The environmental context, agricultural potential and location choices of Roman Villae in Italy

在共和晚期和帝国早期之间，意大利农村出现了村庄。在一项令人兴奋的跨学科研究中，通过古典、考古学和地理学，别墅周围景观的环境变量将被分析：(i)地理信息系统（GIS）获得研究区域的农业潜力地图，（ii）来自意大利豪华别墅的可用考古植物学数据，以及（iii）来自湖泊记录的当地/区域环境重建。研究结果将有助于了解农业生产力在多大程度上影响了别墅的位置和功能。与RHUL的可持续生活催化剂一致，研究结果将增强我们对罗马意大利农业景观的理解，探索森林砍伐、过度开发和人类对自然的影响等问题，以及罗马晚期气候引起的环境变化对复杂社会的潜在脆弱性。这为当前对土地利用、生态影响以及最终我们自己的社会脆弱性的关注提供了关键的历史背景。

Between the late republican and the early imperial periods, villae emerged in the Italian countryside. In an exciting multi-disciplinary study sitting across classics, archaeology and geography, the environmental variables of villas' surrounding landscape will be analysed through: (i) a Geographic Information System (GIS) to obtain agricultural potential maps of the studied areas, (ii) available archaeobotanical data from Italian luxury villas, and (iii) local/regional environmental reconstructions from lake records. The results will help to understand to which extent agricultural productivity could have influenced villas' location and function. In line with RHUL's Living Sustainably Catalyst, the outcomes will enhance our understanding of Roman Italy's agricultural landscape and explore questions of deforestation, overexploitation and human impact on nature, as well as the potential vulnerabilities of a complex society to climate-induced environmental change in the Late Roman period. This provides critical historical context for current concerns over land use, ecological impact and ultimately our own society's vulnerability.