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New Approaches to Roman Urbanism: The Excavations of the Falerii Novi Project (Lazio, Italy)
September 25 @ 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
155 Lee Rd
Buffalo, NY 14228 United States
AIA Society: Williamsburg
Lecturer: Margaret Andrews
This lecture presents the results of an ongoing 5-year campaign of excavation in the Roman town of Falerii Novi in the Middle Tiber Valley north of Rome. The Falerii Novi Project, which began in 2021, has undertaken the first scientific excavations in a city famously founded after Romans sacked the nearby Faliscan city of Falerii Veteres and relocated its residents in 241 BCE. The partial urban plan of the site has been spectacularly revealed by geophysical remote sensing, but our excavations are providing a refined chronology for the town’s occupation, which was much more enduring than previously assumed; surprising evidence for patterns of trade, economic activity, and environmental interactions; and a comprehensive analysis of the city’s residential fabric. Instead of focusing on the city’s monumental and civic structures, as is often the case for urban investigations, our research questions are aimed at understanding processes of urban development from the bottom up. We have therefore focused on mundane spaces, such as shops, houses, and roadside bars, to provide a more complete picture of Roman urbanism beyond elite and administrative spaces. The project is arguably the most methodologically diverse investigation of a Roman town to date.
Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lecture



