Il suburbio di Roma nel X secolo: caratteri del paesaggio. Persistenze e innovazioni

The suburbs of Rome in the Middle Ages – and in particular in the 10th century – have not yet been fully investigated from an archaeological point of view, partly due to the extreme lability of material traces. However, these decades are central to understanding the radical transformations of the landscape. Before this period it was characterised by a dense network of settlements, especially funerary and religious as well as productive ones. Afterwards, the Roman suburbs took on a more general rural configuration, with properties largely linked to ecclesiastical entities (these are heritages in progressive formation), in which only a few hegemonic poles emerge (Saint Peter’s, Saint Paul’s and a few other sanctuaries that became ‘civitates’), which attract the majority of the population and the frequentation.