Reevaluating Conclusions: New Data and Theories on Instrasite Find Distribution in Medieval Incastellamento, San Giuliano Plateau, Lazio, Italy

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The San Giuliano Archaeological Research Project (SGARP) began excavations in 2016 to elucidate the complex occupational history of the San Giuliano landscape in Lazio, Italy. The archaeological record indicates diachronic habitation spanning the Bronze Age to the medieval period evidenced by a large Etruscan necropolis and a hilltop medieval fortification. In 2020, my undergraduate thesis research focused on this medieval fortification and process of "incastellamento" (the relocation of large parts of the medieval Italian population into defensible, fortified sites between AD 700 and 1200), by using ArcGIS, artifact distribution patterns, and associated architectural features, to draw conclusions about spatial usage, social function, and behavior dynamics in the medieval castle zone. Since 2020, two field seasons have occurred, and the new data have led to a reevaluation of previous conclusions and a refinement of methodological and theoretical practice. This poster will offer a critique of my previous work, as well as introduce new techniques for including glass shards in a finds analysis, differentiating between coin types, and add several new spatial categories to the GIS statistical cluster functions along with the use of the theory of materiality to address the arbitrary, non-critical grouping of artifacts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40173.0