The archaeology of Roman villas and more generally of Roman rural landscapes has enjoyed widespread interest for some generations now, among both scholars and a wider audience. Some educational presentations of villa sites have even emerged as regular public attractions, as we have seen in the past decade with the villas of Borg in the Trier area, Ahrweiler near Bonn and Jemelle-Malagne in the Belgian Ardennes. Despite marked differences in the way they present the Roman past, they all have in common their ability to appeal to the general public, each attracting about 50,000 visitors a year. Why do Roman villas hold such a fascination for people? There are probably different factors at work here. Villas are regarded as the most ‘Roman’ component of the rural landscapes of that time. Through their fascinating archaeological remains (pavements with mosaics, houses with stone foundations, tiled roofs, painted walls, hypocausts, bathing facilities, etc.), they stimulate public imagination about the Roman past. Roman villas evoke a feeling of familiarity through their associations with modern ideals of civilisation and strategies of elite distinction in terms of comfortable living and an appreciation of a rustic life in the country. In our modern post-industrial society, the arcadian ‘Traum vom Lande’ also has broad appeal, as we see in the escape from the city and the building of modern villas. In that sense, villas fit within the modern quest for an idealised past. At the same time, villa attractions help us put modern Western civilisation into perspective through our awareness of the decline of the Roman empire.

Underpinning this volume is archaeological research into villas and villa landscapes in the northern provinces of the Roman empire. In 2006 the Archaeological Centre at VU University Amsterdam launched the research programme Villa landscapes in the Roman North. Economy, culture, lifestyles. Funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), it is scheduled for completion in 2011. Included in the planned output for the programme is this synthesis volume of articles by project members, supplemented by contributions from other archaeologists working in the field of Roman rural archaeology. The aim of this book, which builds on an international symposium organised in Vaals (NL) in November 2008, is fourfold:

• a. to develop a synthesis on the emergence and development of Roman villa landscapes in the northern provinces.