< Back to previous page

Project

Wine, villa landscapes and cities: the impact of Roman colonialism on the central Adriatic coastal regions of Italy

Today wine in Italy is so much a part of the country’ culture, its economy and the way of life. This

goes back to Antiquity when first Greeks and Etruscans strongly promoted the product as colonists

and traders, and later when Rome modeled the whole peninsula, and after that the Western World,

to its image and lifestyle. Under Roman dominion wine became crucially important to the global

economy. Its impact on consumption habits and trade, but also on patterns of colonialism through

the period of expansion, was enormous. This project aims to disentangle the complex relationship

between Roman colonialism, elite investment in wine production and commerce, and the urban and

rural landscape changes which these developments brought about. The research is confined to the

territories of the Roman colonies on the central Adriatic coast and to the Republican phases of the

Romanization of this part of Italy (3rd-1st centuries B.C.). By combining original fieldwork, with

focused studies of archaeological finds and the literature, the project aims to understand some of

the complex processes triggered by the production and trade in wine in that period and region.

Through the interplay of different methodological approaches within the disciplines of ancient

topography, landscape studies and ceramology, the project will investigate the important role of

wine in engaging Roman colonists and local peoples of Adriatic Italy in intricate webs of economic,

cultural and political relations.

Date:1 Mar 2014 →  28 Feb 2015
Keywords:Impact on Italy, the impact of Roman colonialism
Disciplines:Theory and methodology of archaeology, Other history and archaeology, Archaeology