Synthesizing almost thirty years of Dutch archaeological research in central and southern Italy, this book discusses and compares settlement and land use patterns from the late protohistoric period to the late Roman Republic. Considering both social and environmental factors, the authors analyze the long-term progression of indigenous Bronze Age tribal pastoralist societies towards the complexity of urbanized Roman society. Drawing on a decade of collaboration between Dutch and Italian researchers, this exhaustive study will be of great interest to students and scholars of Mediterranean archaeology.   

Peter Attema is professor of classical and Mediterranean archaeology at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Gert-Jan Burgers is assistant professor of Mediterranean archaeology at the Free University of Amsterdam. Martijn van Leusen is assistant professor of landscape archaeology at the University of Groningen.

Preface

1. Introduction
2. Regional Settlement Dynamics of the Pontine Region
3. Regional Settlement Dynamics of the Salento Isthmus
4. Settlement Dynamics of the Sibaritide and its Hinterland
5. Centralization and Proto-Urbanization in the Bronze and Iron Ages
6. Rethinking Early Greek-Indigenous Encounters in Southern Italy
7. Indigenous Urbanization in the Archaic Period
8. Rural Infill, Urbanization and Roman Expansion
9. A Supra-Regional Comparative Perspective

Bibliographic references
Index
Colour plates