Conclusioni

The paper represents the conclusions of an important conference, centered on Italy in the period 888-962 AD (corresponding to the formation of the Italic kingdom), edited by the author together with Chris Wickham. Both urban and rural data, on a national basis, are taken into account. The work is based primarily on the results of excavations and is complemented by an extensive thematic bibliographic note at the end of the text. It faces mainly themes such as the forms of power and the settlement networks in large sample areas, where archaeology shows a strengthening of trends already in place in the two previous centuries. The proposed models are to be read as stages of the transformation process towards an urban-led economy, where towns are not anymore just commercial terminals but start to play a leading role in their relationship with the countryside. This process happens in the context of an always strongly ruralized society, where landed property still represents the basis for the creation of wealth and economies. The many examples, from northern to southern Italy, converge in showing economic choices that imply a heavy transformations of settlements and productive centers, adapting them to the new entrepreneurial needs.