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Let $\pi$ be a cuspidal automorphic representation of PGL($2n$) over a number field $F$, and $\eta$ the quadratic idele class character attached to a quadratic extension $E/F$. Guo and Jacquet conjectured a relation between the nonvanishing of $L(1/2,\pi)L(1/2, \pi \otimes \eta)$ for $\pi$ of symplectic type and the nonvanishing of certain GL($n,E$) periods. When $n=1$, this specializes to a well-known result of Waldspurger. We prove this conjecture, and related global results, under some local hypotheses using a simple relative trace formula. We then apply these global results to obtain local results on distinguished supercuspidal representations, which partially establish a conjecture of Prasad and Takloo-Bighash., Comment: 31 pages; to appear in Israel J. Math

La relazione presenta i risultati degli scavi condotti tra il 1977 e il 1981 presso le imponenti rovine note come Le Mura di Santo Stefano, situate vicino Anguillara Sabazia, appena 3 km a sud del Lago di Bracciano. La fase più antica di occupazione era relativa ad una fattoria di I secolo d.C. Intorno al 200 d.C. viene costruita una serie di strutture, compreso un edificio a pianta rettangolare su tre piani copiosamente decorato con diciannove tipi di marmo, suggerendo così che il complesso avesse un carattere lussuoso, possibilmente parte di un latifundium. Si hanno evidenze di ulteriori attività nel III o inizi IV secolo d.C. Nel IX secolo, dopo un periodo di abbandono, parte del complesso fu convertito nella chiesa di Santo Stefano. L'aula rettangolare fu rioccupata e le restanti rovine usate come cimitero. Si è dedotto che il sito possa aver funzionato come centro di una proprietà medievale, parte della domusculta papale, o in alternativa come un fundus di una struttura monastica. Nell'XI secolo il sito fu abbandonato, dopo ehe i resti di scheletri appartenenti ad almeno 90 individui, e le ossa di tre cani, furono interrati in un pozzo tappato con pezzi di sculture marmoree romane.

We give a method to explicitly determine the space of unramified Hilbert cusp forms of weight two, together with the action of Hecke, over a totally real number field of even degree and narrow class number one. In particular, one can determine the eigenforms in this space and compute their Hecke eigenvalues to any reasonable degree. As an application we compute this space of cusp forms for Q(root 509), and determine each eigenform in this space which has rational Hecke eigenvalues. We find that not all of these forms arise via base change from classical forms. To each such eigenform f we attach an elliptic curve with good reduction everywhere whose L-function agrees with that of f at every place.

Fabrizio Paolucci: L’arte del vetro inciso a Roma nel IV secolo d.C. Firenze: All’Insegna del Giglio 2002. 89 S. 107 Abb. 4º. 31 €.

We obtain exact formulas for central values of triple product L-functions averaged over newforms of weight 2 and prime level. We apply these formulas to non-vanishing problems. This paper uses a period formula for the triple product L-function proved by Gross and Kudla., To appear in the International Journal of Number Theory

This article reconsiders a group of medieval glazed wares from central Italy, to which (in Whitehouse 1967: 60–6) I gave the cumbersome name ‘Pottery with plant and abstract decoration’. The material of this type from Rome is the subject of a new study by the Italian scholar, Otto Mazzucato (1976a), under the title ‘Ceramica laziale’. As a result of this and other recent research, it appears now that a homogeneous group of wares decorated with brown and green stripes, ‘arcades’ and vegetal motifs under a yellowish or greenish lead glaze was produced in several parts of Lazio and Umbria in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. In most, if not all, of these areas it was the earliest locally made medieval glazed pottery with painted ornament. It was superseded by Archaic maiolica in the thirteenth century. Mazzucato makes a convincing case for regarding Ceramica laziale as a local product inspired by pottery imported from Sicily or the eastern Maghreb. Although influence from the south would explain the geometric ornament of Ceramica laziale, it does not account fully for the frequent use of leaf scrolls and other vegetal motifs, for which a local origin appears probable.

In the eleventh century, the great port of Siraf collapsed, and was replaced by Kish. The latter, however, never attained the size or wealth of Siraf. The ‘failure’ of Kish is a symptom of a depression in the maritime trade of the Gulf, caused by a decline in demand for imported goods in Iran and Iraq. This decline, attributed to political fragmentation following the fall of the Buyids, was aggravated by the diversion of trade to the Red Sea. The historical and the archaeological data on these events point to fundamentally similar conclusions.

LA SCHOLA PRAECONUM ILa cosiddettaSchola Praeconumsi trova nella parte nord-ovest del Palatino sovrastante il Circo Massimo. Un sondaggio, effettuato nel 1978, rivelò un massiccio riempimento databile, sulla base delle 38 monete identificate, al secondo quarto del V secolo d.C., forse tra il 430 e il 440 circa. Il riempimento conteneva un'enorme quantità di ceramiche—terra sigillata chiara, lucerne (per la maggior parte di produzione locale), anfore commerciali, ecc. L'abbondante campione di fauna mostra soprattutto la presenza di bovini, pecore e maiali. Uno studio dei dati inerenti alla macellazione prova che il bestiame fosse sistematicamente allevato per il mercato della carne. La presenza delle anfore commerciali e del bestiame allevato per la tavola ci fa pensare alle informazioni sull'annonacontenute nel Codice Teodosiano.

LA SCHOLA PRAECONUM IIIn questo secondo rapporto sugli scavi della Schola Praeconum in Palatino, gli AA. presentano materiali da due contesti tardo-antichi:SP I, un riempimento datato al periodo 430–440c. e SP II, un' altero riempimento probabilmente databile ai primi decenni del VII secoto. Dal contestoSP Isi presenta i vetri, i bolli laterizi, i semi e gli insetti; dalSP II, le monete, le ceramiche e le lucerne. Il materiale ceramico dal contestoSP IIstimola alcune ipotesi sui rapporti commerciali di Roma nel VII secolo. Infine, due appendici presentano una discussione delle iscrizioni dipinte sulle anfore di argilla 14 e un' analisi del contenuto delle anfore importate da Bi e Gaza in Palestina.

S. Cornelia (863583), 15 kilometres north of Rome and midway between Veii and Formello (Figure 1), was rediscovered in 1958 during the South Etruria Survey and excavated by Charles Daniels in 1962–4. It was identified immediately as the domusculta of Capracorum, established by Hadrian I c. 780 (Ward-Perkins 1963: 38; Kahane et al. 1968: 161–4). The site is of lasting importance. Apart from its exceptional intrinsic interest, it provided the first type series of medieval pottery in Lazio and the only fixed (or apparently fixed) points in the chronology of Forum ware and pottery with sparse glaze, both of which are important elements in the debate about the development of early medieval settlement (Luttrell 1975: 271–2; Wickham 1978: 172–9). This paper is an account of the pottery and the evidence for its date.

RIFIUTI ALIMENTARI DI UNA RICCA FAMIGLIA CITTADINA NEL TARDO SECOLO QUATTORDICESIMO: RESTI FAUNISTICI E BOTANICI DAL PALAZZO VITELLESCHI, TARQUINIA (VITERBO)Gli scavi condotti dalla British School at Rome nel Palazzo Vitelleschi in Tarquinia hanno fornito una quantità considerevole di dati faunistici e botanici, molti dei quali relativi al “proto-palazzo” del tardo sec. XIV. Le analisi del materiale qui presentate permettono di ricostruire in maniera abbastanza dettagliata il regime alimentare di una ricca e privilegiata famiglia urbana: tale esempio non può dunque essere assunto come rappresentativo in generale del tenore di vita diffuso nell'Italia centrale in età medievale. Alcuni elementi testimoniano come gli abitanti del proto-palazzo siano stati colpiti da una malattia, forse peste. E' stato possibile estendere il quadro ottenuto da questo particolare contesto e mettere in relazione l'economia di questa famiglia con l'organizzazione della produzione agricola nella compagna circostante. Le conoscenze offerte dai dati faunistici e botanici sul tipo di vita condotta nel medioevo sono paragonati e messi a confronto con le testimonianze documentarie relative alia dieta ed alla agricoltura medievale in Italia, anch'esse relative in gran parte alle classi più alte della società.

On 6 February 1971 the small town of Tuscania, twenty miles west of Viterbo and the same distance north-east of Tarquinia, was the scene of a local but very violent earthquake, which killed a number of people and rendered much of the old town totally uninhabitable.Tuscania (until 1911 Toscanella) is best known to most visitors to Italy for its two magnificent medieval churches, that of San Pietro on the ancient acropolis and that of Santa Maria Maggiore, both of them fine romanesque buildings on the site of earlier churches. San Pietro has been thought by some writers to incorporate parts of the earlier structure, and both churches contain a number of earlier fittings. The town itself is less familiar, although it is still enclosed within the circuit of its medieval walls, and inside these walls it has retained a large number of medieval and later buildings in a setting largely unspoilt by modern development. Almost all the growth of the last forty years has taken place northwards and westwards, outside the medieval walls, so that the visitor still has very much the impression of the old walled city, dominated in the foreground by the hill of San Pietro itself, with its picturesque group of towers and other buildings, and spreading up the ridge beyond it the compact mass of the old town.

Anglona is the site of a prehistoric, Hellenistic and medieval settlement overlooking the Ionian Sea, 60 km. south-west of Taranto (Fig. 1). In 1965 we carried out a short trial excavation at Anglona on behalf of the Soprintendenza alle Antichità for Lucania. The excavation was of an exploratory nature. The site has since been excavated on a larger scale by the German Archaeological Institute, but the results obtained by ourselves were sufficient to call for a brief report. Anglona is a hilltop site which today supports only one standing monument, a twelfth-century church.However, it has long been known that a medieval settlement existed here and it is thought that the site was also that of Hellenistic Pandosia. Before excavation began, surface finds suggested that the site was also occupied in the prehistoric period. The suspicion was confirmed by the discovery of abundant Late Bronze or Early Iron Age material in securely stratified deposits.Anglona is situated on a long narrow ridge which runs down to the coast, 12 km. to the east. The topography of the region falls into three distinct zones, each roughly parallel to the coast. Nearest the sea is a low coastal strip, up to 7 km. wide, composed of fossil dunes and alluvium. Behind the strip lies a zone of eroded sand and gravel hills. The loosely cemented deposits weather rapidly, creating low cliffs and steep-sided ravines. Finally, behind the hills, is the mountainous hinterland of Basilicata. Within the space of only 30 km., between Metaponto and Siri, no fewer than five rivers enter the Ionian Sea. The rivers drain a large area of Basilicata and, although sluggish today, at times of increased rainfall they carried a considerable volume of water. The rivers have cut broad valleys through the gravel hills, leaving a series of irregular ridges running at right angles to the coast.

In the ninth and tenth centuries A.D., Sirāf, on the Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf, was a leading entrepot for maritime trade between the Moslem world and the Far East. Excavations at Sirāf, begun by the British Institute of Persian Studies in 1966, show that the site was already important in the eighth century. The city reached its greatest extent in the tenth century and thereafter declined. After the twelfth century the site supported a small town. Among the buildings already investigated are the Great Mosque, a group of opulent houses, a pottery and part of a bazaar.

Medieval archaeology in the sense of a field study involving controlled excavation is in its infancy in Italy. Scarcely a dozen excavations have been carried out with the recovery of information about the middle ages as their primary objective and little attention has been paid to the material remains of everyday life. It is not surprising, therefore, that in the past the only medieval pottery to receive lasting attention has been the tin-glazed ware which was valued as the forerunner of renaissance maiolica. Nevertheless, in recent years programmes of surface collecting and selective excavation have been initiated in two areas with the specific purpose of studying the middle ages. The two areas are Lazio and Apulia. In Apulia the Society of Antiquaries sponsored a survey of the Tavoliere, or Foggia Plain, reports on which are in active preparation.

One of the problems which has arisen during the course of the work on the topographical survey of South Etruria has been that of the date and cause of the abandonment of many of the smaller medieval settlements of which there is evidence in the area. The study of deserted medieval villages has advanced considerably in northern Europe since 1945, but in Italy it is still in its infancy. There is therefore an almost complete lack of comparative material with which to work in the study of the deserted settlements in the area between Rome and Viterbo, and we have found traces, either documentary or physical, and often both, of over seventy-five such settlements in this area.As I hope to take up the whole question of the deserted villages of South Etruria in the near future, I shall not here attempt to enlarge on the wider aspects of the problem of shifting rural settlements in the later Middle Ages. However, it is important to emphasise that the picture is on the whole very different from that in northern Europe.