Areas: SH - Social Sciences and Humanities
Abstract:
In the field of human sciences, a huge potential resource to share with civil society is formed by in-depth knowledge of archaeological contexts, gathered by teams of Heritage experts through specialised scientific analyses carried out in various research areas within universities. The proposed theme aims to increase the knowledge of two sample sites, and share the skills acquired in the archaeological field by the two RUs involved: using advanced information technologies, this can be made available for the community in a collaborative and inclusive outlook, as an incitement to a wider awareness of the cultural potential of the Country, with an undeniable effect on economy and development. In recent decades archaeological research has made great steps forward in converting local interests in single elements/monuments into broader investigations on an urban and territorial scale, focused on understanding the historical processes affecting ancient landscapes. The reason behind this change was the chance to analyse the ancient world not only in a merely horizontal way, but also recognizing its diachronic development over time, recovering the deepest chronological dimension through excavations and complex interpretations of sites. This proved to be particularly useful in the study of long-life urban centres, defined as “pluri-stratified” for this reason. Urban archaeology, carried out in Rome and in other large centres from the 1980s, developed thanks to the diffusion of the stratigraphic method and a consequent reading of ancient history by phases. This has made it possible to recognize the flowing of time by analysing the contexts found underground, allowing the reconstruction of long periods of occupation and transformations. However, only in recent years some of the earliest phases of occupation and birth of ancient cities are being investigated, and an attempt to understand lesser-known moments in the history of these places is being made. Hence, Pompeii and Ravenna have been identified as two ideal cities for the knowledge of urban landscapes in their development. In Pompeii, only one period is well known and widely documented, preventing from knowing its most ancient plot for long: the one extraordinarily preserved under Vesuvius’ volcanic deposits which buried the city in 79 AD. In Ravenna, on the other hand, some notably rich chronological phases - the late Antiquity and early Middle Ages, represented by the magnificent world-known mosaics - have blurred the awareness of the equally meaningful earlier time periods. Prone to a minor attention from the scientific community, these less monumentally visible time spans are still rather unknown to the general public and citizens, who could instead become better acquainted with those phases through apps connected to GIS databases: in this way they might become familiar and appreciate a more vertical dimension of our past, becoming aware of the city that we often unknowingly have under our feet.
Duration of the project: 30/11/2023 – 30/11/2025
Co-Principal Investigator: Enrico Giorgi
Principal investigator: Maria Teresa D’Alessio
Partnership: Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”
Budget of the University of Bologna: 74.615 EUR
ERC sectors:
SH6_2 Classical archaeology, history of archaeology, social archaeology
SH6_3 General archaeology, archaeometry, landscape archaeology
SH7_7 Cities; urban, regional and rural studies