Sacred Landscape in Early Rome

Preliminary Notes on the Relationship between Space, Religious Beliefs and Urbanisation

Abstract

The relationship between strategies of territorial occupation and religious beliefs has been of

great importance for ancient urbanisation, particularly during the early stages of the process.

Strategies adopted during this more or less long period responded not only to economic con-

siderations and functionality, but also to complex systems of religious beliefs, developed in

correlation with the surrounding landscape. The position of public buildings, above all those

of a sacred and/or sacred-political character, was never casual and has played an important

role in creating a sacred-ritual landscape, a fil rouge which through processions and other

forms of interaction connected different parts of a city. With a specific regard to the city of

Rome, this preliminary study highlights the formation of a sacred landscape at the beginning

of the urbanisation process, between the end of the Iron Age and the Orientalising period.