Villamagna, Italy: life and death in a medieval monastery and village, Berkeley, Feb 15, 2012 (original) (raw)

Abstract

Over 1300 years of occupation as an agricultural estate and prestigious residence makes Villamagna (Italy) a test case for examining post-Roman settlement, society and culture. The villa of the Roman emperor Hadrian, built ca 120 at Villamagna in central Italy, provided the emperor and his successors with a luxurious country estate for hunting and vineyards for exclusive wine. This estate was used and rebuilt over following centuries, manipulating and reusing the original villa and its lands for subsequent institutions: a Byzantine-era fortified estate, a tenth-century monastery with papal immunities, and a fourteenth-century seigniorial residence. This discussion of the material remains, including the excavated church, houses and monastic buildings, 500 excavated graves in the church cemetery, as well as the preserved monastic archive of documents will lay out the case for the importance of the site’s history in constructing social hierarchy through the middle ages. This seminar will focus on two markers of cultural change: housing typologies and burials, evaluated through the property documents and excavated remains of the site.

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