Posted on 12/21/2023 9:28:50 AM PST by SunkenCiv
A rare roofed theatre, markets, warehouses, a river port and other startling discoveries made by a Cambridge-led team of archaeologists challenge major assumptions about the decline of Roman Italy.
New findings from Interamna Lirenas, traditionally written off as a failed backwater in Central Italy, change our understanding of Roman history, its excavators believe.
Their thirteen-year study – published in the edited volume Roman Urbanism in Italy – shows that the town in Southern Lazio continued to thrive well into the 3rd century AD, bucking what is normally considered Italy's general state of decline in this period.
The team's pottery analysis indicates that the town's decline began around 300 years later than previously assumed, while a systematic geophysical survey has produced an astonishingly detailed image of the entire town's layout, highlighting a wide range of impressive urban features...
Because the site was mostly open fields, the archaeologists were able to conduct a magnetic and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey of around sixty acres, carried out by Dr Sophie Hay and Dr Lieven Verdonck respectively. They also launched a series of targeted excavations around the forum.
(Excerpt) Read more at cam.ac.uk ...
It was their Idaho, Wyoming and Montana..................
Rome was staging a comeback when the Western half was done in by the Muslims about 650 to 750 AD.
This is not far from the home of the Samnites, the only “tribe” Rome gave up on conquering and had an uneasy peace with.
Yeah, I’ve read a couple of studies that show that the roman world remained intact except for the imperial rule until muslims wrecked everthing along on both the north and southern shores of the medeterranian.
The Byzantines and Armenians spent far too much time trying to beat each other, which shows once again that humans prefer the pursuit of dominance more than alliance.
It took a few generations of occasional war, but the Samnites were soundly defeated early in the 3rd c BC and given Roman citizenship, consolidating much of the southern end of the Italian peninsula.
As a history buff (especially Roman history), I am fascinated by the Late Roman period (late 3rd century onwards). There’s so much new evidence that points to the fact although the City of Rome itself was sacked at least twice in the 5th Century (in 410 AD by the Visigoths and 455 AD by the Vandals), the city itself actually began to make a comeback in the late 5th Century under the rule of the Ostrogoths especially under the rule of King Theodoric. For those of you who are fascinated about this topic I highly recommend following this channel on Youtube where it’s all about this topic and period.....https://www.youtube.com/shorts/N3S3H01P-0c
https://www.youtube.com/@Maiorianus_Sebastian/videos
Thanks. There was damage, sacking, pillaging, rapine, the usual things associated with a violent change of rule (we’re living through one of those right now), but the transition from supposedly Roman rule to non-Roman rule was not necessarily more violent than the various successions from preceding centuries.
But it makes for better art. :^)
https://www.arthistoryproject.com/subjects/politics/the-course-of-empire/
https://www.explorethomascole.org/tour/items/63/series/
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