The territory of the city between the ancient and the historical. Metamorphosis of the languages

Abstract

The dialogue between the ancient and the historical has developed on the anthropized territory, in the continuity and discontinuity, defining the spaces of residence, production, living, on which protection restrictions have been placed. Archaeology, landscape architecture and recently ecology give new life and reconfiguration to the past, which expresses itself through renewed languages, so that the signs testify not only past conditions, but also the present ones, as collective heritage connecting the past, the present and the future. Classic archaeology – through the ancient language, mural inscriptions, epigraphs and tombstones, street paths and objects of “material culture”, as well as through the support of direct and indirect documentary sources – tells about architecture and planning, aristocratic and plebeian life, opulence and poverty. Another kind of archaeology has rooted, the so called “industrial” one, related to dismissed productive areas. Nowadays the challenge is about a regeneration process able to connect properly conservation and transformation.