Public Lecture by Dr. McKenzie Lewis, Adjunct Professor – University of Wyoming
Thursday, November 16 Time: 7:15 – 8:15 p.m.
University of Toronto, Carr Hall, Room 404, located at 100 St. Joseph Street, St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto. (First street north of Wellesley; parking lot is opposite Carr Hall).
The Villa del Vergigno is a large villa rustica inhabited from ca. 100 BCE to 400 CE in the mid-Arno Valley of northern Tuscany, approximately twenty kilometres west of Florence. This region was prosperous during the last few centuries BCE, resulting in its Etruscan population being subjected to repeated waves of Roman colonization between 82 and 30 BCE, a period roughly concurrent with the villa’s development. At its height, the villa had a large domestic area with mosaic flooring, a hypocaust system, and a bath complex, as well as an agricultural sector producing wine, olive oil, pottery, and amphorae. This lecture will discuss research at the site, current interpretations of its status before and after Roman colonization, and the nature of the agricultural economy in this area of northern Etruria.