La produzione artigianale a Roma tra V e XV secolo: riflessioni sui risultati di uno studio archeologico sistematico e comparativo

This essay represents the synthesis and conclusion of a five-year research work on the productive activities of Rome between Late Antiquity and Middle Ages and of an international conference held in Rome in 2014. The most recent historiography on medieval Rome has strongly rejected the idea and the prejudice that this city was a "parasitic" city, mainly of consumers and not also of producers of goods and services. Through an integrated work on the different types of sources available on craftsmanship and by carrying out a complete census of the archaeological traces (managed with a GIS) of productive activities present within the Aurelian Walls and in the immediate suburbs, we have investigated the nature and role that craftsmanship had in the economic history of this city after antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages. The wide diachrony adopted (5th-15th century) and the comparison with other geographic realities made it possible to place the economic profile of medieval Rome, as that of a very industrious but never "manufacturing" city.