This edited volume puts forth the results of research presented at a conference held at the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome in February 2017 focused on the archaeological landscape of the slopes of the Alban Hills (colli Albani). The 23 contributions within represent a broad range of recent studies focused primarily on the area between the via Appia and the via Latina, with particular emphasis on the often neglected transitional zone located on Rome’s present-day periphery (i.e., municipia VII and VIII). This volume aims to both collate and structure the scattered archaeological evidence for this area, while redressing the balance of attention it receives in contrast to the well-known nearby historical centers of the Alban Hills (the Castelli Romani). Ultimately, the collection is designed to make new data available for the ongoing reconstruction of the economic, political, and administrative systems operating in this lesser-known part of the campagna Romana.

The volume opens with an introductory paper by co-editor P. A. J. Attema, “Archeologia del paesaggio su scala regionale,” which begins by providing a brief history of landscape archaeology in the Mediterranean with a particular emphasis on the holistic interdisciplinary approaches employed by scholars in the 19th c. and 20th c., especially Marie-René de La Blanchère, Fernand Braudel, and Giuseppe Lugli. While Attema notes how Mediterranean survey archaeology had, for a period, lost its way in the post-war years – becoming too fragmented, small-scale, and fast moving – he argues that, despite some lingering “myopia,” landscape archaeology today has largely returned to its origins as a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary study uniquely positioned to examine individual sites and wider socioeconomic systems. He goes on to cite recent methodological and technological advances in Mediterranean landscape archaeology, including the use of more standardized sampling strategies, geophysical survey methods, and the analysis of geological/ecological remains that have allowed the discipline to expand its robust potential for reconstructing past realities. However, to best read, interpret, and (most importantly) compare the vast and detailed datasets (currently being) compiled, Attema argues for a Braudelian approach (popularized by the Annales school) that uses a temporal structure to measure change over short, medium, or long periods. He posits that this approach is best suited to examine trends and changes in economy, demography, production, trade, agriculture, and mentalities (mentalités) over time in the Mediterranean region, thereby allowing the “big data” accumulated to be used to reconstruct “grander” historical narratives. Attema’s contribution points to the growing strengths and remaining weaknesses inherent in Mediterranean survey archaeology, as well as to how to reckon with current and future issues. However, it is worth noting that none of the following contributions make direct reference to the themes discussed here, since the volume offers an admittedly “bottom-up,” rather than “top-down,” approach. Regardless, Attema shows how regional studies have proven effective, despite their ongoing methodological and comparative issues, as well as how survey archaeology has the power to reconstruct past realities on different scales.

In this vein, the following two contributions present results from recent survey projects carried out in the surroundings of the Alban Hills, providing some context for the subsequent papers, which focus more specifically on the titular region. The first, “I paesaggi rurale tra il suburbio di Roma e Latium Vetus,” by M. C. Capanna and P. Carafa, offers some interesting preliminary results from a new collaborative research project between the University of Groningen, the British School at Rome, and Sapienza University. This collaborative effort is designed to refine site chronologies and provide a standardized site typology to facilitate the wider comparison of settlement patterns in Latium and Etruria from the 9th c. BCE to the 6th c. CE. In this contribution, the authors use the updated site classifications to compare the results obtained from surveys undertaken in Rome’s northern and southeastern suburbs from 1993 to 2003 by Sapienza University and the Soprintendenza Archeologia. While the number of sites examined in the north is much greater than in the southeast, both areas show the appearance of a new site type (villas – “classe 2”) in the 5th c. BCE, which the authors attribute to a transformation of pre-existing agrarian and administrative systems (24). Another significant uptick in villa construction is observed in the northern sector in the first half of the 4th c. BCE, while the same process occurred in the southeastern sector in the later 3rd c. BCE. As the authors note, this process is slower and less intense in the southeast than in the north, which could be related to the presence of the pre-existing Latin cities found there (23–24). For more information on the relationships formed between these Latin settlements and Rome, see D. G. Pi’s contribution in this volume (239–46), which uses the available epigraphic evidence to investigate familial connections from the Mid-Republic onward.

The second survey-based study, by G. Tol, T. De Hass, and C. Anastasia, “Il ruolo dei centri minori nell’economia Romana,” focuses on the economic role of so-called “minor centers” in the Pontine plain and provides a summary of five years of survey work carried out in and around the roadside settlements of Forum Appi and Ad Medias, located near the 43rd and 52nd milestones of the via Appia, respectively. These surveys allowed for the chronologies, extents, and functions of the sites investigated to be more clearly defined via detailed pottery analysis. The results indicate that both sites appeared after the construction of the via Appia in the late 4th c. BCE; however, Forum Appi remained in use until at least the early 6th c. CE, reaching its largest extent (12 ha) in the Late Republic to Early Imperial period, while Ad Medias was progressively abandoned in the 1st c. CE, likely due to inundation, given the nature of this notoriously swampy zone. The results of geophysical and field surveys indicate that Forum Appi and Ad Medias featured production zones for metal, ceramics, and foodstuffs, indicating their role as production and distribution centers within this landscape. In particular, the site of Forum Appi, which was located at the head of the Decennovium canal, featured sanctuaries, storage buildings, and docks, as well as large quantities of imported and local pottery. Coupled with the site’s evident commercial and administrative functions, this has led the authors to label it as a “central place” within the settlement hierarchy, following Walter Christaller’s 1933 theory.Footnote ¹ Although the authors’ emphasis on ceramic evidence is crucial for assessing trade and production networks, other cultural materials including luxury goods and building materials, important for reconstructing the regional economy, are not considered, nor is the link between these sites and other centers located in the Alban Hills.

Moving more firmly into the study area, the lead editor of the volume, A. L. Fischetti, supplies a significant chapter on “la via Castrimeniense: lo stato di ricerca,” which introduces the reader to the deep history of this road and provides an updated reconstruction of its course(s) from the Bronze Age to the Roman period using recent archaeological data. As Fischetti explains, the road known as the via Castrimeniense from the Middle Republican period was an ancient trail-turned-thoroughfare that ran along the “crinale di Roma,” a natural ridge running from the Alban Hills (Monte Crescenzo) to the Tiber river (Monte Antenne). Over the last decade, multiple excavations have been carried out along its course(s), allowing for gaps to be filled and new conclusions to be drawn. In particular, Fischetti highlights the important discoveries made at the site of Marcandreola (Ciampino) during excavations for the Aqua Acetosa underpass, which include drainage systems, tombs, and a road tract dating to the Archaic period that likely pertained to an earlier course of the via Castrimeniense cut directly into the natural tuff bank. She posits that the discovery of this early road confirms the supposition of Daicovici,Footnote ² who hypothesized the existence of a corresponding “via Ferentina” running from Rome (“porta Ferentina”) to the Caput aquae Ferentium located “sub monte Albano” in the Archaic period (a conclusion shared by P. Garofolo in this volume, 96). The results of these excavations also underscore how the via Castrimeniense, which was reconstructed in the Mid-Republic and subsequently paved, took on a new significance in the 2nd–1st c. BCE as a trade route for lapis albinus (or peperino), which was quarried in the Alban Hills near modern-day Marino. As Fischetti recounts, excavations of a large trapezoidal cistern located along the road unearthed substantial quantities of peperino fragments, including a wide variety of uncompleted architectural elements, pieces of statuary, and discarded chippings, suggesting that the stone may have been worked at this site prior to being distributed to Rome and/or the surrounding settlements. Although the pieces recovered are currently undergoing further analysis, they range in date from the 2nd c. BCE to the 4th c. CE. Several of these fragments are discussed in further detail by G. Coccagna in the penultimate contribution to the volume, “Architettonici in peperino dal sito Marcandreola a Ciampino.” Here, Coccagna examines some specific peperino architectural fragments, which she dates stylistically to local Italic production of the 2nd–1st c. BCE. She believes that these fragments in particular came from one or several funerary or cultic structures located along the nearby road that were later demolished and subsequently used to fill the cistern, along with the numerous other stone fragments recovered. The results of additional material studies projects from these excavations should prove fruitful for the further reconstruction of this complex and changing road and landscape.

Following on from the work of Fischetti, A. Pancotti’s chapter, “Castrimoenium ritrovata,” attempts to locate the “lost” Republican municipium of Castrimoenium, from which the via Castrimeniense takes its later name. While the settlement has been variously located by scholars either in or around modern Marino since the 1600s, Imperial-period inscriptions pertaining to the site were recovered from the “vigna di Settimio del Senno,” which has been recently identified as the locality of “Castellano,” near the crossroads of the via Castrimeniense and the via Cavona (81). Although the archaeological remains at this site were long assumed to pertain to a large platform villa (basis villa) owned by the gens Captia by Lanciani, Ashby, Tomassetti, and De Rossi (among others),Footnote ³ this interpretation is challenged by Pancotti. As Castrimoenium was described as an oppidum fortified under Sulla in the controversial Liber colonarium, and its name derived from words of military connotation (i.e., castrum and moenium, 82), the author believes that the settlement had a quadrangular shape – common for Roman military forts (castra) in Italy and the provinces. As many large Roman villas dotted the Alban landscape, often built on top of large quadrangular platforms (basis villae), Pancotti posits that the platform site located at Castellano could actually be that of Castrimoenium, especially as several Roman military camps installed in central Italian colonies from the 2nd to 4th c. BCE (e.g., Ostia, Minturnae, Pyrgi) have very similar areal footprints to the so-called basis villae in question (200m × 130m). Not only does the site fit neatly into a bulwark of forts located along major viae east of Rome, but its location at the crossroads of the via Castrimeniense (crinale) and the via Cavona (contro-crinale) would have given it a strategic position from an early period that allowed it to maintain its tactical value through the Middle Ages (83–86). Thus, it appears that, through the reassessment of the available archival, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence, the location of this previously elusive municipium may have finally been pinpointed.

Another valuable contribution to this volume, by P. Dalmiglio, G. Ghini, M. G. G. Cecere, and A. Palladino, “L’ager di Aricia ed i suoi confini,” deals with the notoriously difficult topic of the spatial demarcation of settlements and their territories within the campagna Romana. Fortunately, excavations at Monte Savello and Santa Palomba carried out from 2007 to 2011 have produced some extremely rare finds that have the power to elucidate the ancient topographical situation. At Monte Savello, a cippus demarcating the territorial extent of Aricia was found in situ in front of a small sanctuary (sacellum) associated with a road, tombs, wells, a cistern, and a votive deposit. Other cippi recovered from the site bore the letters FPA and FPB – fines praediorum Aricinorum and fines praediorum Bovillensium – indicating a clear liminal character. The cippus discovered in situ dates to the Antonine period, while the nearby sacellum likely dates to the mid–late 2nd c. CE. However, the site is likely much older, considering that the tombs and votive deposit that have been excavated date to the 4th–2nd c. BCE, while finds from the immediate surroundings range from the Bronze Age to the Archaic. According to the authors, the deviation of the aforementioned road, which takes a hard angle before the site of the later sacellum, coupled with the presence of tombs, wells, and a votive deposit – all of which date to the Mid-Republic – indicate that this territorial boundary existed in an earlier period, prior to being rededicated under Antonius Pius. Moving to the site near the village of Santa Palomba, an even more fortuitous discovery shows somewhat of an analogous situation. Here, two cippi pertaining to the territorial limits of Aricia and Bovillae, also dating to the Antonine period, were found in situ on opposite banks of a small ancient riverbed. This stream appears to have been systematized from at least the Mid-Republic, but a dam was built in the mid-1st c. BCE to further regulate its flow. This structure was continually modified until its abandonment in the early 2nd c. CE, which led to the infilling of the riverbed. As such, the authors postulate that the cippi installed in the Antonine period were intended to rededicate a territorial boundary that was previously defined by a natural water feature. The rededication of these borders under Antoninus Pius suggests their maintained juridical and sacred importance in the Advanced Imperial period, which the authors believe could have been related to a wider Antonine initiative evidenced in Rome and other Italian cities, or to Pius’s natal connection with this zone (122). Finally, in an attempt to delimit the ancient boundaries of the Arician ager, the authors examine the sites presented here in relation to those previously discovered, which featured votive deposits, natural water features, and sanctuaries that may have also served as early territorial boundary markers between Aricia and its neighboring settlements (e.g., Ardea, Lavinium, Lanuvium). Although the proposed limits of the ager (or praedium) provided are certainly intriguing, a final image clearly depicting its hypothetical extents and dimensions would have been welcomed.

Additional excavations carried out in the region over the last two decades have also produced some preliminary results of note presented in this volume. Work by L. Benedetto and A. Palladino details investigations around the site of modern-day Casal Molara that uncovered a secondary road network and buildings associated with the remains of the statio Roboraria located at the 13th mile of the via Latina. In addition to unearthing several buildings from the Roman period, including a porticoed structure and a funerary area with a mausoleum (153–54), the excavations confirmed the continued use of this road station and its surroundings into the Late Antique and Medieval periods, as signs of funerary and agricultural activity suggest. Updates on recent and ongoing excavations in the modern town of Lanuvio (ancient Lanuvium) are also provided in two papers by L. Attenni et al. These contributions detail the results of excavations carried out in three diverse areas around the city center, including at the sanctuary of Juno Sospita. Of particular note were the discoveries of a large, likely public, bath complex built in the 2nd c. CE, possibly associated with the Antonine emperors (208), and a small quadrangular structure built in polygonal masonry dated to the 4th c. BCE, which may have served as an early cult site between the votive deposit of Pantanacci and the sanctuary of Juno Sospita, since it was associated with pottery ranging from the 7th c. to 2nd c. BCE (215). Excavations of underground structures near the sanctuary of Juno Sospita have also brought to light 19 archaeological features, including multiple rooms, wells, and catchment/drainage systems, the earliest of which likely dates to the 4th c. BCE; however, further ceramic analysis is currently being undertaken.

The well-known presence of villas in this landscape is not forgotten, as several authors engage with evidence from the many large and ornate villa sites which populated the area between the via Appia and the via Latina from the Late Republic until the Later Imperial period. In particular, two contributions reflect on how the location and decor of these villas could be conditioned by the presence and influence of the emperor. The first, by A. Betori, focuses on the organization and ownership of villa sites located around known Imperially owned villas, in this case the villa of Tor Messer, and concludes that such surrounding properties were likely owned by the emperor, who either permitted their acquisition or bestowed them upon members of the Imperial court in a perpetuating process (225). The second paper, by F. Pollari, examines the interior decor of a villa located in colle Oliva (Ciampino), where fresco fragments were recovered that closely match those found in the House of Augustus and the Villa della Farnesina in Rome. Not only do these finds help clarify the villa’s chronology, but the presence of such refined frescos suggests that this villa may have been owned by a member of the Augustan Imperial court, or at least by an upper-class urbanite familiar with the evolving trends of self-representation in the capital (267).

Although this volume purposefully ignores some of the larger well-known villa sites in favor of newly excavated and understudied areas, an important paper by S. Aglietti and A. W. Busch, “L’ager Albanus: trasformazioni del territorio e impatto sociale dall’eta tardo repubblicana all’alto medioevo,” considers the Villa of Domitian at Castel Gandolfo and the focal role it played in the subsequent evolution of the surrounding landscape. Built in the 80s CE this vast imperial residence became home to the first and only permanent legionary camp in Italy (for the legio II Parthica) when the castra albanum was built there under Septimius Severus, incorporating and transforming parts of the pre-existing Domitianic villa (201). While this camp resembled those located on the limes it had an exceptionally large porta praetoria that abutted the via Appia and would have been seen by all travelers heading to or from Rome. As the authors postulate, this imposing structure would have been but one of the tangible impacts that these castra and their substantial accompanying canabae would have had on the surrounding area. Following the construction of the camp, which contained 5,000 soldiers and their families/attendants, the number of senatorial villas in the area began to decline and it is possible that the camp was seen as somewhat of an affront (or blight) to the nearby municipia (202). According to the authors, these legionaries, hailing predominantly from Thrace and Pannonia, would have had little contact with the municipia since the castra and canabae that housed their families also included an amphitheater and religious buildings that would have catered to all their needs – including their burials, which are attested in large numbers in the immediate surroundings (202–4). Finally, the size and monumentality of these canabae are certainly of note, as this site was selected for the episcopal see in the early 4th c. CE and remains one of the seven suburbicarian dioceses today.

While the volume is sprinkled with other interesting anecdotal contributions, one of two papers focused on the Bronze Age stands out. Authored by M. Angle et al., this contribution furnishes new data from the pile-dwelling site of “Villaggio delle Macine,” located on the banks of Lago Albano and dated to 2140–1490 BCE. As the lake shore has gradually receded since 2003, exposing well-preserved organic remains, numerous excavations have taken place at the site, most recently from 2012 to 2016. During these investigations a number of ceramics (including dolia), organics, carpological evidence, and wooden piles were recovered that point to the presence of a storage zone for foodstuffs (fruits and cereals) that was perhaps connected to a functional or residential structure. The incredible preservation of the site, first discovered in 1964, offers an excellent snapshot of life in the Alban Hills in the pre-Roman period that is often excluded from similar regional studies on central Italy focused predominantly on the Roman period. As such, this paper usefully reminds the reader of the many Bronze Age sites which would have dotted the landscape from the Alban Hills to Rome, laying the groundwork for settlement and viability patterns that often re-emerged in the Roman period.

Overall, this edited volume fulfills its aims and goals by providing a wealth of valuable new information on understudied areas of this complex and important region. Through a variety of methods and media, an accomplished array of scholars focus on some of the lesser-known but equally impressive sites of the campagna Romana, offering entirely new data from recently discovered sites or providing additional insights into those previously known. Despite the breadth of contexts covered, the collection does suffer slightly from a lack of organization, as the 23 chapters are not grouped according to chronological, geographic, methodological, or thematic focus. Dividing these papers into sections would have benefited the volume as a whole, making it more cohesive and perhaps eliminating some extraneous (although meritorious) contributions. A concluding chapter tying together the results presented and harking back to the goals of the volume and the themes laid out in the introduction would also have been welcomed. The quality of the images was high, for the most part; however, there were multiple minor typographical errors, primarily confined to the bibliographies. Regardless, this volume forms an excellent resource for any scholars interested in the rich archaeology and history of the Alban Hills and the Romans suburbs more generally. The mix of evidence, methods, and approaches presented constitute a vivid cross-section of data ripe for further analysis and comparison. As intended by the editors, the results provided here certainly have the power to aid the diachronic reconstruction of this ancient lived landscape and inform historical narratives at the local, regional, and Mediterranean scale.