Acconia is a town located in the region of Calabria in southern Italy, in the “toe” of the Italian peninsula.  Calabria is an economically underdeveloped area of Italy, but agriculture makes
up about 4% of its Gross Domestic Product.  Calabria has the second highest number of organic farmers, after Sicily, and is especially known for its olive trees and production of olive oil.  Professor Albert Ammerman of Colgate University has been conducting an archaeological survey in order to study the landscape dynamics at Acconia.  Looking at the changing landscape from 1950 to the present, it is clear that agro-business has taken off in the past few decades.  Acconia began as an agricultural wasteland plagued with malaria and DDT.  In the mid-1970s it started to become self-sufficient and by the 1980s strawberry mansions were dotted over the landscape.  Acconia is now home to extensive greenhouses and successful strawberry producers.

The use of a longitudinal study is of the utmost importance in understanding the changes that have taken place in Acconia over the past few decades.  Human beings and the communities of which they are a part lead to the transformation of the landscape, and this can only be observed over long periods of time.  We have tried to capture the spirit of this in the logo seen at the top of the site.  The windows of visibility in the landscape lead to the discovery of the site, and the entire landscape survey is therefore situated in time.

We hope to present new thoughts for methods and theory in survey archaeology, so that readers can understand the importance of such studies, and learn to conduct such studies in other areas of the world.  This site goes into detail about the nature of longitudinal studies, and the specific case of mapping Acconia.  Such studies are crucial to understanding landscape dynamics, but they also raise many questions.  Is such agro-business sustainable in the current Italian economy?  The Beatles say that Strawberry Fields are Forever, but is this true at Acconia?  We hope you will explore the longitudinal study of Acconia presented in this website, and look to other articles for further information on studies of this kind.