Polis, chora, phrourion: modelli e percorsi tra archeologia e storia

Polis, chora, phrourion: patterns and paths between archaeology and history · This paper aims to review some questions of vocabulary, in the sources and historiographical literature, and their impact on our interpretations: the term phrourion provides the focus for a thorough investigation, to address broader issues that in- volve both theoretical reflection and research on concrete cases and archaeological data. The analysis is part of a project, TeMAES (Territoires multiples: agentivité et environemments socio-écono- miques), which investigate the relationship be- tween polis and chora through the prism of agency and social relations and emphasises socio- spatial phenomena. This research not only focuses on human settlements but is also concerned with the space that surrounds them landscape history and land-use patterns. Beyond the very diπerent local manifestations, phrourion should be under- stood in social mean, as a relational and dynamic construction that depends on the historical varia- bility and the physical and anthropogenic specificity of territories.