elements of demographic, socio-cultural and historical evolution of human settlements
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Ab urbe condita Most ancient cities derive their fortune from the uniqueness of their geographical position: rivers, hills, islands and natural resources play a key role in shaping the future development of any urban settlement. However, very few cities share the historical and cultural destiny of the City of Rome, where geographical factors, along with the powerful impetus of the determination of its citizens and their primitive but effective technologies, helped place this urban area at the base of Western civilisation. Notwithstanding various hagiographic reconstructions and mythical accounts, it is impossible to establish the exact date of the foundation of Rome, although most modern historians and archaeologists agree that the first human settlements on the Palatine Hill date to around 5000 years ago55. The site of the foundation of Rome has several crucial characteristics. One of the main crossing points of the river Tiber was located downstream from the Tiber Island. Around the 9th-8th century B.C. tuffaceous hills having the typical morphology of a paleo-volcanic area formed the landscape of the site of Rome56. The hills dominated the lower course of the river, separated by semi-swampy little valleys and crossed by small seasonal streams or Marrane57 that then opened out into a large alluvial plain Lawler, A. 2007. Raising Alexandria, in «Smithsonian Magazine», April, pp. 3-11. 55 Heiken G., Funiciello R., De Rita D. 2005, The Seven Hills of Rome: A Geological Tour of the Eternal City, Princeton University Press, Princeton. 56 Central Italy, particularly the region surrounding Rome, was a highly volcanic area around 600 000 years ago, dominated by the Albano crater. 57 Marrana (or marana) s. f. [word of Mediterranean origin], Roman. -
