Opening the frontier…

Archaeologists and philologists from the Universities of Cambridge, Belfast, Perugia and Roma have just completed a pilot study in September of the longue duree frontier between Gubbio and Perugia, Central Italy. The results were presented in a small symposium (.pdf) in Gubbio on 27th September.

The fuzzy frontier between the Umbrians to the north and the Etruscans to the south was consolidated by the construction of a fortress in the fourth century BC at Col di Marzo, which projected the line of sight of the Etruscans across the Tiber into the hills towards Gubbio, ahead of two nucleated settlements at Civitella Benazzone and Civitella d'Arna. Philological analysis of the famous Iguvine Tables by philologists from the Department of Classics, presented at the symposium, emphasised that the main boundary of concern to the Umbrians was the limits of the city rather than the political territory. Earlier settlement consisted of Palaeolithic hunting activity and Neolithic/Bronze age sites close to water provided by the Torrente Ventia, a tributary of the Tiber. The frontier was later absorbed into the Roman empire during the last centuries BC, when the area was occupied by important kiln production of Spello amphorae and coarsewares, as well as numerous small farmsteads. In the early Medieval period, the Benedictine abbey was deliberately placed in this liminal zone, and during the course of the later Middle Ages, the frontier was repeatedly fortified through the presence of castles, as markers of the extent of power of the rival cities of Gubbio and Perugia. The same frontier has persisted into the modern period after the Unification of Italy, and provides the modern administrative boundary between Gubbio and Perugia to this very day.

The field study has been centred on the ancient holdings of the abbey of S. Maria di Valdiponte (Montelabate), near Perugia in Umbria in central Italy, now owned by the Fondazione Gaslini of Genova who provided important infrastructural support. The project was further financed by the British Academy, the McDonald Institute, the Provincia di Perugia (Unicredit Banca di Roma), the Comune di Gubbio, the Comune di Perugia and Magdalene College, Cambridge. Invaluable scientific support was given by the Soprintendenza per i beni archeologici dell'Umbria. Further information available from ss16@cam.ac.uk.

View south from the frontier towards the Abbey the Castello di Ramazzano and Perugia

View south from the frontier towards the Abbey the Castello di Ramazzano and Perugia