ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 concluded that archaeological evidence would be central to the study of periurban development in the provinces. It is now time to consider how such evidence may be approached, and in particular how features considered periurban in the Roman period can be identified in the archaeological record. As we have seen, periurban – and indeed urban or rural – status rested partly in the eye of the observer. It could be contested in the past, and can never be attributed conclusively in the present. Nevertheless, broad guidelines as to what sorts of features were typically considered periurban by Roman observers can be detected in the legal, literary and visual evidence already reviewed, and used to identify the most relevant archaeological evidence.
