San Giuliano
Archaeological Research Project
Overview
The San Giuliano Archaeological Research Project (SGARP) is an interdisciplinary research program and field school that targets the archaeological past of San Giuliano, a site located approximately 70 km northwest of Rome within Marturanum Park in Lazio. SGARP’s goal is to reconstruct the long-term changes in human occupation of the San Giuliano plateau and the surrounding hills. Hundreds of rock-cut Etruscan tombs ring the plateau, while the plateau was likely the site of the associated Etruscan town. We seek to investigate the Etruscan occupation and understand the transitions that followed, including incorporation into the Roman Empire, transformations in the medieval settlement pattern, and the final abandonment of the site sometime before AD 1300.
We have focused our attention on the Etruscan and medieval periods as eras of particularly significant societal change. These two periods saw the most intensified use of the San Giuliano plateau. We are seeking to understand both the rise and fall of the Etruscan urban center and the medieval incastellamento (castle-building) process that reshaped the Italian landscape in the 10th and 11th centuries.
Northern Lazio with Etruscan and Roman primary centers marked with squares and Roman roads indicated with dashed lines. San Giuliano, shown towards the top by Lake Vico, was a secondary Etruscan urban center. San Giuliano was virtually abandoned after Roman conquest, and then reoccupied and refortified in the Middle Ages. We are investigating these transitions.
The medieval church of San Giuliano, which gives name to the San Giuliano plateau and our project.
Project Basics
The San Giuliano Archaeological Research Project works in the Marturanum Park in Commune Barbarano Romano, Lazio, Italy
SGARP is organized as a Baylor University-led consortium of universities in collaboration with our Italian partners at Virgil Academy, and the town of Barbarano Romano.
Contact us at:
sangiuliano.archaeology@gmail.com
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