The Missing Link

Project

Brief Description of the Proposal

The aim of this project is to get a clearer picture of the centres of public power in the Early Medieval cities of our peninsula (curtes regiae, reginae, ducal, margravial and princely courts), and more specifically those of Tuscany and Campania, two regions in which archaeological investigations of this type of constructions have been resumed in the last few years.

The goal is to collect scientifically correct and reliable information to get a better understanding of: interior layouts, in terms of buildings and outdoor spaces; functions; relationships with existing Roman and Ostrogothic remains, and relationships with the urban fabric and other centres of religious powers. The little information about Italy we currently have, especially from written sources, shows a remarkable resilience of Late Antique architectural and decorative patterns and languages, also found in the big imperial estates of Carolingian Europe. Such resilience seems to make such centres “the missing link” between the Roman world and the fully Medieval world, in other words, the structures that played a role in passing standards, knowledge and complex techniques on from one Age to the next.

The need is felt, therefore, to resume investigating such constructions more systematically, using contemporary archaeological tools. In this project, the aim is to investigate the public courts of Lucca, Pisa and Salerno by rereading earlier excavations (Lucca, margravial court, IX century; Salerno, Arechi II’s court, VIII century), conducting and publishing current and new excavations (Pisa, royal court-San Sisto Garden; Lucca, royal court; Salerno, Arechi II’s court) and reading the stratigraphy of the extant architectures Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca MUR – BANDO 2022 (Salerno, princely courts of Guaifer, IX century, and John, X century). Pride of place will be given to archaeometric analyses, using portable and laboratory instruments (to establish raw materials, manufacturing methods and origins of artefacts, decorative apparatuses, building materials and mortars), absolute dating (C14 and mortars), anthropological and isotopic tests (87Sr/86Sr and 18O) on the skeletons found, and archaeobotanical investigations to reconstruct the gardens of the public courts.

The findings will be digitally processed to develop 3D renderings of the estates, which might also be emphasised by specifically-designed virtual browsing (UX) platforms (User eXperience) and BIM/HBIM systems (Heritage BIM).
Bibliographical and archival searches will help create a GIS of the Italian public courts, archaeological information of which is still available. An exchange of views with Italian and European colleagues will take place at an interim workshop that will be streamed live and published in an open-access volume, which will also contain the proceedings of the final conference of the project, the outcome of which will be described in at least two articles on A-class journals and in the archaeological researches published by the two Units.

State of Art

Until recent times, the study of the urban centres of public power in Early Medieval Italy has not met great favour with archaeologists. This is partly accounted for by the difficulty of investigating such centres, located in areas too densely populated to be easily explored. The available data are few and fragmentary; they come from previous excavations, often non-stratigraphic ones, as in the case of the curia ducis in Brescia, or from emergency or preventative excavations, as was the case of the first work in the Arechi’s palace in Salerno (Brogiolo 2014; Peduto 2010).

But, what do we mean by centres of public power? From the Lombard Age to the X century, such centres would be the buildings and facilities that were used by kings, queens or their delegates and that often made up the curtes regiae, reginae, the ducal and margravial courts, a sort of ‘power districts’, with their palatia. Most of the latter were located in town (first in Pavia, the capital) and were intended not only to enforce the law but also to manage fiscal properties and their incomes, on which the state relied after the disappearance of the Roman taxation system (Boucheron, Chiffoleau 2004; Der Frühmittelalterliche 2009; Gasparri 2011).

One of the most problematic issues that needs to be investigated is the relationship, in terms of urban planning and architectural traditions, between the Early Medieval centres of power and the civil service buildings of the Imperial and Late Antique Ages, when a number of figures, in charge of provincial, municipal and religious power (curatores, consulares, vicarii, honorati, principales, defensores, bishops), emerged next to curiales (Ward-Perkins 1984; Lavan 2001; Liebescheutz 2001; Cecconi 2006).
The few cases of archaeologically-investigated royal courts show a reuse of Late Antique public centres (Cividale), refurbished in the Ostrogothic Age (Pavia, Monza, Brescia, Verona, Ravenna), which usually began to be documented in the Carolingian Age (Noyé 2012; Baldini 2014; Featherstone 2015). These are palatia, often on two floors, with lodges, decorated with opus sectile, frescoes (Monza), mosaics (Theodoric’s palatium in Ravenna and Pavia), monumental epigraphy in gilded bronze (Arechi II’s palace in Salerno, 758-787), civic halls, often with lodges in front (defined as laubie as from the IX century), sometimes reduced to pergolas and frequently used for pleas, as well as chapels, towers, especially after the X century (Verona), monumental staircases and thrones (Salerno), and baths (Pavia, starting in the early VIII century) (Bougard 1996; Brogiolo 2017). There were also gardens, workshops, where valuable fabrics or precious metals used to be manufactured, executive training schools and jails. Coin-issuing cities also had a mint.

The most striking finding is the firm resilience of Late Antique architectural and decorative patterns and languages, also featuring in the big imperial estates of Carolingian Europe (Ingelheim, Aachen, Frankfurt, Paderborn) (Lobbedey 2003). Such resilience may not be due only to ideological reasons, but also to the presence of the only patrons who could still support quite technically complex crafts.
As we said, though, it is mainly the written sources that describe such centres of public power and their buildings. Mainly studied in the big capitals, the latter are scarcely known nowadays because of a season of research that tended to overlook the Medieval Ages, as it happened with the Palatine and Ravenna (Augenti 1996; Cirelli 2019). Only recently have such kind of centres been investigated with a new focus on the way they were used in the Early Medieval age, as is proven by the research work carried out in the Imperial Palace in Milan (Brogiolo, De Marchi 2020).

More successful have been the surveys of rural public centres, often located in scarcely populated areas (San Genesio-Pi, Fragola-Fg, Vetricella-Gr; Capiate-Lc; Olevano sul Tusciano-Sa; Rota di Mercato San Severino-Sa) (Bianchi 2018; Bougard, Loré 2019; Bianchi, Hodges 2018).
Going back to the urban centres of public power, new research has been recently undertaken by the Universities of Pisa and Salerno. The University of Pisa has completed the rereading of old excavations in the areas of royal power in Lucca (Piazza San Giusto, where the remains of the Medieval mint have been found) and started new archaeological campaigns in the royal court of Pisa (San Sisto Garden), which are unearthing an Early Medieval estate with a building erected on top of a Roman structure, the purpose of which is still uncertain, and a church dedicated to St Peter on its side (Cantini 2021 ed, et al). In 2018, the University of Salerno resumed its research work in the Arechi court, where important findings have been unearthed that may inspire a fresh reading of the history of the public estate, especially in terms of its relationship with the existing Ostrogothic and Late Antique constructions (Fiorillo 2017, 2020).

Methodology

The aim of the Project is to resume the investigation of the Early Medieval urban centres of public power, on two scales:

  1. Italian-European scale: published information about the transformations of urban administrative facilities in the Middle and Late
    Imperial age and of Early Medieval centres of public power in Italian cities will be reviewed. This frame of reference will be compared
    with the outcomes of the new research work conducted by archaeologists, historians working on written sources, art historians,
    architectural historians and epigraphists, both Italian and European, during an interim workshop (in the middle of Year One of the
    Project);
  2. Regional-urban scale: field research will be carried out in Tuscany and Campania, particularly for three case studies, namely the
    cities of Lucca (royal and margravial court; Seidel, Silva 2007; Cortese 2017; Cantini et al 2021), Pisa (royal court; Cantini ed 2021)
    and Salerno (the court of Duke Arechi II and the courts of Guaifer and John, princes of Salerno; Peduto 2010; Fiorillo 2017, 2020).

The reasons for such choice are basically 3:

  • In these cities, excavations are under way in the urban areas of the public courts, so data are expected to be collected and processed in the time span covered by PRIN (2 years);
  • The political-institutional histories of the two regional contexts began to differentiate in the mid-VIII century, when Tuscany became Carolingian, while the Campanian area (Salerno, Benevento, Capua) remained Lombard and partly Byzantine. Because of such difference, it will be interesting to find out how the centres of power changed as the institutional leaders succeeded each another;
  • The cities and regions covered by the Project look out onto the Tyrrhenian Sea, so they are also affected by the historical and economical dynamics that have characterised the same part of the Mediterranean area.

In the selected case studies in the cities of Pisa, Lucca and Salerno, we expect to:

  • Search the archives for written and iconographic sources; find archaeological records in the relevant Superintendence archives
    about excavations that have retrieved evidence of Early Medieval state-owned areas;
  • Reread old excavations in urban public courts (Lucca, margravial court, 1987, 2005 investigations; Salerno, Arechi court, 1992-1994 investigations), while studying stratigraphic sequences, findings and masonries, so as not to overlook important information about areas of the city that can no longer be investigated; actually, many of those excavations have not or have partly been published, and always without a prior systematic study of the findings, which makes even the dating of the stratigraphy quite uncertain;
  • Compute spatial and geostatistical analyses based on available data to outline the transformations of the urban layout of the three cities in the Imperial, Late Antique and Early Medieval ages. Special attention will be paid to understanding changes in
    political-administrative infrastructures, in order to pick out elements of continuity and discontinuity through time;
  • Carry out geophysical prospections and new stratigraphic excavations (Lucca-area of S. Maria in Palatio, Salerno, Guaifer’s court – area of San Massimo) and continue the current research (Pisa – San Sisto Garden, Salerno – Arechi palace) in the areas of royal, margravial and princely courts.

Regarding the geophysical prospections, the Ground-Penetrating Radar method will be used for the detection of buried archaeological structures (walls, burials, channels, trenches, + archeo-stratigraphical features). This geophysical method is widely used in archaeology both for the resolution of the subsurface images that it can provide, and for its non-invasive nature that allows it to be used in urban and indoor contexts as well. The prospections will be carried out with a medium-high frequency antennas (200-400 MHz), covering the survey areas with a grid of profiles to obtain, after the data processing, two-dimensional images parallel to the surface cut at depth variables (time-slices). The variations of subsurface reflectivity visible these images will be interpreted in an archaeological key. The Ground-Penetrating Radar activities will be carried out (data capture and processing) by the Laboratory of Georadar of the Department of Earth Sciences (University of Pisa).

Such research protocol will rely on:

  • absolute dating methods (C14 and dating of mortars);
  • study of findings (ceramic, glass, metal, stone artefact, etc), of faunal remains, of wall-building techniques and decorative apparatuses, in the attempt to discover distinctive traits in the material culture of the centres of power and find out what variables may be specific to such centres;
  • archaeometric analyses, including thin-section mineralogic examinations and spectroscopic analyses using portable instruments (X-ray fluorescence, micro-Raman, multispectral imaging) and laboratory instruments (Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy), to identify raw materials, manufacturing techniques and provenance of artefacts, decorative apparatuses, building materials and mortars. Invasive and micro-invasive analyses will take place at CNR (National Research Centre) in Pisa, while non-invasive diagnostics will make use of the portable instruments of LAD, the Archaeometry and Diagnostics Laboratory of the Department of Civilisations and Forms of Knowledge. The systematic application of portable surveying techniques in situ will be a remarkable
    methodological innovation, since it will fill the gap between field archaeology and laboratory analysis. The methods used in the elemental and spectroscopic analysis of the findings will help plan the field work and will be a versatile tool to meet the research
    requirements right at the time of the excavation. This will pave the way to the development of scientific protocols for historical-archaeological analysis, as an aid for the initial interpretation of any evidence found, while helping collect extensive geochemical information and assess it in real time. Because of such structured methodology, archaeological sciences will be incorporated in research methods at the very first planning stages, thus promoting the democratization of the archaeometric study of the archaeological record. This framework will be aimed at developing a more ethical approach to the study of artefacts, constructions and sediments by directly involving field archaeologists and students in choosing the targets and evaluating the data during the excavation itself, thus reducing the gap between field archaeologists and lab technicians (Milek 2018). Lastly, a protocol split into two different steps (first, in situ monitoring of the geochemical specifications of the findings, and, secondly, destructive laboratory tests on selected samples) will allow us to perform invasive or micro-invasive tests only on samples that are assumedly critical for the understanding of stratigraphic sequences, manufacturing techniques or the use of space;
  • archaeobotanical analyses of macroremains (seeds, fruits, charcoals, wood) and microremains (pollen, spore, microcharcoal, water plants), recovered through sampling with stratigraphic criteria in the archaeological sites: this study will help provide the data for the reconstruction of the vegetal landscape (the gardens of the public courtes), acquire information about the practices related to food, rites and cults, identify the exploitation of agro-forestry resources and the use of specific vegetable raw materials (e.g. carpentry), and define the anthropic approach on nature and the transformations of the economy. Such analyses will be carried out by the Salerno Unit (Alphanvs Laboratory) on behalf of both Research teams;
  • digital 3d laser scanner and photogrammetric surveys to document the archaeological excavations and any architecturally-relevant findings, in order to produce orthophotos (as ground plans and relief maps) of an appropriate scale as an aid for stratigraphic and interpretative readings (Pisa and Salerno research Units);
  • development of computerised digital models of the state of the unearthed structures, based on previous photogrammetric surveys; such models will be associated with different types of data, from the legacy data, preliminary to the excavations (bibliographic and archival sources, excavation sheets, etc.), to simulations and virtual hypothetical re enactments of the stages in the history of the site; all models will be georeferenced and will be therefore implementable in a GIS platform by linking them to a framework for presenting online high resolution 3D models (Unit of Pisa for the whole project);
  • management of the models through vector graphic software and in a BIM (Building Information Modelling)/HBIM (Heritage BIM) environment. Implementation of web-based platforms for consultation of the 3D models, with a special focus on User eXperience
    (UX) to optimise the use of the models in archaeological analyses and in the dissemination of results (López et al. 2018; Bacci et al 2019; Croce et al 2020). Therefore, such models will be important study tools to analyse volumes, inner paths and the perception that contemporaries might have had of such buildings of power, and as dissemination tools (Unit of Pisa for the whole project);
  • study of the human remains in the cimiteries of urban public centres to understand who had access to burials in such privileged areas: in particular, anthropological studies, palaeopathological studies (by the staff of the Universities of Pisa and Salerno) and strontium (87Sr/86Sr) and oxygen (18O) isotope analyses are expected to be carried out, in the attempt to find out where the buried people came from (by third parties specialist laboratories);
  • a Laser Aided Profiler, recently acquired by the Department of Civilisations and Forms of Knowledge of the University of Pisa, will be tested in the drawing and analysis of the findings, as an aid for methodological experiments aimed at developing a semi-automated classification of ceramic findings.

Data and renderings, which will be managed in an open-source GIS platform, will be uploaded on the website of the Project. Charts, annotated drawings, maps with the layers, stages and periods, data from the filing of the findings will then be made available for further Projects, will be made interoperable according to FAIR principles, and will be able to implement databases and GISs of the regional and national cultural heritage.

Goals and expected results

Through a specific review of the public courts of Lucca, Pisa and Salerno, and an exchange of views with national and international experts who are dealing with similar issues from different perspectives, the Project will aim at:

  • 1. Collecting scientifically correct and reliable data to reconstruct the history of the urban areas where Italian public courts used to stand from the Late Antique to the Early Medieval Ages;
  • 2. Reporting on the history of public courts by looking at: the choice of places linked to existing structures and the hierarchy of urban spaces layout in the Roman Imperial and Late Antique Ages; the shape and the layout of courts in the Lombard age; the transformation of such courts from the mid-VIII to the X century, when the places of power multiplied with the rise of margravial and princely courts;
  • 3. Defining the interior arrangement of public courts, in terms of buildings (palaces, palatine churches, monasteries, schools, storehouses, craft shops, mints, etc.), outdoor spaces (gardens, market squares) and purposes (political, juridical, residential, administrative, economic, cultural, religious, educational, military);
  • 4. Investigating the buildings that made up public courts, in terms of building techniques, raw materials provenance, spolia, interior layout of spaces and volumes, hierarchy of spaces and volumes, and decorative apparatuses;
  • 5. Studying the relationships among the public courts, the urban fabric (road systems, walls, gates) and other centres of religious power (bishop’s palaces, monasteries);
  • 6. Finding out how and based on what principles the models and languages of power (architectural, artistic [motifs, techniques, iconography]) of the Roman and Late Antique ages (imperial palaces, Late Antique praetoria, curiae, private mansions and royal palaces from the Ostrogothic Age) came to be embraced by the Early Medieval public courts; finding out whether such models were updated and given a new twist; finding which factors affected such choices; the financial distress of the Early Medieval aristocracies,
    the new cultural and ideological frameworks, different requirements?
  • 7. Working out 3D models of the actual evidence in a digital environment, based on dimensionally accurate digital 3D surveys, as tools for an architectural rendering of such buildings and an analysis of the findings;
  • 8. develop the use of the typical methodologies for the management of contemporary and historical built models and in particular of HBIM platforms, for the management and study of the archaeological data used as a base for the 3D reconstructions;
  • 9. Developing an integrated methodology, whereby non-destructive archaeometric techniques may be systematically used to analyse findings, constructions and sediments in situ.

Therefore, the Project will enable us to:

  • define, with a greater level of accuracy and reliable data, the thoroughly-analysed centres of urban public power in the cities of Tuscany and Campania, which may be addressed either as specific cases or as exemplary ones in comparison to other national and
    international settings;
  • find out whether and how such estates were actually the “missing link” between the Roman world and the midst of the Medieval world, in other words what structures helped transmit models, knowledges and complex techniques between such two eras;
  • bring the topic of Early Medieval Italian centres of urban public power at the centre of the scientific archaeological debate;
  • promote public knowledge of such centres.

Dissemination of results

The results of the Project will be disseminated through multiple channels, depending on the target. Different strategies will be adopted according to the project’s stage as well as the researchers and public involved:

  • Scientific publications: open access publications of the interim workshop and the final conference of the Project into one single final volume; at least 2 articles on A-class journals; publication of the data from the archaeological excavations carried out by the two
    Research Units (the target of this action is the national and international scientific community);
  • Free streaming and recording of the workshop and final conference with the publication of single videos on the youtube channel Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca MUR – BANDO 2022 associated to the project (the target of this action is the national and international scientific community, and the general public);
  • A dedicated website, with information about ongoing research, virtual models of the architectural renderings, and a GIS of Italian urban public courts (target of this action is the national and international scientific community, and the general public);
  • An app for smartphones, through which users can explore the results of the Project in the places where the remains of urban public courts are kept (the target of this action is the general public).

Potential risks and mitigation strategies

The project includes risk mitigation strategies, assessed on the basis of their impact’s degree on the research:

  • Risk 1: problems in data management, meta-dating and uploading data as open source. Impact’s degree: low. Mitigation strategy: the Project team can rely on the assistance of experts from the MAPPA Laboratory of the University of Pisa (digital methods applied
    to archaeology), which has a long experience in the management and sharing of archaeological data.
  • Risk 2: logistic problems using portable test instruments in situ due to the peculiar features of the sites. Impact’s degree: low. Mitigation strategy: the Archaeometry and Diagnostics Laboratory of the Department of Civilisations and Forms of Knowledge (University of Pisa) has acquired extremely versatile test instruments, so they could be used in different ambient conditions. In addition, the Project has partnered with CNR-ICCOM – Institute of Chemistry of Organometallic Compounds, which has proven experience in archaeometric analyses on archaeological materials.
  • Risk 3: impossibility to conduct new archaeological excavations for public health reasons. Impact’s degree: low. Mitigation strategy: as well as new field research, the Project also involves the study and publication of earlier excavations in the areas of the public
    courts by the Universities of Pisa and Salerno since 2018, as well as the revision of old surveys, so if the public health situation should get critical again it would have a comparatively low impact on the Project.
  • Risk 4: Impossibility to hold in-person workshops for public health reasons. Impact’s degree: low. Mitigation strategy: though the Project is based on endless interactions among the members of the Units and though such interactions should preferably take place in person, using systems for sharing the scientific results on virtual platforms hosted by the infrastructure that the University of Pisa has set up in the last two years might be an option.

Potentialities and Impact

The Project has many potentials both regarding the methodological protocols, the data collected and the socio-cultural impact:

  1. Technological impact:
  • It will help achieve innovative results in the application of BIM/HBIM procedures to the archaeological heritage and generally to all
    of the cultural heritage; it will help optimise models and user interfaces for exploring and managing different levels of information,
    offering a hierarchised multi-user UX experience as much to experts, for their studies, as to lay people, for general communication;
  • The interaction between archaeologists and engineers will result in the development of a methodological approach to virtual
    renderings;
  • Protocols will be developed for archaeometric analyses using portable instruments right on the excavation site, through a routine
    procedure that will optimise the testing protocols and incorporate them into the excavation steps and the analysis of the findings;
  • Criteria will be laid down and shared for the selection of significant samples for destructive laboratory tests, based on the
    integrated results of field surveys and data from in situ analyses;
  • It will provide the opportunity to test the Laser Aided Profiler on a large amount of findings, as it can be used for automatic
    photographic and vector-based classification of archaeological artefacts;
  • It will provide the opportunity to reuse and reread “legacy data”, so that they can be re-contextualised and reinterpreted in the
    light of the excavation campaigns and the results of research work included in the Project;
  • The processed data will be open source and usable by third parties, to implement digital platforms on the national or local cultural
    heritage, or to bring about new research;
  1. Social impact:
  • The historical-archaeological knowledge acquired through the Project will have an impact, in terms of the knowledge of the cultural
    heritage, on architectural estates that are basically unknown;
  • The international workshops, designed to promote international dialogue and exchanges of views on the topics of the Project, will
    also help train undergraduate and postgraduate students;
  • The development of research strategies and shared transdisciplinary protocols will provide undergraduate and postgraduate
    students with a unique opportunity to take part in the planning and theoretical-methodological development of scientific research,
    which will be an important chance of professional growth and development;
  • The virtual renderings of the estates and the development of an online open-source GIS platform will make the new information
    easily usable, at different levels of specialisation;
  • The results of the Project may enhance the local museums by expanding their attractions for increasingly demanding cultural
    tourists.