Changing Rural Settlements in the Early Middle Ages in Central and Northern Italy. Towards the Centralization of Rural Property

Settlements and the forms of land management control are issues on which Chris and I have often exchanged information, both in person and in publications, at least since the mid-1990s, a discussion, augmented for years also by the heavy (if not clearly strong) interventions of Riccardo Francovich.1 We agreed and disagreed, but over time our interpretations became parallel and they finally met in the proceedings of a conference on the ninth and tenth centuries, where we wrote a common Problemstellung and reached complementary conclusions.2 In this chapter, while keeping a general approach due to the large geographical focus, I touch on the aforementioned points, the lines of which largely summarize my interpretative models; therefore reference will be often made to my own works, where the reader will be able to find a more detailed bibliography.3 I am convinced that the currently available archaeological data shows how post-classical settlement solutions clearly differ from the late antique ones. Even if we lack a systematic investigation framework, discontinuity with the past is evident on many levels: from the end of the villae to the crisis and disappearance of many Roman vici, from the formation of castra networks in strategic territories to the creation of new minor agglomerates, very often reusing the remains of abandoned Roman complexes. Archaeology shows a range of heterogeneous outcomes, always against a background of a long process of rural decadence starting at least with the mid-fifth century, followed by a progression for the whole of the sixth century. It was a period marked by the shift of agricultural activities towards tendentially ‘naturalized’ economies. Between the fourth and fifth centuries, data available for the entire Dioecesis Italiciana emphasizes how villages and villae changed their configuration and economic role, adjusting themselves to the consequences of the economic and fiscal reforms and to the concentration of landed property. From the mid-fifth to the sixth century, together with the crisis of towns and the fall of aristocracy, we witness an initial and already systematic Christianization of the countryside and the militarization of some territories, in addition to the establishment of non-native groups. An undoubtedly diverse type of society developed on these bases: new economies arose, determining different outcomes in different areas. The settlement forms, being functional components of the production system and of the land management choices, were also adapted to new needs. These dynamics, depending on the power and property relations of the rural world, changed decisively during the seventh and eighth centuries; further reorganizations took place between the ninth and the tenth century and again at the approach of the so-called incastellamento.4 In these pages we will therefore observe the Italian formation process of early medieval rural property, together with both the character and the way of affirmation of new elites. It is a long-term process with several variations over the centuries, finally reaching clear forms of social inequality with the Frankish Age. In this period economic actions aim at a sort of original accumulation, which brings heavy modifications in territorial assets and in the organization of settlements. Over time, families of milites acquire economic wealth and establish themselves publicly and politically, often giving life to the well-known landscape of masonry castles which represent the ENDING POINT OF MY CHAPTER.