Dalla taberna alla bottega: trasformazioni e persistenze di spazi e funzioni tra tarda Antichità e Medioevo

The urban, structural, economical and social transformations that characterize the end of the antiquity, clearly involve also
trade spaces that are deeply connected in the settlement pattern. However, a part from particular cases which are not
representative, the features of these transformations still slip due to the lack of documentation (often related to old
archaeological investigations) and to the poor analysis in defining generic “transformations related to the Late Antiquity”.
So, it seemed appropriate to use a large amount of case studies, based on published data, in order to find the markers
and/or the elements, archaeologically recognizable, and to proceed to a punctual analysis of some contexts in homogeneous
historical and geographical areas, as the two shores of the Adriatic sea.
The goal of this work is first, to understand if the spatial transformation identified in post-classic age, correspond to changed
conditions of trade dynamics both in terms of quantity of goods and organization of the trading process; second to highlight
eventual relationships between trade spaces and productive spaces. The continuity of planimetric composition seems to point
out a clear preponderance of functional aspects.
In the end we will try to verify if inserting trade structures in the urban texture is regulated by a precise plan in the context of
relationship between public and private spaces and, clearly, infrastructures.