​

Welcome to the webpage of the Accordia Research Institute

​

Accordia is a research institute in the University of London. It operates in association with the Institute of Archaeology, UCL and with the Institute of Classical Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. It is dedicated to the promotion and co-ordination of research into all aspects of early Italy, from first settlement to the end of the pre-industrial period. 

 

We organise lectures, research seminars, conferences and exhibitions on aspects of Italian archaeology and history, and publish a regular journal on the same theme; details of the 2024-2025 lecture series can be found here. 

 

Accordia also has an extensive programme of research publications. We publish specialist volumes, seminars, conferences and excavation reports. Our policy is to encourage and support research into early Italy, especially by younger scholars, to get new work disseminated as rapidly as possible, and to improve access to recent and innovative research. We believe our books and our journal represent a valuable contribution to the development of the subject area. Accordia publishes its own Journal, the Accordia Research Papers. 

​

We also run - or are associated with - a number of research and fieldwork projects based in Britain and in Italy.

​

Accordia operates on a voluntary, non-profit basis, supported by subscriptions and donations. Publications are self-financing. Everyone gives their services without payment.

​

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

News and Recent Publications​​​​

​​​​​

• Ruth Whitehouse published Writing Matters: Italy in the First Millennium BCE with Bloomsbury in 2024.
   ​

• A new book edited by Fabio Saccoccio and Elisa Vecchi, entitled, Who do you think you are? Ethnicity in the Iron Age Mediterranean was released in 2022.

​

​

 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​​​​​​

​​

​

​

​

​

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

​

Accordia Events  2025-2026

​

The full programme for this year's Accordia Lectures can be found here. As in previous years, lectures are held either at the Senate House or the Institute of Archaeology in Gordon Square. We are also very pleased that the third series of the Early Career talks will continue with two papers in each session, details can be found here.

​​

​​

Accordia Lecture

Tuesday, March 17, 17.30​

​​

Joint Lecture with the Institute of Classical Studies

Room 261, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1

​​​​

Within the Walls of Veii: multimodal investigations into the urban phenomenon of an Etruscan city

Filippo Materazzi, Sapienza University of Rome

 

The Etruscan city of Veii represents an exceptional case study for understanding the urban phenomenon in pre-Roman Italy. Despite the numerous investigations carried out over the centuries for different purposes across the more than 190 hectares of plateau occupied by the settlement, the area explored through excavation for which some information is available amounts to less than three hectares. This situation has made it necessary to adopt a new approach capable of providing fresh data for the study of the city.

The area, increasingly exploited for agricultural purposes following the dissolution of the ancient urban layout at the end of the third century CE, is particularly well suited to aerial archaeology and other non-invasive methods. Since 2017, research has employed drone-based surveys integrating multispectral and thermal sensors to detect anomalies in the soil and vegetation associated with buried remains, within an interdisciplinary framework grounded in environmental analysis and aimed at maximising results. These activities have been complemented by systematic field verification and extensive archival research, undertaken to recover and reassess data from earlier investigations that have often remained unpublished.

The correlation of these heterogeneous datasets has produced numerous new insights, making it possible for the first time to observe Veii in a new way and, consequently, to investigate its characteristics and long-term transformations.

 

​​​

​

​​

​

​

​

 

 

 

 

​

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                       

 

 

 

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

​​

​

Early Career Lectures

Tuesday, March 24, 17.30​

Online, via Zoom

  Implementing archaeodendrometry to study the Etruscan site of Spina (Po Delta)

Léonard Gournay, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and University of Bologna

​

and

 

The Maltese cart ruts as a window into past mobility and spatial organization,  c.525–290 BCE

Joel Grima, University of Malta 

​

 

​

​

​