Marco Moderato

Blies Survey Project (BSP) is an international cross-border research project aimed at reconstructing the historical landscapes around the ancient settlement of Bliesbruck-Reinheim, within a radius of 12 km. The research project is focused on a region located between the eastern part of the Moselle department in France and the southern part of Saarland in Germany, between two river valleys (namely the Blies and the Sarre) characterized by a long-lasting human occupation, from prehistory to the present. The geomorphological context and the natural environment of the riverbanks and the low hills have been significantly interrelated with settlement patterns and human occupation.

Blies Survey Project (BSP) is an international cross-border research project aimed at reconstructing the historical landscapes around the ancient settlement of Bliesbruck-Reinheim, within a radius of 12 km.
The research project is focused on a region located between the eastern part of the Moselle department in France and the southern part of Saarland in Germany, between two river valleys (namely the Blies and the Sarre) characterized by a long-lasting human occupation, from prehistory to the present. The geomorphological context and the natural environment of the riverbanks and the low hills have been significantly interrelated with settlement patterns and human occupation.

The south-western coast of India (the Malabar) has traditionally been a key point for trade and exchange between the Mediterranean,
Mesopotamia, the Red Sea coast, the Arabian Peninsula and the East. Archaeological diagnostics, surface surveys, the study of written sources
(historical cartography and epigraphs) together with a preliminary examination of the ceramic data of the Madayi site, however limited, provide
the opportunity to begin reconstructing its complex history; a history characterised by inter-ethnic and inter-religious relations that, however,
reveals in the background the economic dynamics that led the local aristocracies to strengthen their power and control over the territory, using
the revenues obtained from the exploitation of these trade routes.

The coastline of southern India has historically been a central node within an important commercial network that brought the West (and the Mediterranean) into contact with the Far East. After the fall of the Roman Empire, other commercial actors came into play and Arab and Jewish merchants began to travel the ‘Western’ routes, as attested by written sources at least starting from the 9th century AD.
In this context, archaeological surveys conducted in Madayipara (Kannur District, Kerala) have unearthed evidence of a complex network of settlements in the delta of the Kuppam River in Taliparamba which has almost disappeared today. The natural landscape has also changed over time, as the coastline slowly advanced and rivers changed their courses as well as their function. Traces of this hub or entrepôt can be found in the rich body of historical sources and cartography of the region, which suggests the presence of lively ports often associated with Jewish and Muslim communities, as well as in later maps drawn by European explorers. The historical sources, together with satellite imagery and results from archaeological surveys, can help us reconstruct a complex
settlement pattern, fully embedded within the trade networks of the medieval Indian Ocean.

Nonostante in anni recenti le ricerche archeologiche portate avanti sia dalle missioni nazionali che internazionali abbiano arricchito la conoscenza dei dati insediativi del territorio di Epidamnos/ Dyrrachium, si avverte ancora la mancanza di uno studio organico e diacronico dei settlement patterns che hanno interessato la regione e delle dinamiche paesaggistiche intercorse che ne hanno condizionato lo sviluppo, in passato, e
la percezione, nel presente. Questo contributo si propone di fornire, in maniera reliminare, alcuni spunti di riflessione sull’archeologia dei paesaggi di Dyrrachium fra VI sec. a.C e VI sec. d.C. con particolare attenzione alle trasformazioni del paesaggio stesso e ai suoi effetti sulle attività umane

The inland mountainous region of Abruzzo is very rich as far as regards ancient populations, small towns and minor settlements, playing already from the Iron Age, especially in Roman times and in late antiquity an important role, both for the local population as well as from the mechanisms of settling and from the economic point of view.
For too long, the studies of the settlement patterns and of the economic exploitation of the region have looked just to the main centres, playing very poor attention to the minor centers and to boundary areas of this territory. The main centers and sites in the area, in fact, are quite well known, while the minor settlements and the smaller towns
are now widely investigated by local Superintendence, Universities and archaeologists, but they have never been properly studied systematically from the topographic point of view. The archaeological team of Chieti University is applying a new approach to the study of the inland and mountainous settling patterns, in relationship with the surrounding territory, using new technologies and methodologies, as Remote Sensing, intensive survey projects, archaeometric analysis and non invasive geo-archaeological prospecting. The region was organised during the Iron Age and in Roman times in numerous settlements, very different in typologies, wideness, role, economic vocation and position, systematically and homogeneously planned from a hierarchic point of view. In late antiquity and during the Early Medieval age the patterns of the settlement changed the hierarchic organization. Moreover, they are
generally closely related to the local road network, to the most important via Claudia Nova (Tratturo Magno and Via degli Abruzzi in Medieval Age), sanctuaries and temples, transhumance trackways and their development is greatly influenced by their locations and functions toward the main settlements and the exploitation of the territory.
They are often the best sites to understand the mechanisms of settling as well as the role of the local productions and economy in the development and locations of these population patterns. It could be therefore very interestin to look at these minor typologies of sites contextualising them more closely and presenting the results of the recent excavations and surveys of Chieti University as sample cases. Moreover, the appendix is completely dedicated to the analytic study of an sample area, the Paelignan context, in order to show more closely a territorial case which has involved directly Sara Santoro in the surveys and researches.

The roman Landscape is a complex system of interactions between the natural and human agencies, the latter being especially critical in the romanization process. It is also a complex interaction between the urban and the rural areas and as such it has to be considered. The case study of Epidamnos- Dyrrachium/ Dyrrachion shows how these interactions are played out in the context of one of the most important areas for the eastern coast of the Adriatic sea: the identity of the city and its territory is both chronologically and culturally stratified, being it connected to the greek, illyrian, macedonian and roman worlds. The aim of this paper is to provide the first results of a global landscape study that takes into consideration different types of sources and relates the geomorphological transformations with the human settlement patterns, both in the city and the rural landscape.

L’Adriatico è da sempre, più che un mare, un canale che mette in collegamento il bacino mediterraneo con il territorio centro europeo e l’occidente con l’oriente. Su entrambe le sponde adriatiche si trovano importanti centri di commercio e di attività che  le indagini archeologiche hanno contribuito a far conoscere in maniera più puntuale. In questo contributo mi propongo quindi di analizzare quattro casi studio: Risan (MNE), Durres (AL), Apollonia (AL) Phoinike (AL). Si tratta di centri che hanno rivestito in età tardo-ellenistica e romana un ruolo importante all’interno delle dinamiche storiche dell’area illirica, pur presentando diverse caratteristiche geografiche, economiche, politiche. L’obiettivo di questo studio è quindi comprendere, partendo dal dato archeologico, come si manifestano e si organizzano, in centri molto diversi tra loro, strutture e attività commerciali.

The Adriatic sea has always been more than just a sea; it always worked as a link between the Mediterranean basin and the central Europe area as well as the West and the East. On both the Adriatic shores there are significant trade and productive centers that have been highlighted by recent archaeological investigations. In this study I will take into consideration four case studies: Risan (MNE), Durres (AL), Apollonia (AL) Phoinike (AL). These cities played an important role, during the late-Hellenistic roman age, in the historical dynamics of the Illyrian area, even if they showed different geographical, economical and political features. The goal of this studies is then to understand, starting from the archaeological data, how trade and productive activities manifest and organize themselves in these important centers.

This contribution shows the preliminary results of an analysis of settlement dynamics in the context of central Albania between Roman age, Late Antiquity and Medieval times. The morphology of the central part of Albania differs a lot from the Appenine
valley system: while the latter is in fact shaped as a comb, with valleys running mainly perpendicular to the sea, linking the
inland areas to the coast, the former is arranged in longitudinal valleys, parallel to the sea and separated by lines of increasingly higher hills. This peculiar morphology concurred to set settlement patterns of the Albanian valleys where, inter-visibility and road networks played a very important role, as the view-shed and network analysis applied to this region show.
Keywords: inland, landscape, valley, viewshed, settlements.

The city and the territory of Epidamnos/Dyrrachium has been a strategic center in the Adriatic Sea, controlling both the North-South and the East-West trade routes and always represented a meeting point between the Illyrian, Greek and Macedonian cultures. The overlapping cultures left several marks both in the culture and the landscape of the polis and its territory and the later roman conquest affected both urban and country landscape. This contribution aims at highlighting the Romanization markers in the case study of Dyrrachium/Epidamnos in order to understand the steps of the Romanization process and the role played by the past, local and roman cultures towards the construction of a "new" identity.

The regions of Thesprotia and Cassopia present during the Hellenism an important phenomenon of urbanization, which takes place under the auspices of Molossi, but has also many other reasons. The cities of Orrao and Cassope, placed at the edges of the Zalongo mountains, represent the most important centers of these regions and their archaeological evidence, especially the fortifications, may help to understand the historical reasons for this phenomenon. These areas in fact act as a hinge between the Gulf of Ambracia and Chaonia, Illyria and Molossia and is thus a highly strategic area to control the trade flow within the same Epirus. According to what has become a model of study stated in the current archaeological research, the focus is not only the city but also the surrounding environment, especially analyzing the archaeological evidences such as military fortresses, bastions, isolated strongholds. The purpose of this analysis is to understand the birth, development and abandonment of these sites and the historical events that led to their foundation and their destruction, crossing the archaeological data and historical literary sources.
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"This contribution presents the experience of the European Tempus Joint Project CHTMBAL 517471. The purpose of this project is to create a network  in the field of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Tourism in Albania and Kosovo, through the cooperation of several EU and Balkan partners, to enhance and improve the Public Management of Cultural Heritage and to reform the target universities curricula to the EU standards. This contribute will focus on the experience of the project in its first six months, with some considerations on the actual impact on the public institutions, as a first report on the network construction.

Keywords: network, transitional, countries, Tempus.
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So far, Remote Sensing has represented a fundamental tool for collecting both geological and archaeological data. Since the lower cost than archaeological excavations and the immediate applications both in the research and Cultural Heritage Management, its importance is steadily increasing. This contribution shows the preliminary results of a study undertaken in an inland mountainous area of Abruzzo, the plateau of Corfinio (the ancient Corfinium), starting from data acquired with remote observations (satellite imagery, aerial photos, digital elevation models) and comparing them with a solid archaeological evidence acquired with field excavations. The present study aims at highlighting how the geological and archaeological features have affected the development of the settlement patterns through a diacronic point of view

Questo progetto di ricerca si propone di studiare il paesaggio della regione di Durazzo tra VI secolo a.C. e VI secolo d.C., con particolare attenzione ai cosiddetti insediamenti minori, attraverso la metodologia e gli strumenti dell’archeologia dei paesaggi. La regione dell’Albania Centrosettentrionale, racchiusa dai fiumi Ishem e Shkumbin, è stata nel corso dei secoli palinsesto per una serie di attività umane che ne hanno segnato, in antichità e ancor di più in età contemporanea, natura e aspetto, funzione e fruizione. Attraverso uno studio multifonte, questa ricerca mira a ricostruire le dinamiche insediative del periodo designato, proporre modelli di poolamento del territorio e fornire una base per la tutela del patrimonio archeologico puntuale e paesaggistico regionale.