The Past and the present of the Roman town of Ocriculum

Otricoli is a village located in the south of the Umbria Region (Central Italy). It is perched in a territory limited on the eastern side by the Apennines chain and the west by the Tiber River. From the top of a hill Otricoli dominates the ruins of the Roman village of Ocriculum.Ocriculum was founded in the 1st Century B.C. and developed during the 2nd Century A.D. It was placed in a flatten area declining towards the Tiber River and soon it became a prosperous commercial centre.Marine sediments of the Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene and fluvial sediments of the Early-Middle Pleistocene covered by Middle-Late Pleistocene pyroclastic rocks cropping out in the area.Natural factors and human activities caused Ocriculum’s deterioration that forced the inhabitants to abandon the town in the period between the end of the 6th and 7th Centuries A.D., during the climatic minimum of the Early Middle Ages. The cold, wet climatic conditions certainly facilitated the decline of the territory, already worsened by the consequences of the fall of the Roman Empire.