Las zonas lagunares en las desembocaduras del Ródano y del Aude, en la costa mediterránea francesa, tuvieron un papel importante durante la Antigüedad, especialmente por su proximidad a grandes puertos como Arles y Narbona. Los hombres han tenido que adaptarse a estos entornos fluctuantes para garantizar una navegación necesaria para la economía de estas metrópolis costeras mientras explotan los recursos marítimos (pesca, sal etc.).

The Marius Canal is considered the first significant Roman hydraulic infrastructure in Gaul. This navigable canal, constructed at the end of the 2nd century BCE, was located in the Rhone Delta in southern France, connecting the Rhone River to the Mediterranean Sea. In the period following the construction of the canal, the large port known as Fossae Marianae was built on the coast. Despite numerous references in ancient sources, the precise location of the canal has remained unknown for the last two millennia. However, recent geophysical surveys in the eastern Rhone Delta have revealed a linear anomaly, alongside the discovery of Roman artefacts, which may indicate the presence of a Roman canal. The objective of this study is to examine morphological, sedimentary and chronological attributes of this structure, postulated to be the Canal of Marius. Sedimentary cores extracted from the supposed canal and the banks are studied on a high-resolution scale using a detailed multi-proxy methodology (grain-size, carbonate content, organic matter, magnetic susceptibility) combined with twenty-one 14C dates. The morphological analyses and palaeoenvironmental data are consistent with the hypothesis of a navigable canal operable during the Roman period, built in a complex area where an ancient lagoon was partly eroded by a palaeochannel of the Rhone dated to the 1st millennium BCE. However, further archaeological research is needed to definitely confirm that this is the canal known as the Marius Canal.

In questo contributo si fa una sintesi sullo stato di ricerca delle ville marittime della costa parentina, tenendo presente le ricerche più recenti. Come parametro di riferimento per i confronti si prende le mosse dalla villa marittima di Santa Marina, la meglio conosciuta dell’agro di Parenzo. Si mette in evidenza le caratteristiche delle 5 ville prese in esame. Tranne la villa di Santa Marina che è oggetto di studio da parte di un programma croata francese, le altre non sono state ancore sottoposto a sistematica ricerca.

At the time of Augustus, the Istrian peninsula in the northern Adriatic became famous for its oil production, however wine was also produced and perhaps oriented more towards a local market. Indeed, many presses found at villas in this region must have been used to produce wine but are architecturally challenging to discriminate between commodities. Organic residue analysis is thus a critical analytical option to utilize. In this chapter we explore the use of residue analysis at a large first century ce Roman villa built on the bay of Santa Marina (Istria, Croatia). Samples of plaster and spica were analysed with the aim of detecting chemical markers for grape wine or olive oil, with signals for malic and tartaric acid present across the entire group suggesting the production of wine. This methodology, combined with more traditional structural analysis, generated a new understanding of the villa's production economy and illuminated vinicultural activities, which were until now only visible indirectly.

Les fouilles et prospections géophysiques réalisées à partir de 2014 par le musée du territoire de Poreč (Zavičajni muzej Poreštine / Museo del territorio parentino) et le centre Camille Jullian (Aix Marseille université / CNRS) sur le territoire septentrional de la colonie de Parentium (Poreč / Parenzo, Croatie) ont mis en évidence une grande villa maritime, installée le long de la baie de Santa Marina, à proximité immédiate d’un atelier de production d’amphores à huile, déjà étudié, sur le site de Loron. L’épigraphie lapidaire et amphorique montre que les deux édifices appartenaient à une grande propriété, fondée vers 10 apr. J.-C. par le sénateur T. Statilius Taurus Sisenna. Le domaine est ensuite intégré dans le patrimoine impérial à partir de Domitien. Les recherches récentes permettent de restituer, au moins partiellement, le plan de la villa, caractérisé, dès sa fondation, par des proportions particulièrement imposantes et la qualité de ses équipements (citerne, réseau hydraulique, grands pressoirs).

L’Istrie est connue pour ses villas maritimes qui, à partir du ier s. apr. J.-C., s’égrènent le long des côtes ouest et sud et de la péninsule, face à l’Italie. La morphologie littorale, avec ses avancées profondes et ses baies échancrées, favorise un modèle d’implantation des bâtiments qui exploite les particularités naturelles, en privilégiant l’articulation des édifices à l’échelle de petits promontoires ou l’intégration d’une anse dans le développement du bâti. Au nord de la colonie de Parentium, la villa de Santa Marina offre l’exemple d’une résidence en terrasse tournée vers la mer, associée à un complexe artisanal et à un vivier, qui occupent les deux rives d’un petit promontoire en contrôlant les baies riveraines. Les recherches archéologiques montrent que ces sites s’inscrivent au sein d’un unique projet architectural lancé au début du ier s. apr. J.-C. lors de la fondation d’une grande propriété aristocratique.

Roman engineers contributed to shaping coastal and deltaic landscapes into territories of water. These territories of water were made of intricate natural and man-made waterways connecting different coastal environments together. Navigable canals were the most prominent features connecting coastal settlements and ports through a wide range of geomorphological units (e.g. sea, river mouths, channels, lagoons, harbours) to create larger navigable networks with higher connectivity. However, Roman engineers had to deal with natural processes that constrained their coastal planning (e.g. floods, storms, sedimentation, erosion). Diverted waters modified source-to-sink continuum at the interface between continental and marine waters. Consequently, some canals needed strong maintenance and did not work as planned, while some others became additional deltaic branches in activity until today. The first part of this chapter presents evidence that can be collected by geophysicists, geomorphologists and archaeologists to identify and characterise a Roman navigable canal. Based on the example of Ostia and Portus in the Tiber delta, the chapter presents and clarifies the different research objectives sought by geoarchaeologists (water and sediment management) and archaeologists (navigability) regarding canal networks dug during the Roman period.

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The great workshop of Loron (Tar-Vabriga, Croatia) corresponds to an out of standard complex of pottery production, known as the property of senators and emperors, from Domitian to Hadrian. Built on the seashore around 10 AD, on the territory of the colony of Parentium (Porec), it was mainly dedicated to the large-scale production of Dressel 6B oil amphorae, intended for exportation. From 2012 onwards, an international scientific program focuses on the exploitation of natural resources, especially fuel to supply the high yield kilns. The methodological approach, based on archaeological and bioarcheological datas (anthracology and dendrometry), shows that the amphorae production is based on a rational management of forest, and a sustainable land investment. The recent excavation of one of the kilns, perfectly preserved, with a set of intact carbonized logs of wood discovered in the praefurnium can precise the management of the fuel and the functioning of the kilns in the last phase of activity of the complex. The results will be compared with the datas of other ceramic workshop centers, in Gaul and Baetica, on which similar interdisciplinary studies have been conducted. The case of Loron is one of the few examples of application of bio-archaeological approach on a potters’ workshop during the High Empire. The problematic of deforestation during the Antiquity is renewed thanks to this approach.

Recent surveys have revealed the pars fructuaria of the aristocratic villa of Santa Marina, with well preserved equipments, dedicated in part to wine production as stressed by biochemical analyses. This tends to confirm a model already put forward by J.P. Brun (2004) for the main istrian villas.