Iron-working at Vagnari

Abstract

• The Roman vicus at Vagnari in the territory of Gravina in Puglia formed part of a large estate which was acquired by the Roman emperor early in the 1st century AD. Excavation, geophysical prospection and field survey have revealed much of the plan of the settlement which lay close to the Via Appia and was a centre of local industries, including tile works and smithies. The settlement declined in the late 3rd and early 4th centuries AD, but it recovered in the late 4th century when new buildings were erected including a smithy and a large structure with a portico, perhaps a covered market. These in turn fell into decay, and in the 6th century AD their place was taken by a small group of huts. The introduction to the volume sets Vagnari within a historical framework. It is followed by a series of specialist studies on many aspects of the site and its environment, and concludes with a chapter which relates Vagnari to other sites of the same period in Apulia. Some more specific topics are discussed in a series of appendices. The various contributions are published either in English or Italian, according to the language of the author, with a summary of each of the chapters in the other language.