Time, place, and the rhythm of the seasons, essential constituents of ancient ritual, collaboratively shaped and channeled the experience of religious performance. Focusing on agricultural and civic time reckoning, this article investigates the orientations of the monuments at the extra-mural Sanctuary of the Thirteen Altars at Lavinium and their coordination with viticultural activities amid the shifting social and religious circumstances of the 6th and 5th c. BCE. The article will argue that the 6th- and 5th-c. altars were aligned in such a way as to face sunrise at a particular location on the horizon on two very particular days in the seasonal year. The altars at Lavinium, playing an important role in the emerging urban community's economic life, will be shown to be themselves a form of agentic seasonal timekeeping that closely determined the integration of local agricultural, religious, and economic practices.

The ancient city of Gabii—an Italian polity of the first millennium BC and a peer to early Rome—has often been presented as an example of urban decline, a counterpoint to Rome's rise from a collection of hilltop huts to a Mediterranean hegemon. Here the authors draw on the results from recent excavations at Gabii that challenge such simplistic models of urban history. Diachronic evidence documenting activity at the site over the course of 1400 years highlights shifting values and rhythms materialised in the maintenance, transformation and abandonment of different urban components. This complex picture of adaptation and resilience provides a model of ancient urbanism that calls into question outdated narratives of urban success and failure.

The crystal-chemical relationships occurring within a single grain of monazite-(Ce) from Vetralla, Vico Volcanic Complex, north of Rome, are outlined. The sample is from a miarolitic cavity in a holocrystalline ejectum consisting of K-feldspar plus minor plagioclase, mica and Fe-oxides, collected from a pyroclastic explosive level. The Gandolfi film (Cu-Kα radiation) can be indexed in space group P21/n with a = 6.816(4); b = 6.976(4); c = 6.471(3) Å; β = 103.63(3)°; V = 299.0(6) Å3. Electron-probe microanalyses plot within the field of monazite along the huttonite-monazite edge of the huttonite-monazite-brabantite triangle. Despite patchy and irregular zoning, the grain shows a clear enrichment towards pure monazite at the outer rim. A constant Th:Si ratio of 1:1 indicates the existence of a simple solid-solution between huttonite and monazite. The substitution can be written as Th4+ + Si4+ → REE3+ + P5+ without requiring any electrostatic compensation by divalent cations, or by anionic groups. The REE distribution pattern is compatible with that of monazites from syenitic rocks.

Non-metamict betafite, a pyrochlore-group mineral with general formula A2−mB2XO6Y(O,OH,F)1−n·pH2O and 2 Ti > Nb+Ta and U > 20% at the A site, has been found at Le Carcarelle, (Latium, Italy). It occurs within miarolitic cavities of a foid-bearing syenitic ejectum enclosed within the pyroclastic formation known as “ignimbrite C”, which belongs to the main effusive phase of the Vico volcanic complex. The host rock is composed of K-feldspar, biotite, augitic clinopyroxene, magnetite and minor sodalite. Electron microprobe analyses gave the following crystal-chemical formula: (Ca1.24Na0.17U0.49REE0.03)Σ=1.93 (Ti1.05Nb0.76Zr0.14Fe0.04Ta0.01)Σ=2.00O6(O,OH). Compared with other occurrences reported in the mineralogical literature, betafite from Le Carcarelle is extremely enriched in U and depleted in Th. Due to its young age of formation (∼150 k.y.), this betafite sample is highly crystalline, thus allowing structure refinement of unheated material. Betafite from Le Carcarelle is cubic Fdm, with a = 10.2637(13) Å, and V = 1081.21(35) Å3, and has a smaller A site (consistent with the higher U content), and a larger and more distorted B site (consistent with the higher Ti content) than calciobetafite from Campi Flegrei, Italy (Mazzi and Munno, 1983). Analysis of the atomic displacement parameters provides evidence for static disorder at the X site.

This paper reports the first in-situ finding of perrierite-(Ce) in Latium. The mineral occurs as brownish-red, transparent, well-developed, euhedral, prismatic crystals inside the miarolitic cavities of a holocrystalline ejectum from La Mola, Monti dell'Anguillara district, Sabatini volcanic complex.

The cell parameters (from Gandolfi film) are (in Å): a = 13.629(9), b = 5.727(1), c = 11.715(6), β(°) = 113.74(2), V(Å3) = 835.5(9). The crystal-chemical formula, based on microprobe analysis of one grain, is:

This perrierite is the most Zr-rich described so far. The entry of Zr in the C site of the structure is related to the substitution of large amounts of Ca in the A site, according to the charge balancing relationship:

The genesis of perrierite-(Ce) from La Mola is linked to late pneumatolitic-pegmatitic hypabyssal stages of the regional volcanic activity.

New Sr-Nd isotope data were obtained from Late Pleistocene carbonatite-kamafugite associations from the Umbria-Latium Ultra-Alkaline District of Italy (ULUD) with the aim of constraining their origin and possible mantle source(s). This is relevant to the origin and evolution of ultrapotassic (K/Na ≫2) and associated rocks generally, notably the occurrences from Ugandan kamafugites,Western Australian lamproites and South African orangeites. The selected ULUD samples yielded 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd ranging from 0.7100 to 0.7112 and from 0.5119 to 0.5121 respectively, similar to cratonic potassic volcanic rocks with higher Rb/Sr and lower Sm/Nd ratios than Bulk Earth. Silicate and carbonate fractions separated from melilitite are in isotopic equilibrium, supporting the view that they are cogenetic. The ULUD carbonatites yielded the highest radiogenic Sr so far reported for carbonatites. In contrast, sedimentary limestones from ULUD basement formations are lower in radiogenic Sr, i.e. 87Sr/86Sr = 0.70745–0.70735. The variation trend of ULUD isotopic compositions is similar to that reported for Ugandan kamafugites and Western Australian lamproites and overlaps the values for South African orangeites in the εSr-εNd diagram. A poor correlation between Sr/Nd and 87Sr/86Sr ratios in ULUD rocks is inconsistent with a mantle source generated by subduction-driven processes, while the negligible Sr and LREE in sedimentary limestones from the ULUD region fail to account for a hypothetical limestone assimilation process. The Nd model ages of 1.5–1.9 Ga have been inferred for a possible metasomatic event, allowing further radiogenic evolution of the source, a process which may have occurred in isolation until eruption time. While the origin of this component remains speculative, the Sr-Nd isotope trend is consistent with a simple mixing process involving an OIB-type mantle and a component with low εNd and high εSr.

Thirteen wild plants and their food uses in the folk traditions of some regions of central Italy are described. These uses that can be exploited for human nourishment were collected during field research (1977–2003). Some wild food plants quoted are not very well known. The herbs have been selected for their peculiar organoleptic characteristics (Taraxacum apenninum, T. glaciale, Crepis leontodontoides), for their nutritional interest (Bunium bulbocastanum, Sinapis alba, Sonchus oleraceus, Taraxacum apenninum, T. glaciale) and the possibility of their cultivation in marginal areas (see Chenopodium bonus-henricus, Podospermum canum, P. laciniatum and some of the quoted species).