Pisa South Picenum Survey Project.Contributo ad una lettura integrata dei paesaggi

The Pisa South Picenum Survey Project deals with the Tenna, Ete and Aso River Valleys which in Roman times belonged to the Latin colony of Firmum and to the municipium of Novana. The analysed settlement patterns and the economic activities appear to have been derived from a deep knowledge of the territories’ geomorphology and resources. Not by chance, the ager Firmanus’ villas and farmsteads were mainly settled in the higher parts of the Pleistocene terraces and in the case of the ager Novaniensis in the Miocene-Messinian stable areas or equally on the Pleistocene terraces. Firmum and Novana had two diferent economic specializations (the former, intensive agriculture and the landscape of the villas along the coast and on the low hills; the latter, ‘industrial’ breeding in inland areas of the medium and high hills) and these choices reveal a discerning knowledge of the potential and resources of the territory.