archaeological research directed by the Department of Medieval Archaeology at La Sapienza University of Rome. The paper focuses on the analysis of about thirty agricultural artefacts (hoes, sickles, billhooks and axes) originating from stratigraphic contexts corresponding to the town’s communal facies (13th-14th cent.). The interpretation of the material properties of these tools, resulting from a synthesis of data from written sources, iconography, science applied to archaeology and the artefacts’ contexts of recovery, allowed us to shed light on several social aspects of the agricultural production cycle at Leopoli.