Roman Archaeology

Classics ◽  
2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn J. McDonnell
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Art History ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Roman Archaeology ◽  
Material Type ◽  
Roman World

In its broadest sense, Roman archaeology encompasses all forms of study of the material remains of the Roman world, beginning in the 8th century bce and ending with the fall of the Roman Empire. In practice, research in Roman archaeology is typically divided into specializations by material type, geographic location, or chronological era, and often artificially separated into “art history” and “archaeology,” a division frequently reflected in the literature below. Subfields within Roman archaeology include, for example, architecture, field excavation in Rome, Italy, or any of the provinces, pottery studies, sculpture, painting, and mosaics. The purpose of this entry is to acquaint the reader with major subdisciplines within Roman archaeology. Subdisciplines and sites discussed in separate bibliography entries are noted below.

scholarly journals Struggling with a Roman inheritance. A response to Versluys

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Hingley
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
The Body ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Roman Archaeology ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Innovative Research

I am very grateful to Miguel John Versluys for this paper, which raises several important issues that derive from current debates in Roman archaeology. I am aware of the context of Versluys's arguments as I am a contributor to the forthcoming volumeGlobalization and the Roman world(which Versluys has jointly edited; Pitts and Versluys 2014). I am pleased to be able to develop some of the themes outlined in my chapter for that volume (Hingley 2014b) through this reflection upon Versluys's contribution to the developing debate. The issues raised by Versluys are particularly timely since a number of younger colleagues have observed that the critical focus provided by what I shall term ‘post-colonial Roman archaeologies’ (PCRAs) is stifling innovative research. PCRA is the term I use to address the body of research and publication characterized by Versluys as ‘Anglo-Saxon Roman archaeology’ (for reasons given below). I did not attend the TRAC session at Frankfurt to which Versluys refers, but I recognize his observation that there is a genuine concern about the form and content of PCRAs arising from Roman archaeologists both in Britain and overseas. PCRAs have focused around two core themes: (1) critiquing the concept of Romanization and (2) the development of new ways of approaching the Roman Empire. Versluys suggests that this discussion has culminated in ‘an uncomfortable ending’ (p. 1) for the Romanization debate and his proposal includes the reintroduction of this concept. Taking a rather different perspective, I shall propose that a dynamic and transformative agenda is spreading across several continents and that PCRAs form an important aspect of this developing perspective.

What Graeco-Roman Grammar Was About

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. H. Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Parts Of Speech ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Secure Place ◽  
Present Understanding

This book explains how the grammarians of the Graeco-Roman world perceived the nature and structure of the languages they taught. The volume focuses primarily on the early centuries AD, a time when the Roman Empire was at its peak; in this period, a grammarian not only had a secure place in the ancient system of education, but could take for granted an established technical understanding of language. By delineating what that ancient model of grammar was, the book highlights both those aspects that have persisted to this day and seem reassuringly familiar, such as ‘parts of speech’, as well as those aspects that are wholly dissimilar to our present understanding of grammar and language.

Gender, Memory, and Identity in the Roman World

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Roman History ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Imperial Rome ◽  
The Past ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Material Sources ◽  
Close Relationship

This volume approaches three key concepts in Roman history — gender, memory and identity — and demonstrates the significance of their interaction in all social levels and during all periods of Imperial Rome. When societies, as well as individuals, form their identities, remembrance and references to the past play a significant role. The aim of Gender, Memory, and Identity in the Roman World is to cast light on the constructing and the maintaining of both public and private identities in the Roman Empire through memory, and to highlight, in particular, the role of gender in that process. While approaching this subject, the contributors to this volume scrutinise both the literature and material sources, pointing out how widespread the close relationship between gender, memory and identity was. A major aim of Gender, Memory, and Identity in the Roman World as a whole is to point out the significance of the interaction between these three concepts in both the upper and lower levels of Roman society, and how it remained an important question through the period from Augustus right into Late Antiquity.

Greek Strategies of Adaptation to the Roman World: The Case of the Contests

Mnemosyne ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 423-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophia Aneziri
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Imperial Cult ◽  
New Era ◽  
The Past ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Imperial Power

This article examines strategies that made it possible for Greek contests and the professionals who were engaged in them to retain their identity in the Roman Empire while they adapted to the circumstances of the new era. In their efforts to preserve and to enhance existing prestige and privilege, the organizers and others who were involved in the contests attempted both to exploit the past and to establish links to the new Roman power. The consequent linking of the Imperial cult with festivals, artists, athletes, and their associations provided tools that assisted the promotion of Imperial power and ideology.

Lead pollution and the Roman economy

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 354-364
Author(s):  
Damian Pavlyshyn ◽  
Iain Johnstone ◽  
Richard Saller
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Roman Economy ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Institutional Frameworks ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Industrial Societies ◽  
Somatic Energy

More than a decade ago, the Oxford Roman Economy Project (OXREP)1 and the Cambridge economic history of the Greco-Roman world put the question of the performance of the Roman economy at the center of historical debate, prompting a flood of books and articles attempting to assess the degree of growth in the economy.2 The issue is of sufficient importance that it has figured in the narratives of economists analyzing the impact of institutional frameworks on the potential for growth.3 As the debate has continued, there has been some convergence: most historians would agree that there was some Smithian growth as evidenced by urbanization and trade, while acknowledging that production remained predominantly agricultural and based primarily on somatic energy (i.e., human and animal).4 This is, of course, a very broad framework that does not differentiate the Roman empire from other complex pre-industrial societies. The challenge is to refine the analysis in order to put content into the broad description of “modest though significant growth”5 and to offer a deeper understanding of the dynamics of the economy.

Commemoration and Élite Benefaction of Buildings and Spectacles in the Roman World

2015 ◽  
Vol 105 ◽  
pp. 101-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Ng
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Motivating Factor ◽  
Epigraphic Evidence

AbstractCurrent scholarship on élite munificence in the Roman Empire often sees architectural benefactions as being at least partially driven by the élite desire for personal commemoration. I use juristic opinions from theDigestand other textual evidence related to building gifts to argue that there was an ancient understanding of the physical and symbolic ephemerality of architectural benefactions. In contrast, I present legal and epigraphic evidence to argue that there was an explicit expectation for gifts of spectacles and monetary distributions to be lasting memorials for their donors, and that the perpetuation of identity was also a motivating factor in the euergetic choice of a spectacle.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document