Life in the Roman Vicus of the Imperial Estate at Vagnari (Puglia)
Vagnari is situated in a valley of the Basentello river, just east of the Apennine mountains in Puglia (ancient Apulia) in south-east Italy. After the Roman conquest of the region in the 2nd c. B.C., Vagnari was linked to Rome by the Via Appia. Excavation and survey by Canadian, British and Italian universities since 2000 have furnished evidence for a large territory that was acquired by the Roman emperor and transformed into imperial landholdings at some point in the early 1st c. A.D. The site appears to have consisted of a central village or vicus as the economic core of the estate, an associated cemetery, and a villa, probably of the imperial estate manager or vilicus, on a hill (San Felice) overlooking the vicus.
The current project by the University of Sheffield, directed by Maureen Carroll and funded by the British Academy and the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, has the in-depth exploration of the agricultural and industrial vicus as its focus. Little of this settlement of the 1st-3rd c. A.D. has been explored, with only the approximate dimensions and general building lines of the village being identified by geophysical prospection, survey and test-trenching conducted by Alastair and Carola Small (Edinburgh University). Therefore, our main objective in this first season in July 2012, and in subsequent years, is to investigate the buildings, the economy, the living conditions and the role of slave labour in the village.
Parallel to this project, Tracy Prowse from McMaster University is continuing her investigations in the cemetery of the vicus, with Myles McCallum from St. Mary’s University, Hans vanderLeest from Mount Allison University, and Mikael Haller from St. Francis Xavier University excavating the estate manager’s villa nearby and conducting a landscape survey of the Basentello valley.
Very few imperial properties in Italy have been the object of detailed and systematic archaeological investigation. The multidisciplinary research at this site is important to understand the role of a Roman imperial estate in the regional and extra-regional economy of Italy and its exploitation of the human and natural resources; the contribution of a nucleated imperial property to cultural change in Apulia; and the nature, origins and social complexity of the population on the estate. The results obtained in this investigation may serve as a model for future studies on other imperial landholdings that are only poorly understood or investigated.
SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF ROMAN STUDIES