La “mansio” di Vignale (Piombino): l'archeologia di un “sito minore” in una lettura antropologica “surmoderna”

Vignale is an ancient and late antique settlement located along the coast in Central Tuscany. Since 2003, the site is the focus of a “global archaeology” project, intended to investigate the longue durée of the territory from the pre-Roman times until the present day (http:// http://www.uominiecoseavignale.it/). The archaeological investigation revealed the remains of an ancient settlement continuously inhabited between the 3 rd century BC, at least, and the 6 th -7 th century AD. After a quite obscure phase in pre-Roman times, a farm was built probably in the mid of 2 nd century BC, in connection with a roughly paved road (glarea strata), in turn may be connected to the Roman road network in the region (Via Aurelia/Aemilia Scauri). In the second half of the 1 st century BC a large villa maritima was built just aside the farm. In the subsequent centuries the villa/mansio underwent a series of minor transformation and probably between the 6 th and 7 th century the structures of the villa were abandoned and a large cemetery took its place among the ruins. The present paper focuses both on the history of the settlement and on its possible interpretation as instance of what is called “non-place” in the contemporary anthropological theory.