Publications
2025
- JFAClassifying Functional Areas at the Roman Villa of Mascherone (Manfredonia, Italy): Modeling Sparse Surface Survey Count Data Using a Bayesian Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial ModelRoberto Ragno, Roberto Goffredo , and Luciano Piepoli2025
Statistical approaches to the study of archaeological surface survey datasets are problematic, as they are often characterized by excessive zero counts and overdispersion. This paper introduces a Bayesian Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial (ZINB) model to classify survey grid units into user-defined functional areas based on artifact distributions. This approach was applied to the Roman maritime villa of Mascherone, located near the city of Siponto (northern Apulia, Italy), surveyed using a total sampling strategy. After filtering, 52 squares (20 × 20 m) containing 21 distinct artifact types were analyzed to identify three hypothesized functional areas: residential, storage, and craft. The model explicitly accounts for structural and sampling-derived zeros in the dataset while also handling overdispersion. Furthermore, it provides probabilistic classifications with quantified uncertainty for each square unit. Results indicate a residential core consistent with legacy aerial evidence, while storage and craft zones remain less certain due to limited indicators. This approach effectively addresses zero-inflation in survey datasets and offers a scalable framework for broader archaeological and landscape analyses.
- FOLD&RNorthern Apulia Coastal Survey: la piana di Siponto tra Neolitico e MedioevoRoberto Goffredo , Enrico Lucci , Luciano Piepoli , and 1 more author2025
This paper presents the first results of the Northern Apulia Coastal Survey, a project that investigates the historic landscapes of the northern Apulian coastal plain, extending from the mouth of the Ofanto River to the Gulf of Manfredonia. In the context of this inaugural campaign, a substantial part of the discourse is devoted to the comprehensive methodological framework that integrates archaeological legacy data with systematic field surveys and statistical modelling to document and interpret surface archaeological evidence. Particular attention has been paid to modelling the effects of variable visibility and temporal patterns in the collected archaeological material. The first survey campaign covered 277.5 ha in the suburban area of ancient Sipontum and revealed occupation patterns spanning several periods: Late Prehistory (with a notable peak during the Bronze Age), the Roman and Late Antique periods (2nd century BC - 6th century AD) and the Late Medieval period (13th-14th centuries). Among the most important discoveries are extensive productive activities on the outskirts of Sipontum, several quarries and a monumental maritime villa with associated agricultural lands. These results offer new perspectives on the changing relationship between coastal communities and their environment through time, highlighting settlement continuities and discontinuities.
- EdipugliaPeasants, Agriculture, and Environment in the 1st Millennium CE Italian Countryside: A Bayesian ApproachRoberto Ragno2025
This dissertation explores the subsistence methods, economic systems and environmental adaptations of Italian peasant communities in the 1st millennium CE, with a particular focus on the transitional period from the Roman Empire to the early medieval era. Existing work on agricultural production in this period has been based on literary sources and field surveys, or has focused on individual sites or regional collec-tions, while a multi-source archaeological study is absent from the discourse. This work addresses this gap by using environmental proxies to reconstruct the historical agricultural landscape through plant and animal occurrence patterns in legacy data. To this end, 190 botanical and 466 faunal assemblages from 309 sites are quantitatively analysed within a Bayesian framework, revealing a strong trend towards re-gionalisation in agricultural strategies during the early medieval period. In addition, these findings expose variations in agricultural techniques and dietary patterns across Roman settlements, shedding light on the extent to which Roman agricultural and economic frameworks persisted or changed during the early medieval transition, and the adaptive agricultural strategies adopted by farmers. The quantitative analyt-ical findings are also contextualised alongside wider historical sources, archaeological evidence, and cur-rent debate, allowing for a bottom-up understanding of the agricultural regimes in question. This work represents the first attempt to use temporally and geographically diverse bioarchaeological data to visualise the Italian agricultural landscape across the longue durée.
- JOADArchaeobotanical Data from the Italian Peninsula in the 1st Millennium CERoberto Ragno2025
This dataset contains raw counts of archaeobotanical (macro-)remains from archaeological sites located in mainland Italy, dating from the 1st century BCE to the 11th century CE. The 195 carpological assemblages have been collected from a variety of published sources and reports and have been stored in a database with the relevant contextual and geographical metadata. The collection focuses on 40 plant taxa that were most commonly represented across the reviewed archaeobotanical reports, prioritising species with clear associations with agricultural activities and subsistence practices. This data may be used for statistical assessment of spatial and temporal differences in dietary patterns, agrarian strategies and crop distribution in the Italian peninsula between the Roman imperial period and the early medieval age.
- AIAZ 2021The Transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages in Northern Italy: An Environmental Archaeology ApproachRoberto RagnoIn Proceedings of the 10th National Archaeozoological Conference (Siena, 3rd-6th of November 2021) , 2025
This paper focuses on the agricultural and animal husbandry practices in Northern Italy between the 5th and 11th c. CE. The aim is to define the modes of land exploitation, human adaptability, and subsistence patterns in the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Mid- dle Ages. Selected archaeobotanical data and zooarchaeological assemblages were compared through correspondence analysis to explore correlations in an integrated botanical and faunal dataset. The results show a high degree of variation in agriculture during this temporal window, with the introduction of more resilient and short-cycled grains to minimize food shortage risks caused by climatic, political, and social change. Meat consumption appear to have increased, with pig-breeding being the most frequent practice, followed by caprines, supporting the early medieval preference for raising smaller sized ungulates. Cattle decreases at this time, becoming less useful as a working animal, its increase only coinciding with the postulated agricultural revival of the medieval climatic optimum (10th–11th c. CE). Overall, these environmental and archaeological frames evidence that peasant autonomy during the Early Middle Ages resulted in a highly diversified exploitation of wild and domesticated resources alike.
2024
- JASSheep and Goats Taxonomic Abundance Trends in 1st Millennium CE Southern Italy: Multilevel Bayesian Modelling of NISP DatasetsRoberto Ragno2024
The 1st millennium CE represents a period of significant change in the agricultural landscape of southern Italy. Sheep and goats are among the most common faunal remains recovered from archaeological excavations of this period, but the contribution of these animals to the agricultural economy (particularly wool production) is often discussed through textual sources. This paper synthesises caprine taxonomic abundance trends using a Bayesian multilevel modelling approach that employs a beta-binomial distribution to address the problems of overdispersion and unequal assemblage/group sizes. Our models contribute directly to the problem by suggesting a period of change in livestock management practices around the 4th and 6th centuries CE, when the region’s shift to cereal farming appears to be accompanied by an increase in sheep and goat numbers.
2023
- JAS:RepCereal Farming Practices in Italy during the 1st Millennium CE: An Integrated Approach to RegionalityRoberto Ragno2023
This study investigates the cereal farming practices of the Italian peninsula during the first millennium CE, with a particular focus on the Early Middle Ages. Using non-parametric multivariate statistics and a dimensionality reduction algorithm (PERMANOVA; nMDS), this research presents and compares 177 archaeobotanical caryopses assemblages from three areas of Italy. The results showed that differences in cereal farming practices between Northern and Southern Italy were not statistically significant during the Roman period, but became significant during the early medieval period. The research suggests that after the collapse of the Roman Empire, northern peasants had more autonomy in selecting their crops, while southern farmers were more resistant to change. These findings challenge the prevailing assumption that early medieval peasants across the entire peninsula uniformly adopted cereal crops like millets and rye. Overall, the study sheds new light on the diversity of cereal farming practices in early medieval Italy and presents a comprehensive collection of cereal macroremains from mainland Italy.
- QuaestioTowards a Philosophy of ArchaeologyRoberto Ragno2023
- AeCThe Spoil Project. Assessing the Rate of Excavators’ Accidental Ceramic Discard at the Archaeological Site of SipontoRoberto Ragno2023
This article aims to quantify the rate of accidental ceramic discard on the archaeological site of Siponto (Italy), where in 2022 the University of Bari and the University of Foggia conducted fieldwork and training for students at different education levels (BA to PhD). The goal was to identify and quantify factors leading to the accidental discard of ceramic sherds by excavators on the spoil heap. As a pilot project, a few variables have been considered to count the minimum number of individuals found after sieving soil composition and colour, weather conditions, time variables, sherds size, colour, and vessel part. Other categorical or presence/absence variables have also been considered. This enlightening investigation shows the bias in post-excavation quantification of ceramic finds. Results indicate that 30% of the fragments of pottery retrieved from the spoil heaps, used in this experiment, were diagnostic. The study also helps the educators on-site to identify the types of vessels that might be less clear for the students.