The Roman Colony of Cosa (Ansedonia, GR / Italy) as a Mercantile Center

• Applicant: Dr. Maximilian Felix Rönnberg
• Subject Area: Classical, Roman, Christian and Islamic Archaeology
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 500759416

Much research has already been done on the Latin colony of Cosa (in modern Ansedonia, Italy), established in 273 BCE, in a series of mostly American excavation projects. Thus, the city could become something like a model case of a Roman foundation. So far, the investigations focused on the public buildings surrounding the forum, important sanctuaries, the baths and selected domestic buildings; the nearby harbor has also been systematically analyzed. The geophysical prospections carried out in 2013–2018, though, show that the city was not entirely built up. It thus should not be interpreted as a large focus of population, but rather as the political, religious and economic center of the region with a large catchment area, but a small number of residents. The urban infrastructure was most probably used mainly by those living nearby on villas and farmsteads. Still largely unknown, though, remain the mercantile spaces the city will have offered its hinterland (which, as a matter of fact, is also rather well explored). The project here applied for proposes multiple soundings in two areas of the city: One focus will be a building so far taken as a storehouse, but to this point only investigated superficially. The other one is a square discovered in the geophysical prospections, which may be interpreted as a market area due to its form and position. The excavations will clarify the dating, shape and diachronic development of both constructions and hence shed light on the mercantile infrastructure of the colony; the integration of archaeobotanical and archaeozoological analyses will furthermore allow conclusions on ancient dietary habits. This will fill important gaps in the knowledge of the town. Above all, excavations in these two selected buildings in the city and the evaluation of the archaeological data known from its hinterland within the applicant’s own position make an economical contextualization of Cosa within its surroundings possible. The results reached on the market function of the colony may then be contrasted with similar, but mostly less well-known cities. The project proposed thus constitutes an archaeological case study on economical processes in Middle to Late Republican and Imperial Central Italy, which uses the well-known city of Cosa and its environs as a starting point but promises much more extensive outcomes. The schedule of three excavation campaigns and a find-processing campaign and the applicant’s own position allow the – at least more or less ready for print – completion of the project’s final publication at the end of the third year of funding. Fieldwork will be carried out in cooperation with the current American project at the site (excavating the baths).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: USA
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Andrea U. De Giorgi