Pisa in the Middle Ages: Archaeology, Sptial Analysis and Predictive Modeling
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Mappa | Pisa in the Middle Ages: archaeology, sptial analysis and predictive modeling Mappa Pisa in the Middle Ages: archaeology, spatial analysis and predictive modeling www.mappaproject.org Gabriele Gattiglia UniversitA´ di PisA 9788868120948_216_LN_03 www.nuovacultura.it ISBN 978-88-6812-094-8 SEGUICI SUI SOCIAL NETWORK Edizioni Nuova Cultura 26.00 EURO MAPPA PISA IN THE MIDDLE AGES: ARCHAEOLOGY, SPATIAL ANALYSIS AND PREDICTIVE MODELING Gabriele Gattiglia Edizioni Nuova Cultura MAPPA PROJECT Funding bodiesi: Implementing body: Regione Toscana Università di Pisa Università di Pisa Partner: Direzione Regionale per i Beni Culturali e Paesaggistici della Toscana Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici Paesaggistici Artistici Storici ed Etnoantropologici per le province di Pisa e Livorno Comune di Pisa Cooperation: Aerofototeca Nazionale Centro di documentazione aerofotografi ca “Marcello Cosci” – Università di Pisa Consorzio LAMMA - Laboratorio di Monitoraggio e Modellistica Ambientale per lo sviluppo sostenibile – Regione Toscana e CNR Istituto Nazionale di Geofi sica e Vulcanologia Laboratorio di cultura Digitale – CISIAU Centro Interdipartimentale di Servizi Informatici per l’Area Umanistica – Università di Pisa Research team: Francesca Anichini Collaborators: Dario Bini Federico Bertocchino Monica Bini Antonio Campus Nevio Dubbini Lorenza La Rosa Fabio Fabiani Chiara Mannari Gabriele Gattiglia Francesco Rinaldi Serena Giacomelli Claudia Sciuto Maria Letizia Gualandi Giulio Tarantino Marta Pappalardo Veronica Rossi Giovanni Sarti WebGIS editor: Sergio Steffè Valerio Noti Consultants: Alessandro Amorosi Text by: Alessandro Bianchi Gabriele Gattiglia [G. G.] Marina Bisson Lisa Josephine Brucciani Mara Febbraro English Translation: Francesco Ghizzani Marcìa Lisa Josephine Brucciani Massimiliano Grava Minja Kukavich Valerio Noti Graphic design, coordinated image and cover Emanuela Paribeni Sandro Petri (PetriBros Grafi ca) Sandro Petri Giorgio Franco Pocobelli Cristiana Ribecai Adriano Ribolini Copyright © 2014 Edizioni Nuova Cultura - Roma Irene Sammartino ISBN: 9788868120948 Simone Sartini DOI: 10.4458/0948 Fabiana Susini Questo libro viene distribuito Elvira Todaro con licenza CC BY 3.0 Table of contents 1. Introduction 7 1.1Urban archaeology in Pisa 9 2. The landscape: the anthropised environment 11 2.1The city, man and the environment 11 2.1.1 The geological context 12 2.1.2 Palaeoenvironmental evolution 15 2.2 The environmental conditions of the Pisa plain during the Middle Ages 16 2.2.1 The coastline 16 2.2.2 Rivers: fragments of a complex structure 24 2.2.3 Wetlands: marshes and swamps 40 2.3 Moving people, moving goods 57 2.3.1 Road networks 57 2.3.2 Waterways: ports and landing places 69 2.4 Land use 74 2.5 Conclusions 77 3. The city 82 3.1 Snapshots of the city from the Late Roman period to Modern Age 82 3.1.1 A question of method 82 3.1.2 The Late Roman and early medieval city 86 3.1.3 The late medieval city 107 3.2 The urban fabric 117 3.2.1 Religious spaces: churches and cemeteries 117 3.2.2 Building. Houses, construction sites and transformations 131 3.2.3 Urban infrastructures: road networks, water supply and waste management. 143 3.2.4 Production areas 161 3.2.5 Economy, trade, social status 181 Bibliography 199 5 1. Introduction This volume represents the third edition of a work chive of Italian archaeology www.mappaproject. cycle that started in 2006 for my PhD thesis. The org/mod) or as open access on MAPPA Web GIS thesis was presented in 2010 (fi rst edition, GAT- (MAPPAgis www.mappaproject.org/webgis). TIGLIA 2010), partially published as a summary As such, they can be reused, recycled, modifi ed, monograph in 2011 (second edition, GATTIGLIA transformed and implemented an endless num- 2011) or in articles (GATTIGLIA 2012, GATTIGLIA ber of times to reach interpretations, assumptions 2012a, GATTIGLIA 2011a), and now (third edition) and original models that contradict what has been takes the form of a more comprehensive publica- studied. Consequently, this volume will analyse tion in the light of new data. Over the past two data and interpret general trends; for details on the years, the work study on Pisa, not only relating cases, reference can be made to the MOD data and to the Middle Ages, continued within the MAP- MAPPAgis displays. The reader will not fi nd “im- PA (Metodologie Applicate alla Predittività del portant” dates but analyses which, starting from Potenziale – Methodologies Applied to Archae- archaeological data (whether material culture or ological Potential Predictivity)1 project, allowing topography), produce historical information and a widespread collection of data thanks to which a new point of view to be associated with more it was possible to explain more fully the hydro- traditional interpretations. Likewise, data from written sources will only be dealt with in specifi c geological, geomorphological and topographic cases, leaving this study to expert specialists. The context and to check (and in many cases change) title of my PhD thesis was “Pisa between the VII part of the assumptions made. Archaeology, albeit and XIV century. In the light of archaeology”, em- slowly, is moving towards Big Data, i.e. enormous phasising the key role played by archaeological amounts of machine readable data, continuously sources. I am quite aware of the partial nature of produced, which can modify theories, conclusions this source, as also of written sources, but i am also and assumptions at any time and develop new ap- well-aware of the great amount of data we pro- plications for archaeology. We no longer live in an duce, which may be read and re-interpreted by age in which printed texts have a long life cycle other researchers. before becoming outdated; new data are enough today to contradict or validate the assumptions Over the last years, studies on medieval cities made. Archaeology is closer and closer to science, have increased in Italy, which have made wide not only because it uses scientifi c analysis methods use of GIS spatial analysis2. I do not believe that but because it is based on falsifi able hypotheses, to these studies should be considered innovative or put it as Popper would say. For this reason, the revolutionary, but simply contemporary to an ev- data analysed here are published as open data on eryday life made of tablets, IT applications and so- the MOD (ANICHINI et alii 2013) (the open data ar- cial networks. Equally, speaking of digital archae- 1 All the publications may be downloaded at http://mappaproject.arch.unipi.it/?page_id=136 (last access 05/05/2013). 2 See the second volume of Postclassical Archaeology and the recent volume C 2012 7 Mappa. Pisa in the Middle Ages: archaeology, spatial analysis and predictive modeling ology or digital humanities is even more outdated es, yet it is not the result only of man’s choices when everything today is digital. If it is certain but also of the environment’s infl uence which that we live in a digital world, we must be aware has shaped the city just as much as man. While of the need to explain analysis procedures and one of these factors may have prevailed in certain make them transparent and reproducible, so that periods, the ongoing correlation between them is other researchers may retrace them, assess them, evident. Only archaeology can narrate this story, criticise them and fi nd new, more effective paths3. made chiefl y of material traces. It can do so by us- I will take for granted, therefore, the knowledge ing contemporary digital tools which can broaden of GIS applications and spatial analysis, while the scope of reasoning. reference to recent publications (FABIANI, GATTI- In this fi rst introductory chapter, the history of ur- GLIA 2012, ANICHINI, GATTIGLIA 2012) can be made for the database structuring. Spatial analysis (now ban archaeology in Pisa will be briefl y presented. within reach of everyone) must not follow a totally The second chapter will provide a broad outline of uncritical or technocratic approach but must arise the territorial context and the landscape. The riv- from evaluations: while spatial analysis methods ers and marshy areas will be analysed in order to were specifi cally created for geographical analyses understand how the environment infl uenced the and may, therefore, be easily used for archaeology development of the medieval city for better or for (HODDER, ORTON 1976), geostatistic methods were worse. Since man was not a passive responder to not conceived for archaeology. On the one hand, these events, the study of the port system and road therefore, it is necessary to proceed with great cau- networks will help understand which solutions tion and attentively examine the pros and cons of were taken to draw the geographical benefi ts and their use, and, on the other, to create mathemat- generate economic and commercial profi ts. ical and statistical methods specifi cally created The third and last chapter is divided into two for archaeology (DUBBINI 2013). When speaking of parts. The fi rst part will illustrate the great urban an Archaeological Information System, we must transformations throughout the period ranging not think of a GIS that elaborates archaeological from the end of the Roman Age (VI century) to data, but rather a software borrowed from the GIS the Florentine conquest (start of the XV century). which applies tools specifi cally conceived for ar- Although it is still diffi cult to have a clear picture chaeology. of the Roman and early-medieval urban fabric From an interpretative viewpoint, this volume at- of Pisa, it is nevertheless possible to understand tempts to give an answer as to what the medieval some of its nodal points, to interpret the city’s de- city was and what the surrounding landscape rep- velopment during the middle years of the Middle resented.