Strutture produttive e di servizio nelle ville residenziali tardoantiche

In recent studies on late antique villas the interest in the spaces of production, storage and service has greatly increased. Although Roman villas had always had urban and rustic aspects, late antique residential buildings seem sometimes be characterized by the almost total absence of production structures, at least near the main settlement. The archaeological data and the analysis of literary sources indicate a variety of situations and suggest different interpretative proposals for the relationship between residential and productive structures in late antique villas. Based on the results of recent archaeological excavations, this paper attempts to examine some significant examples identified in the Italian territory.