Le Marche tra Tarda Antichità e Alto Medioevo

The numerous contributions of recent research on the medieval archaeology of the arche region allow us to overcome the lack of archaeological information that has limited studies in the past. Furthermore, this new data collection allows us to draw a more complete synthesis. As a result, we can highlight some phenomena that characterise the evolution of the regional landscape, in the transition between Antiuity and the iddle Ages. Urban archaeology shows how, in the continuously inhabited centres, there was ruralisation in some areas and, in others, the growth of new agglomerations aecting various sectors of ancient cities (Ascoli, Camerino, Cagli). These new urban centres are distributed in signicant points, often connected with the road network that branches o into the surrounding area. Only with urban development of a fully medieval age would many urban areas once again be occupied extensively, often destroying and reusing the remains of the surviving Roman buildings. A dierent destiny characterises some urban centres in low valleys or valley outlets, which were abandoned according to dierent dynamics and at dierent times, dictated above all by environmental changes, with dierent outcomes in each valley (Fossombrone, Suasa, Ostra, Potenza, Cupra). The historical curve of the urban centres and the environmental changes also inuenced the development of the rural population