Ancient World Seminar: Gijs Tol and Tymon de Haas (Groningen Institute of Archaeology), 'Investigating Roman rural centres in the Pontine plain (Lazio, Central Italy): first results of fieldwork at the road stations of Forum Appii and Ad Medias'

The project 'Fora, stationes, and sanctuaries: the role of minor centres in the economy of Roman Central Italy' (in short Minor Centres), forms the most recent phase of the long-running Pontine Region Project carried out by the Groningen Institute of Archaeology. Within the ambit of the Minor Centres-project (2011-2016), we study Roman rural centres, which are a strongly understudied component of the settlement system of Roman Central Italy. A programme of non-invasive prospection techniques (such as systematic field walking and geophysics) is employed on three such minor centres to study their extent, lay-out, functions and development. Systematic fieldwalking in their respective territories aims to assess their role as redistributive centres, using both settlement patterns and typological and archaeometric analysis of the collected artefactual evidence.

This paper focusses on the results of the fieldwork carried out in 2012 and 2013 on and around Forum Appii and Ad Medias, both road stations on the Via Appia in the Pontine plain (Lazio,Central Italy) and evaluates their wider implications for the settlement organization of the Pontine region.