• centuriazione
• ager pisanus settentrionale
• insediamenti rurali
• survey

The northern Pisa territory, located in the municipality of San Giuliano Terme, is a plain delimited by the Tyrrhenian Sea to the West and by the Monti Pisani to the North-East. An important role in the morphological shaping has been played by the rivers and channels network, Arno and above all Serchio, that frequently changed their path before their embankment during the Modern Age. The plain, populated since Prehistory, notably modified its aspect during the roman times, when a centurial grid was imposed over the landscape. Various projects studied the centuriation process and the survival of this grid in the contemporary landscape, using a wide range of sources. Some roman farmsteads has been identified during surveys carried out since 1980, and various limites has been recognized in the modern features of the landscape (roads, channels).
The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the changing population patterns of this plain, focusing on the territorial management during the roman period, both analysing published data and providing new data.
Surveys are being carried out both in not explored areas and in yet surveyed areas, in order to collect new data and to verify the conservation of the already known sites. Geographical information are managed with a GIS software (QGIS 2.6.0), that allows the integration of different kinds of data, first of all legacy data, and possibly leads to further knowledge of the study-area. Toponymy, historical cartography and cadastres, important markers of the landscape transformation, will be studied and integrated in the project too.