Archaeology of public estates: origins of economic growth in a Mediterranean region (9-11th century)

More than 40 years of research in Tuscany's Maremma region, one of the most extensively investigated areas anywhere in Europe from the point of view of archaeology; an ERC-Advanced project, nEU-Med, which has enabled previous findings to be reinterpreted, and new data to be produced, thanks to intensive multidisciplinary research; and a theme, public lands and property, which has been of special interest in recent years to historians of documentary sources, and which here is viewed through the lens of material findings. These are the bases from which the present volume sets out. In it, the results of research conducted in the last few years, within this case study area, have been grafted onto those processed in the last few decades, with the aim of identifying the material 'markers' of royal properties, and understanding how they took shape and were managed between the 9th and 11th centuries. The results of research seen from a new perspective help to identify a possible key for interpreting historical institutions and agents in this part of the Mediterranean, one capable of generating answers that are bound up with larger issues: the role of the public hand (the “publicum”) in relation to local aristocracies and communities; transformations in the anthropic and natural landscape; the specific features of production and exchange; the timeframe and process of castle formation; and the economic growth of rural areas prior to the great leap forward in the 12th century.