The research on Peltuinum, which began years ago with a focus on the Roman city layout through excavations, is now an all-round investigation of the society and its architectural and landscape context over a long period of time.
After a brief excavation activity in the 1980s, since 2000 Sapienza has resumed investigations with didactic excavation campaigns (included in the Grandi Scavi Sapienza), achieving decidedly significant results through multidisciplinary interventions, above all in more recent years.
The goal now is to make use of the important results achieved through stratigraphic excavation to focus on the transformation dynamics of a population far from the megalopolises.
Peltuinum is a town founded in the 1st c. BC in central Apennines (now in the prov. of L'Aquila) to manage the movement of flocks between Sabina and Apulia. Transhumance created a considerable commercial activity, so the city reaped the benefits of the interest of various emperors, until a series of seismic events of high intensity caused its abandonment in the 5th c. AD. The in-depth analysis of the documents coming from archaeology and from topographical and geological survey have shed more light on a number of issues, such as urbanism, architecture, bio-archaeology, burial rites, economic history, seismic history, affecting studies into the ancient world in broader terms.
Investigating on Peltuinum exemplifies the concept of going from micro-history to macro-history.
Summarising, the data provided by the research are an important addition to the historical-archaeological knowledge of the communities of central Italy, at a time when such contexts are recognised as being of objective importance. The research project has a positive impact on the local ecosystem, as it acts as an attraction point for a landscape, today's Piana di Navelli, of great natural value. In synergy with the local authorities, regular activities are carried out to disseminate the cultural values of the area.
The research has a multidisciplinary substance that has been strengthened on the basis of the latest exceptional findings. In particular, some areas of investigation constitute strong and totally innovative points for the advancement of research in many fields.
As for BIO-ARCHAEOLOGY, the research on human foetuses, infants, young dogs and foals discovered in the shafts used for the mechanism lifting and lowering the curtain in the Roman theatre shows in particular in documented infant burials. The analyses carried out so far have played a key role in clarifying the nature and peculiarities of the deposits and in estimating the minimum number of individuals and reconstructing their demographic profile.
In order to better understand the funerary choices and behaviours of the burying community, we carried out a DNA analysis on 44 petrous bones of the infants.
In another contexts (city walls and forum area), excavations revealed layers of adult human bones and fauna.
The exceptional nature of findings and the need for a broader definition of their nature and evolution call for further research. In particular, an extensive sampling campaign is necessary for their radiocarbon dating, paleonutrition data and genetic profiling. Preliminary palaeogenetic analysis of some of the theatre infants will be presented in an international meeting, but we need to do more analysis to have a broader basis for the understanding of the social dynamics to new interpreting the transition of society from Roman to the Middle Ages.
The association of stratigraphical archaeological data with biological ones is revealing unknown, and unique until now, aspects of paleo-demography.
Another innovative research line will be opened: investigating human diseases transmitted by transhumant flocks. Although it is to be considered a starting point, it is a main topic to be developed, particularly in the current pandemic situation, and it could help to shed some light also on other aspects such as the research of possible evidence of dietary deficiencies and genetic diseases among the target population under the "one health perspective" in recognition that human health, animal health and ecosystem health are inextricably linked.
With regard to ARCHEOMETRY, we have begun to carry out spectrometric and X-ray analyses on both ceramic and building materials, to trace the provenance of the clays used for the different productions, the composition of plasters, mortars and materials carried by the Tratturo. The importance of topics related to the Sheep-track net has also been underlined by the recent recognition of transhumance as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity (December 2019).
Furthermore, the collaboration with the University of Lausanne aimed at studying the composition of plasters in public buildings is bringing to light, through comparisons of material analysis, the probable presence of workers linked to the Emperor Claudius who were working in the adjacent area of Fucine for the regulation of the lake. This documentation of mobility could be associated with the already known connecting element represented by the route of the Via Claudia Nova, which recodes the road link between the Via Caecilia and the Via Tiburtina Valeria Claudia.
As already mentioned, stratigraphical data show very important for SEISMOLOGY studies, as the recording of historical seisms help defining the temporal scan of earthquake. Since few years, the importance of documenting historic earthquakes is stressed by technicians in order to progress on forecasting geological behaviour in seismic areas.
3D MODELING and the virtual reconstruction of urban buildings on a DEM basis will allow a better analysis of the relationships between geomorphology, architecture and urbanism in a mountainous context, aided by RGB and multispectral aerial photographs - addressing the recognition of buried structures - and terrestrial photogrammetry data. It is to be stressed that the conservation programmes by the Archaeological Direction will be facilitated. A further and main result to be expected is the increasing of the DISSEMINATION of research outcomes to non-experts, as the history of the inner Apennine region will be more easily understandable through these advanced tools.