Papers by Isabella Sjostrom
Archeologia Medievale, 2014
È dal 1995 che la missione archeologica dell'Università Roma Tre conduce ricognizioni nel territo... more È dal 1995 che la missione archeologica dell'Università Roma Tre conduce ricognizioni nel territorio di Leptis Magna (Libia). Ad oggi sono stati indagati oltre 100 km2 e documentati oltre 450 siti. Sulla base di tale ingente corpus documentario si traccia una sintesi preliminare sull’evoluzione del paesaggio rurale tripolitano tra le età tardoantica e ottomana. I dati raccolti permettono di rilevare non solo alternanze congiunturali di crescita e contrazione, ma anche trasformazioni dei sistemi insediativo-produttivi, in cui varie gamme di agricoltura e pastoralismo si avvicendano e talvolta convivono, anche in funzione dell’apertura del territorio al mercato regionale e mediterraneo. La sostanziale sopravvivenza del sistema rurale antico, incentrato su ville-fattorie dotate di torcularia per la produzione olearia, alcune delle quali tra IV e V secolo attrezzate per la difesa, entra in crisi dalla metà del V secolo, quando gli insediamenti si riducono drasticamente fin quasi a scomparire nel corso del VII secolo, lasciando immaginare la riconversione della popolazione sopravvissuta al nomadismo. Un sistema agro-pastorale si riforma nei secoli aglabiti e fatimiti, quando villaggi fortificati e torri-granaio popolano il wadi Taraglat, servendo di rifornimento e stoccaggio alle carovaniere verso Lebda. Ad un possibile intervallo nomadico-pastorale, forse spiegabile con lo spostamento delle direttrici carovaniere, segue, con la conquista ottomana, la formazione di quel paesaggio di villaggi e marabutti, che apparirà ai viaggiatori europei.
Rural Tripolitania in the Late Antique, Medieval and Ottoman Periods in the light of recent archaeological surveys in the region of Leptis Magna
Since 1995 the Archaeological Mission of University of Roma Tre has conducted surveys in the territory of Leptis Magna (Libya). To date, more than 450 sites have been surveyed in an area of about 100 Sq.Km. Based on this collection of data, an outline can be drawn as a preliminary synthesis about the Tripolitanian rural landscape from the Late-Antique to the Ottoman period. The data gathered not only make it possible to distinguish alternate phases of growth and contraction, but also to emphasize the changes in the productive and settlement system in which different modes of agriculture and sheep-farming alternated or even coexisted, due to the opening of the Tripolitanian market to the regional areas and to the Mediterranean. The survival of the ancient rural system, based on villae-farms with torcularia for the olive oil production (several of these sites in the 4th and 5th century were equipped with defensive structures), went into a decline starting in the second half of the 5th century, and settlements were reduced dramatically and almost disappeared in the 7th century when most of the surviving population probably became nomadic. New agricultural and pastoralism systems developed in the Aghlabid and Fatimid periods, when fortified villages and tower-granaries were scattered over the wadi Taraglat landscape and also acted as restocking and warehouse depots for the convoys leading to Lebda. After a possible nomadic interlude, maybe due to the shift in trade routes, with the Ottoman domination a new system of villages and marabouts was born and this was the landscape found by the European travelers.
Late Roman to Early Islamic Settlement, 1993
Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, 1993
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Papers by Isabella Sjostrom
Rural Tripolitania in the Late Antique, Medieval and Ottoman Periods in the light of recent archaeological surveys in the region of Leptis Magna
Since 1995 the Archaeological Mission of University of Roma Tre has conducted surveys in the territory of Leptis Magna (Libya). To date, more than 450 sites have been surveyed in an area of about 100 Sq.Km. Based on this collection of data, an outline can be drawn as a preliminary synthesis about the Tripolitanian rural landscape from the Late-Antique to the Ottoman period. The data gathered not only make it possible to distinguish alternate phases of growth and contraction, but also to emphasize the changes in the productive and settlement system in which different modes of agriculture and sheep-farming alternated or even coexisted, due to the opening of the Tripolitanian market to the regional areas and to the Mediterranean. The survival of the ancient rural system, based on villae-farms with torcularia for the olive oil production (several of these sites in the 4th and 5th century were equipped with defensive structures), went into a decline starting in the second half of the 5th century, and settlements were reduced dramatically and almost disappeared in the 7th century when most of the surviving population probably became nomadic. New agricultural and pastoralism systems developed in the Aghlabid and Fatimid periods, when fortified villages and tower-granaries were scattered over the wadi Taraglat landscape and also acted as restocking and warehouse depots for the convoys leading to Lebda. After a possible nomadic interlude, maybe due to the shift in trade routes, with the Ottoman domination a new system of villages and marabouts was born and this was the landscape found by the European travelers.
Rural Tripolitania in the Late Antique, Medieval and Ottoman Periods in the light of recent archaeological surveys in the region of Leptis Magna
Since 1995 the Archaeological Mission of University of Roma Tre has conducted surveys in the territory of Leptis Magna (Libya). To date, more than 450 sites have been surveyed in an area of about 100 Sq.Km. Based on this collection of data, an outline can be drawn as a preliminary synthesis about the Tripolitanian rural landscape from the Late-Antique to the Ottoman period. The data gathered not only make it possible to distinguish alternate phases of growth and contraction, but also to emphasize the changes in the productive and settlement system in which different modes of agriculture and sheep-farming alternated or even coexisted, due to the opening of the Tripolitanian market to the regional areas and to the Mediterranean. The survival of the ancient rural system, based on villae-farms with torcularia for the olive oil production (several of these sites in the 4th and 5th century were equipped with defensive structures), went into a decline starting in the second half of the 5th century, and settlements were reduced dramatically and almost disappeared in the 7th century when most of the surviving population probably became nomadic. New agricultural and pastoralism systems developed in the Aghlabid and Fatimid periods, when fortified villages and tower-granaries were scattered over the wadi Taraglat landscape and also acted as restocking and warehouse depots for the convoys leading to Lebda. After a possible nomadic interlude, maybe due to the shift in trade routes, with the Ottoman domination a new system of villages and marabouts was born and this was the landscape found by the European travelers.