Abstract
The traditional historiography of studies on the ancient countryside has always emphasized the role played by large rural estates, dotted with luxurious villae, in the economy and expansion of the Roman period. The production of oil and wine, the flagship products of Mediterranean trade, and their spread to the northern frontiers of the Empire were in part due to the existence of an agriculture linked to the large rural farms of Italy. In the western provinces, particularly Gaul, the same paradigm prevailed ; from this point of view, Roger Agache's discovery of the villae of Picardy in the early seventies gave substance to the idea of a productivist agriculture based on cereal growing.
Recent major surveys, in France (ERC program " Rurland "), but also in England, have led to a review of this pattern of development. They show that the development of the countryside is based on a solid protohistoric foundation, and that its pace is long-term, with no abrupt break at the time of conquest, no " colonization of the land ", and only slow, nuanced technical adaptations. The picture that emerges is very different from the one we're used to, and leads us to revise many of our preconceived ideas about the role of Roman villae in Northern Gaul.
