ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the evolution of medieval archaeology in the peninsula, mainly through the analysis of the work of some individual scholars and by presenting some key experiences and main tendencies. In Italy medieval archaeology was practised at least since the 19th century, but it was only after the Second World War that a mature concept of the discipline began to take shape. In the second half of the 19th century Italy was crowded with local historians interested in the reconstruction of local history on the model of the longue duree. The melting pot represented by early medieval Italy was evidently not the right context to find the roots of purity in the ‘Italian race’. According to Richard Hodges, ‘Whitehouse’s ground-breaking work became the cornerstone of medieval archaeology in Italy’. Italy’s past obviously owes very much to the pre-Roman and Roman periods, therefore it is no wonder that it attracts such academic attention.
