Building a Roman Funeral Pyre

Antichthon ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 30-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Noy
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Roman Art ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Roman Literature ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Cultural Homogenisation ◽  
Over Time

Until the second century A.D., the bodies of most people who died at Rome and in the western provinces of the Empire ended up on a funeral pyre, to be reduced to ashes which would be placed in a grave. The practical arrangements for this process have attracted some attention from archaeologists but virtually none from ancient historians. In this paper I shall try to combine literary and archaeological evidence to reconstruct how the pyre was prepared. I hope that this will provide a fuller background than currently exists for understanding the numerous brief references which can be found in Roman literature and the two surviving representations of a pyre (other than an emperor's) in Roman art. Cremation had different traditions in different areas, e.g. as an elite practice in parts of Gaul, even if ultimately it ‘may have been thought of as a sign of allegiance to Rome.’ There clearly were local differences, not just between provinces but between places quite close together, as well as changes over time, but many of the rites of cremation appear to have been similar throughout the Western Roman Empire, illustrating what Morris calls ‘a massive cultural homogenisation of the Roman world at a time when political and economic regionalism was increasing’.

Roman Water-Power

2020 ◽  
pp. 147-194
Author(s):  
Andrew Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
The Body ◽  
First Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Water Power ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Grain Milling ◽  
Over Time

This chapter summarizes the archaeological evidence currently known for Roman water-mills, tracing the development and spread of water-powered grain milling over time across the Roman Empire. Problems of quantification and evidence bias, both documentary and archaeological, are addressed. In particular, it is argued that large discoidal millstones, formerly thought to derive either from animal-powered or water-powered mills, must come from water-mills, and that the idea of Roman animal-driven mills with discoidal millstones is a myth. This dramatically increases the amount of evidence available for water-powered grain milling, although very unevenly spread across the empire, and heavily dependent on the intensity of research in particular regions—good for Britain, parts of France, and Switzerland; poor everywhere else. The chapter also summarizes the state of knowledge on other applications of water-power—for ore-crushing machines at hard-rock gold and silver mines (by the first century AD), trip-hammers, tanning and fulling mills, and marble sawing (by the third century AD). The picture is fast-changing and the body of evidence continues to grow with new archaeological discoveries. The chapter ends with some thoughts about the place of water-power in the overall economy of the Roman world, and on the transmission of water-powered technologies between the Roman and medieval periods.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippa Adrych ◽  
Robert Bracey ◽  
Dominic Dalglish ◽  
Stefanie Lenk ◽  
Rachel Wood
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Ancient Religion ◽  
The Many ◽  
Material Record

This chapter focuses on two marble tauroctony statue groups that are now in the British Museum’s collection. Both are thought to be originally from Rome and date roughly to between the end of the first and the second century AD. In this opening chapter, we look at several of the many interpretations that have been offered for the tauroctony and discuss the image’s development in the Roman world. At the heart of all such interpretations lies the problem of how to reconstruct an ancient reality based on scant remains. These carefully constructed compositions, painstakingly restored in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, simultaneously present us with the characteristic representation of Mithras in the Roman Empire, yet also show the difficulties in reconstructing ancient religion from a fragmented material record.

Oasis Forts of Legio III Augusta on the Routes to the Fezzan

1954 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 56-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. G. Goodchild
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Roman Empire ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Military Architecture ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Roman Military ◽  
Made In

The two well-preserved Roman fortresses to be described in this paper have been known for many years. They were first brought to European notice by the British-sponsored geographical expeditions of the nineteenth century, when Tripoli was the spring-board for repeated attempts to find a route into Central Africa. Although important discoveries have been made in one of these forts (Bu Ngem) in more recent years, no detailed ground-plans have previously been published.The following notes and illustrations are primarily intended to fill this lacuna in the documentation of the African limes; but it is hoped that they may also serve to increase our knowledge of early third-century trends in Roman military architecture. The European frontiers of the Roman Empire have yielded, and are still yielding, numerous examples of first- and second-century forts, and equally numerous examples of the forts erected during the later-third and early-fourth centuries, when barbarian invasion threatened the whole Roman world.

Rabbinic Authority, Medical Rhetoric, and Body Hermeneutics in Mishnah Nega‘im

AJS Review ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mira Balberg
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Medical Knowledge ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Body ◽  
Second Century ◽  
The Self ◽  
Second Sophistic ◽  
Medical Rhetoric ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Roman World

The second century CE has long been recognized as a time of intense preoccupation with medicine and health in the Graeco-Roman world. Medicine had always been a part of the Greek paideia, and acquaintance with it was traditionally required of every aristocrat, but it was during the second Sophistic period that a new form of medical self-presentation emerged in which the knowledge of medicine was hailed not only as one of the apices of the intellectual habitus, but also as indispensable to everyday life. As Michel Foucault observed, the literature of this period placed an enormous emphasis on the body not just as a tool to be used but also as an end in itself, and the classic philosophical ideal of “caring for the Self” (epimeleia heautou) came to entail unrelenting attention to one's health and physical well-being. In this setting, the doctor—the bearer of medical knowledge and the ultimate caretaker of the Self—was seen as offering more than physical relief: The doctor was both a healer and a mentor, and functioned as a watchperson and a guide to right living. Indeed, it is in this period that we first come across the appellations iatrophilosophos (doctor-philosopher) and iatrosophistes (doctor-sophist). Medical knowledge had thus become a most esteemed form of knowledge during the Antonine period of the Roman Empire, and doctors, as its guardians, interpreters, and practitioners, were invested with substantial power and authority.

Christians Reading Philo

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Otto
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Jewish Community ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Philosophical School ◽  
Two Factors

It is widely assumed amongst scholars that Clement of Alexandria’s citations of Philo demonstrate continuity between Philo’s Jewish community and early Christians in ancient Alexandria. This chapter argues that the assumed continuity between Jewish synagogue and Christian church in Alexandria is problematical. This is due to two factors. The first is the Jewish uprisings against Rome under Trajan and Hadrian at the beginning of the second century and the second the mobility of people and texts in the Roman Empire. The frequent copying and easy circulation of texts among students of philosophy in the Roman world suggests that Clement may have encountered Philo’s writings in a philosophical school rather than via transmission in an institution such as a Jewish-Christian synagogue or catechetical school.

The Size of the Economy and the Distribution of Income in the Roman Empire

2009 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
pp. 61-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Scheidel ◽  
Steven J. Friesen
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Gross Domestic Product ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Domestic Product ◽  
Total Output ◽  
Total Income ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Distribution Of Income

Different methods of estimating the Gross Domestic Product of the Roman Empire in the second century C.E. produce convergent results that point to total output and consumption equivalent to 50 million tons of wheat or close to 20 billion sesterces per year. It is estimated that élites (around 1.5 per cent of the imperial population) controlled approximately one-fifth of total income, while middling households (perhaps 10 per cent of the population) consumed another fifth. These findings shed new light on the scale of economic inequality and the distribution of demand in the Roman world.

Comparison of two devices for measuring exercise transcutaneous oxygen pressures in patients with claudication

VASA ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 355-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Urban ◽  
Alban Fouasson-Chailloux ◽  
Isabelle Signolet ◽  
Christophe Colas Ribas ◽  
Mathieu Feuilloy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oxygen Pressure ◽  
Optical Sensors ◽  
Chemical Sensors ◽  
Transcutaneous Oxygen ◽  
Starting Values ◽  
Two Systems ◽  
Transcutaneous Oxygen Pressure ◽  
New Sensors ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Over Time

Abstract. Summary: Background: We aimed at estimating the agreement between the Medicap® (photo-optical) and Radiometer® (electro-chemical) sensors during exercise transcutaneous oxygen pressure (tcpO2) tests. Our hypothesis was that although absolute starting values (tcpO2rest: mean over 2 minutes) might be different, tcpO2-changes over time and the minimal value of the decrease from rest of oxygen pressure (DROPmin) results at exercise shall be concordant between the two systems. Patients and methods: Forty seven patients with arterial claudication (65 + / - 7 years) performed a treadmill test with 5 probes each of the electro-chemical and photo-optical devices simultaneously, one of each system on the chest, on each buttock and on each calf. Results: Seventeen Medicap® probes disconnected during the tests. tcpO2rest and DROPmin values were higher with Medicap® than with Radiometer®, by 13.7 + / - 17.1 mm Hg and 3.4 + / - 11.7 mm Hg, respectively. Despite the differences in absolute starting values, changes over time were similar between the two systems. The concordance between the two systems was approximately 70 % for classification of test results from DROPmin. Conclusions: Photo-optical sensors are promising alternatives to electro-chemical sensors for exercise oximetry, provided that miniaturisation and weight reduction of the new sensors are possible.

Neuropsychological Symptoms in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Changes Over Time

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miranda Olff ◽  
Mirjam Nijdam ◽  
Kristin Samuelson ◽  
Julia Golier ◽  
Mariel Meewisse ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Posttraumatic Stress ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Neuropsychological Symptoms ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Over Time
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document