Abstract
Most of the thousands of Mediterranean archaeological sites that have been discovered and mapped in regional field-walking surveys by teams from many countries since about 1970 are very small. Typically they are represented on the surface by just a few handfulls of ploughed-up and worn pottery sherds (sometimes including building materials), scattered over an area no more than 5 to 20 meters across. Archaeologists understand almost nothing about these finds assemblages for two reasons. Firstly, surface assemblages consist of a limited number of poorly datable categories of material that seem to offer little prospect for interpretation; but more importantly, mediterranean archaeologists have always preferred to study a minority of 'special' sites that promise rich pickings - sanctuaries, cemeteries, fortifications and urban cores. If we visualize past settlement systems as a pyramid, then the broad 'base' represented by small rural settlements has remained virtually unstudied. Our lack of knowledge about such small sites becomes all the more pressing when we attempt to understand the relatively small-scale and de-centralized societies of Italian protohistory, i.e. the Bronze and Early Iron Ages. Fieldwork by the Groningen Institute of Archaeology in southern Italy has since 2000 shown that the vast majority of sites in this period are indeed very small; and, rather than being concentrated in a small number of larger centers, settlement occurs in 'open clusters' covering perhaps a square kilometer of the landscape. In such cases, where the pyramid may not even have a 'top', archaeologists' lack of interest in rural life and settlement is fatal to our understanding of these societies. The research programme proposed here intends to take the first few steps necessary to remedy this situation. Our approach is based on the likelihood that most of these rural sites represent the material remains of only a limited number of different activities / functions. It should therefore be possible to study them efficiently using a sampling approach. We propose to develop a site typology based on published and unpublished surface archaeological data, which we will then test and refine in a series of geo-archaeological studies of representative examples of each site type. At the same time we will conduct a review of ethnographic and historical literature to develop a better understanding of both the pre-modern rural activities that might have generated each of these site types, and the modern (post-war) history of tillage, terracing and other alterations that so clearly affects the preservation and detection of archaeological remains in the Mediterranean. The goal of the programme is to understand how sites of each type end up being represented by surface artefact scatters, so that other archaeologists besides ourselves can use this knowledge to attach interpretions to their own (known and future) surface sites, and heritage managers can make more effective decisions about the allocation of public funds for the preservation of the rural archaeological heritage. The research for this proposed programme naturally splits into two work packages / subprojects. A PhD student in Archaeology will be tasked with reviewing and collating the archaeological, historical and ethnographical literature, developing the site typology, and conducting excavations at selected sites to substantiate this. A candidate with appropriate qualifications has already been found for this. The other half of the programme, involving the geoscientific study of the sites and their immediate surroundings, requires an experienced (post-doctoral) geoarchaeologist. This researcher will focus on the processes - both natural and anthropogenic - that affect the visibility and preservation of small rural protohistoric sites, and on refining their detection and study through non-invasive techniques such as (borehole) geophysics and geochemistry. The main goal of this subproject is to develop and publish a cost-effective methodology for the non-invasive detection and study of small archaeological sites, but the researcher will also collaborate closely with the archaeologist in the study of site functions. They will be supported by appropriate specialists for laboratory analyses and specialised field work. The applicant, as programme director, will be responsible for the synthetic publication of the programme?s overall methodology and results.