The Late Roman villae of Horta da Torre and Monte de São Francisco and their rural context (North Alentejo, Portalegre district, Portugal)

Abstract

The development of large, Roman-style villae have been seen as powerful illustrations of the consolidation of Roman administrative and economic control, even in supposed backwater territories in far- flung areas of the Roman Empire. Their demise, moreover, sheds light on the collapse of Roman con- trol and the appearance of new social realities. In this paper, we approach these research questions from the point of view of a new landscape archaeology project launched in 2018, researching North Alentejo (Portu- gal) from the Roman conquest to the Late Roman Em- pire. Our research, still work in progress, deploys non-destructive methods such as archaeological sur- vey, landscape photogrammetric reconstruction, ground penetrating radar (GPR) surveys and several excavation campaigns. Here, we preliminarily discuss the examples of Horta da Torre and Monte de São Francisco to illustrate the situation in this rural area in the Late Roman period.