Le ville del Lazio alla fine dell’antichità. Insediamento, attività produttive, culture

In recent decades archaeological research has progressively revealed phases of occupation or frequentation of rural settlements after their periods of construction and floruit, sometimes extending into the early Middle Ages. These acquisitions have progressively eroded the idea that the Peninsula’s countryside was deserted after the crisis of the third century AD and have shed new light on post-classical agrarian landscapes. Indeed, the study of the so-called rustic villas at the end of Antiquity leads to the understanding of the lifestyle, material culture and forms of livelihood, and often clearly illustrates how allogeneic peoples “infiltrated” communities definable as autochthonous. Lazio offers an excellent casuistry, both of archaeological sites that have been known for some time and have been the subject of long-standing research campaigns, and of recently acquired contexts, from which extremely interesting new findings can lead to essential observations on the theme of “daily life in villas”. It has thus been decided to offer a review of some of the most illustrative case studies, comparing data from the southern part of the region and from Sabina with the neighbouring region of Tuscany.