During the 2023–2024 academic year, I held a nine-month Rome Fellowship at the British School at Rome to pursue a project entitled Splendid Isolation? Mobility and economic marginality in the Alps during the Roman era. The project aimed to examine the economic potential of the Alps during the Roman period, using a multidisciplinary approach to explore how these complex spaces were navigated and exploited, alongside how they were integrated into the wider Roman economy.
Building on work initially undertaken as part of my doctorate, I created the Material Data in Northern Italy (MADINI) dataset to answer questions on the economy and trade within the region. It consists of three relational databases of amphorae, finewares and decorative stone and marble: 58,743 individual entries are recorded across the MADINI dataset from 39 urban sites within Northern Italy and the Alps, synthesizing quantified data from 137 publications. The BSR library and other libraries under the auspices of the Urbis network proved invaluable in the data-collection phase of the project, with many publications and excavation data having limited circulation outside of Italy. The MADINI dataset will be published open access online via GitHub and Zenodo, allowing other researchers to use the data and opening up opportunities for future collaboration.
Statistical analysis of the three separate data types contained within the MADINI dataset allowed chronological and spatial trends in the distribution and consumption of locally produced and imported goods to be tracked across Northern Italy and the Alps. A combination of aoristic analysis (for chronological trends) and hierarchical clustering (for spatial trends) was used to explore the data. The results demonstrated that inland trade in the region was far more complex than a simple regression of imports as the distance from the coast increased, highlighting the role which transport cost and consumer choice played in the distribution of local and imported goods. Clear zones of consumption across Northern Italy and the Alps were seen in the distribution of the material data, often closely linked to transport costs. While the river network was shown to have been crucial in facilitating inland transport, the significance of trans-mountain trade across the Alps and the Apennines was revealed to have been underestimated. Areas furthest inland were often shown to have had the greatest diversity in the provenance and types of material, as opposed to coastal areas which demonstrated a more limited selection. The results highlight the diverse array of factors governing inland trade and the interplay between cost and choice in the decisions made by consumers. Early drafts of the analysis were presented to the wider academic community in Rome through the Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica incontri and the fourteenth Incontro di Studi sul Lazio e la Sabina. These provided a valuable opportunity to receive feedback and discuss the results of the analysis prior to publication.
The project's results will be published in the forthcoming monograph From the Adriatic to the Alps. Transport and Trade Networks in Roman and Late Antique Northern Italy, under contract with Archaeopress Publishing.
