Landscapes in late Roman and post-Roman Italy277 war, followed by the equally destructive Longobard invasion andwar with

Byzantiu m, provides a more than adequate context of insecurity and upheaval. Documentary sources give a clear guidein some cases: the letters of Pope Gregory the Great, for instance,at the end of the sixth century, report the evacuation of exposedt owns in favour of upland seats like Orvieto or Civita Castellana,and the presenc e of garrisons and bishoprics on small hilltops likeCivita di Bagnoregiohardly wh at a Roman would have classed asa town. 1 In one or two cases, fragments of church furniture such aschancel screens help i ndicate early medieval activity on these sites, but archaeologically it is not p ossible yet to pinpoint securely theorigins of upland seats like Calcata or Mazz ano Romano in theRoman Campagna before the ninth or tenth century (Potter 1979,1 5567). Too frequently they have been occupied throughout theMiddle Ages and into modern times, only recently losing out(among other things) to the Italians need t o be close to their cars.Too few excavations have so far been conducted; but tho se thathave been have failed to give a secure link to the immediate post-Roman p eriod.It was not all upland retreat, however, since some resurgence of open sett lement can be located, as in the case of the papal estate of Santa Cornelia, fou nded fifteen Roman miles north of Rome inthe 780s in an area that had once been filled with small to largefarms and villas (Christie 1991b, 3558). Interestingly, althoughthe complex incorporated much material of Roman date, it did notphysica lly overlie a Roman structure; thus there was no immediatecontinuity here, even if the contemporary Liber pontificalis (1. 5012) implies as much. In terms of land ownership, we also get a clearindicat ion of the role of the Church beyond Rome itself.Noticeably, the foundation of t he Santa Cornelia estate coincidesneatly with a period of papal dominance in Rom e, the terminationof the conflict with the Longobards, and the formation of stro ng political and economic ties with Charlemagnes Carolingiankingdom; so peaceful conditions and economic prosperity gave theprompt. But a new spate of enemy (Ara b) incursions into Italy andpapal decline in the ninth century soon countered at tempts atrenewed Roman-style farming, and the drive towards upland