ABSTRACT

The relationship between Rome and archaeology is inextricably linked to the history of the city itself. Centuries of continuous habitation have layered not only the city’s subsoil, but the history of building activity in Rome and its urban fabric, leaving indelible traces of the civilizations that have lived there and of significant changes as well as continuities. While there is only one Rome, it is also true to say that many different Romes have occupied the seven hills over the course of the last three millennia. In a similar way, archaeology is now considered a single, identifiable discipline, with the aim of acquiring knowledge about the past, through practical means; and yet, archaeology also took many different forms over the ages, before it was given a name in the seventeenth century.