Division of Archaeology

Department of Archaeology and Anthropology

Projects


THE GUBBIO PROJECT

Project Directors

Project Phase

Publication of sub-projects.

Collaborating Institutions (in addition to financial supporters) and Project Members

  • Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge
  • Soprintendenza Archeologica per l’Umbria (Prof.ssa A. Feruglio, Dott.ssa D. Manconi, Dott.ssa M.C. De Angelis)
  • Prof. E. Biondi (Università di Ancona)
  • Prof. M. Coltorti (Università di Siena)
  • Prof. J. Sevink (University of Amsterdam)
  • Dr. J. Whitley (University of Cardiff)
  • Nicholas Whitehead (Milan)

Financial Support

  • British Academy
  • British School at Rome
  • Comune di Gubbio
  • Comunità montana dell’Alto Chiascio
  • Crowther Beynon Fund (University of Cambridge)
  • Emslie Horniman Fund of the Royal Anthropological Institute
  • Magdalene College, Cambridge
  • National Geographic Society (Washington DC)
  • Prehistoric Society
  • Provincia di Perugia
  • Regione dell’Umbria
  • Society of Antiquaries
  • Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

Research aims and current results

The Gubbio valley is the last agricultural valley of any importance in north east Umbria (Italy), before crossing the Apennines. Before the project, work had focused on linguistic study of the Iguvine Tables (bronze tablets) (discovered in the fifteenth century in no certain context) and excavation in the Roman city. The successfully accomplished aims of the project were to understand the origins of these historical developments and provide an understanding of the territory. Interpretation of the Iguvine Tables had suggested precocious state formation in this relatively remote and upland valley. Our archaeological work suggests that the tablets were a late reworking of historical reality.

A programme of regional survey, selected excavation and environmental reconstruction was carried out between 1983 and 1987 to understand the development of the valley of Gubbio. In practice, the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Archaic and Roman phases of the landscape were investigated in more detail with the aid of excavation of representative sites.

The excavation of San Marco showed that this part of central Italy was first exploited for agriculture in the second half of the sixth millennium. However, Gubbio was first substantially occupied in the Bronze Age. A founder site (Monte Ingino) in the Middle Bronze Age, formed a central focus of Final Bronze Age nucleation on other peaks (e.g. Monte Ansciano) and at the level of the slopes above the modern town. Further excavation on Monte Ansciano has provided a rare example of a systematically excavated Archaic rural sanctuary with the deposition of schematic figurines. A further excavation examined a rural Roman structure, deliberately aiming to understand non villa settlement.

Principal Publications

  • Malone, C.A.T. & Stoddart, S.K.F. (eds.), 1994, Territory, Time and State: The archaeological development of the Gubbio basin, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
  • Hunt, C., Malone, C.A.T., Sevink, J. & Stoddart, S.K.F., 1990, 'Environment, soils and early agriculture in Apennine central Italy', World Archaeology 22 (1): pp34--44.
  • Malone, C.A.T. and Stoddart, S.K.F., 1992, (with contributions from G. Barker, M. Coltorti, L. Costantini, J. Giorgi, G. Clark, J. Harding, C. Hunt, T. Reynolds and R. Skeates), 'Survey and excavation of the Neolithic site of San Marco, Gubbio (Perugia), Umbria. 1985-7.' Papers of the British School at Rome 60: pp1--69.