CONTI, Stefano; SCARDIGLI, Barbara y TORCHIO, Maria Cristina. Geografia e viaggi nell'antichita. Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi (Certosa di Pontognano, 9-10 ottobre 2005). Siena, 2007. Geografia e viaggi nell'antichita is a collection of articles by Italian, Spanish, Russian and German authors, devoted to different aspects of ancient history and geography. The basic material for the articles were the reports delivered on the conference held at the University of Siena's out-of-town palace Pontignano amidst the marvelous Chianti hills, in autumn 2005. The collection was issued a year later thanks to the close collaboration of the professors, lecturers and former PhD students from the Sienese and Florentine research programmes. The collection consists of the 14 reports with a bibliography, photos and illustrations. The book is supplemented by the index of ancient names, places and ancient sources, and it is prefaced by a brief description of the articles by Serena Bianchetti. The core of the collection comprises several articles devoted to archeological survey of Asia Minor, initiated and supervised by the German Institute of Archeology in Istanbul. The contribution by Adolf Hoffman, a director of the Institute, concerns the Hellenistic period of the Karasis fortress on the Karasis Dagi mountain in the Eastern Asia Minor (pp. 67-81). He describes the results of the archeological survey of the fortress carried out from 2001 to 2005, assisted by support from the architectural, geodesic, geological, botanic, and hydro engineering disciplines. Karasis was a strategically and logistically important point, a symbol of Seleucid power, and is now a source of exclusive interest for the Hellenistic fortification system. A collective work by scholars from the University of Trento, Mariette de Vos, Martina Andreoli, Redna Attoui and Silvia Polla Cilicia campestris orientale: l'economia rurale e la trasformazione dei paesaggio intorno ai Karasis deals with the economic development on the territory around the Karasis (pp. 13-39). Archeological material from 25 sites, from fragments of ceramics right up to elements from churches, written sources (mainly Xenophon, Columella, Plinius) and, to a certain degree, ethnographical material (comparison between some agricultural techniques in different parts of the Mediterranean East, and between the ancient and modern types of household) were used to reconstruct the dynamics of economic life in the region from III B. C. to the XIII A.D. The analysis shows the great role of olive growing and viticulture, of the cattle-breeding and the use of the trading routes that passed through the region in forming the ancient landscape.
