Pottery Manufacture in Roman Egypt: A New Papyrus

1981 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 87-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Cockle

Our knowledge of the pottery industry in ancient Egypt has so far been derived from sculptured reliefs showing potters at work, from a few excavations of kilns and from chemical analyses of pottery wares. Documentary evidence has now come to light in the form of three pottery leases from Oxyrhynchus, all dated to the middle of the third century a.d.They are so closely related in subject-matter, terminology, date and the names of the contracting parties that I publish in full only the earliest and most complete (which I shall refer to as A); but I include references to the more significant details of the other two (B and C). Their importance lies in the fact that they reveal a remarkably large scale industry, and also much concerning the techniques and terminology of the pottery industry, especially the names of the clays used and the sizes of the jars.


Britannia ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 295-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.J.A. Wilson

ABSTRACTThe fourth-century Rudston ‘aquatic’ mosaic is likely to show Oceanus at the centre rather than Neptune, and the dominant position of the head on the floor suggests that the inspiration for it derives, however remotely, from North African models where the scene was common. This is made more plausible by the fact that African influence, as is well known, is also detectable on the famous Venus mosaic by the same mosaicist in an adjacent room in the same building. At Brading, the central figure in the main reception room – a half-naked man with stick, globe and sundial – is identified, not just as a generic ‘philosopher’ type, but specifically as the third-century B.C. astronomer and poet, Aratus, on the basis of comparanda on mosaics, tapestry, silverware and in an illustrated manuscript of his work, thePhaenomena. It is further suggested that the key to reading the damaged larger part of the Brading floor above Aratus might be a Latin translation of his work, possibly that by Avienusc.A.D. 350, if the mosaic is indeed approximately of that date rather than earlier, and that the subject-matter of the panels alluded to constellations described in the poem. A very tentative attempt is made to identify what might have been depicted in the panels, on the basis of the mythology behind the constellations as explained in Latin adaptations of the poem: those of Perseus and Andromeda are illustrated in the surviving panel, and possibly Phaethon and Eridanus, Hercules and the serpent in the Garden of the Hesperides, and conceivably Pegasus at a spring were shown in the other three. It is also suggested that these unusual scenes might have been based on an illustrated manuscript of the work in the possession of thedominusat Brading. Be that as it may, the mosaic does appear to provide further evidence of the depth of classical learning displayed by at least some members of the Romano-British rural élite in the fourth century A.D.



2020 ◽  
pp. 13-61
Author(s):  
Natalia Małecka-Drozd

The 3rd millennium BC appears to be a key period of development of the historical settlement landscape in ancient Egypt. After the unification of the country, the process of disappearance of the predynastic socio-political structures and settlement patterns associated with them significantly accelerated. Old chiefdoms, along with their centres and elites, declined and vanished. On the other hand, new settlements emerging in various parts of the country were often strictly related to the central authorities and formation of the new territorial administration. Not negligible were climatic changes, which influenced the shifting of the ecumene. Although these changes were evolutionary in their nature, some important stages may be recognized. According to data obtained during surveys and excavations, there are a number of sites that were considerably impoverished and/or abandoned before and at the beginning of the Old Kingdom. On the other hand, during the Third and Fourth Dynasties some important Egyptian settlements have emerged in the sources and begun their prosperity. Architectural remains as well as written sources indicate the growing interest of the state in the hierarchy of landscape elements and territorial structure of the country.



1976 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Cunliffe

SummaryThe results of five seasons of excavation (1971–5) are summarized. A continuous strip 30–40 m. wide extending across the centre of the fort from one side to the other was completely excavated revealing pits, gullies, circular stake-built houses, rectangular buildings, and 2-, 4-, and 6-post structures, belonging to the period from the sixth to the end of the second century B.C. The types of structures are discussed. A sequence of development, based largely upon the stratification preserved behind the ramparts, is presented: in the sixth–fifth century the hill was occupied by small four-post ‘granaries’ possibly enclosed by a palisade. The first hill-fort rampart was built in the fifth century protecting houses, an area of storage pits, and a zone of 4-and 6-post buildings laid out in rows along streets. The rampart was heightened in the third century, after which pits continued to be dug and rows of circular houses were built. About 100 B.C. rectangular buildings, possibly of a religious nature, were erected, after which the site was virtually abandoned. Social and economic matters are considered. The excavation will continue.



Antiquity ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 88 (339) ◽  
pp. 126-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiuzhen Janice Li ◽  
Andrew Bevan ◽  
Marcos Martinón-Torres ◽  
Thilo Rehren ◽  
Wei Cao ◽  
...  

The Terracotta Army that protected the tomb of the Chinese emperor Qin Shihuang offers an evocative image of the power and organisation of the Qin armies who unified China through conquest in the third century BC. It also provides evidence for the craft production and administrative control that underpinned the Qin state. Bronze trigger mechanisms are all that remain of crossbows that once equipped certain kinds of warrior in the Terracotta Army. A metrical and spatial analysis of these triggers reveals that they were produced in batches and that these separate batches were thereafter possibly stored in an arsenal, but eventually were transported to the mausoleum to equip groups of terracotta crossbowmen in individual sectors of Pit 1. The trigger evidence for large-scale and highly organised production parallels that also documented for the manufacture of the bronze-tipped arrows and proposed for the terracotta figures themselves.



Author(s):  
Jan Aart Scholte

Globalization is one of the most hotly contested issues in contemporary social inquiry and public discussion. The debates mainly revolve around six points: definition, measurement, chronology, causes, consequences, and policy responses. In regard to definition, five broad usages of ’ globalization’ can be distinguished: internationalization, liberalization, universalization, Westernization, and deterritorialization. Although these conceptions overlap to some extent, their emphases are substantially different. With respect to magnitude, ’ globalists’ suggest that today’ s world is thoroughly globalized, whereas sceptics dismiss every claim of globalization as myth. Most observers agree that the incidence of globalization has been uneven, and that some countries and social circles have experienced globality more than others. The chronology of globalization depends in good part on the definition adopted. Internationalization, liberalization, universalization and Westernization can all be traced back at least several centuries, if not millennia. On the other hand, deterritorialization has transpired on a large scale only since the third quarter of the twentieth century. Accounts of the causal dynamics of globalization depend upon one’ s theoretical persuasion. However, most researchers explain globalization in some way as a product of modernity and/or capitalism. Many studies also highlight the enabling effects of certain technological developments and certain regulatory arrangements. In terms of its consequences for social structure, some analysts treat globalization as radically transformative. Such accounts link globalization to the end of the state, the end of nationality, the end of modernity, and more. In contrast, other assessments downplay any suggestion of social change in connection with globalization. Still others conclude that globalization generates an interplay of changes and continuities in social structure. Finally, in regard to policy, neoliberal approaches argue that globalization should be guided by market forces. In contrast, reformist strategies maintain that globalization should be deliberately steered with public policies, including in particular through suprastate laws and institutions. From a more radical position, traditionalists seek to ’ de-globalize’ and return to a pre-global status quo ante. Other radicals advocate a continuation of globalization, but in tandem with a revolutionary social transformation, for example, to a post-capitalist society.



2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (12) ◽  
pp. 3897-3912 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. D. DeJong ◽  
A. J. Ridley ◽  
C. R. Clauer

Abstract. During steady magnetospheric convection (SMC) events the magnetosphere is active, yet there are no data signatures of a large scale reconfiguration, such as a substorm. While this definition has been used for years it fails to elucidate the true physics that is occurring within the magnetosphere, which is that the dayside merging rate and the nightside reconnection rate balance. Thus, it is suggested that these events be renamed Balanced Reconnection Intervals (BRIs). This paper investigates four diverse BRI events that support the idea that new name for these events is needed. The 3–4 February 1998 event falls well into the classic definition of an SMC set forth by Sergeev et al. (1996), while the other challenge some previous notions about SMCs. The 15 February 1998 event fails to end with a substorm expansion and concludes as the magnetospheric activity slowly quiets. The third event, 22–23 December 2000, begins with a slow build up of magnetospheric activity, thus there is no initiating substorm expansion. The last event, 17 February 1998, is more active (larger AE, AL and cross polar cap potential) than previously studied SMCs. It also has more small scale activity than the other events studied here.



2009 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 130-156
Author(s):  
Lisa Trentin

The private collection of the Villa Albani-Torlonia in Rome holds the only surviving large-scale sculpture of a hunchback [fig. i]. Although this hunchback has been intensely studied, it remains enigmatic. The hunchback is generally agreed to be Roman and dated to the second century CE on the basis of its portrait head, particularly in the drilling technique of its hairstyle, though the realism of its misshapen and ugly body is in the direct tradition of works of the third century BCE.Whether this hunchback is an original of its time or a copy of a now lost Greek work is still contentious. Since its discovery in the Baths of Caracalla, the figure has been identified as the famous Greek fabulist Aesop, who, according to literary tradition, may have been a hunchback. Although several scholars have suggested new possibilities for the identity of this hunchback, including the proposition that it is a Roman original representing a jester of the imperial court, its association with Aesop has remained. But is its identity necessarily key to understanding its significance? This article intends to move away from the identification of this figure to consider the hunchback primarily as a type, rather than a person, and shifts the emphasis to its context within a bathhouse.



1883 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 156-157
Author(s):  
P. G.

Among the objects brought from Tarentum by the Rev. G. J. Chester are certain disks of clay of some interest, though not of artistic value. They are circular and flat or cheese-like in form, with a diameter of 3½ to 3¾ inches, and a thickness of about ¾ of an inch. The inscriptions are impressed in the clay by means of a stamp, and run thus:The order in date is that followed in the list. No. 1 is oldest, and the shape of the м seems to indicate that it may date from the fourth century B.C.; the other three are probably not earlier than the third century. Later they can scarcely be, for after that time the obol gave way to the Roman denarius and sestertius as a measure of value at Tarentum.



1993 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 491-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. W. Burgess

The Kaisergeschichte (KG) was a set of short imperial biographies extending from Augustus to the death of Constantine, probably written between 337 and c. 340. It no longer exists but its existence can be deduced from other surviving works. Amongst the histories of the fourth century – Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, Festus, Jerome's Chronici canones, the Historia Augusta, the Epitome de Caesaribus, and, in places, even Ammianus Marcellinus and perhaps the Origo Constantini imperatoris (Anonymi Valesiani pars prior) – there is a common selection of facts and errors, and common wording and phrasing in their narratives between Augustus and the death of Constantine, especially in their accounts of the third century. A natural assumption is that later historians copied earlier ones, yet later historians include information not contained in earlier ones, and historians who could not have known each other's work share similarities. For example, it looks as though Aurelius Victor was copying Eutropius, yet Victor wrote before Eutropius, and Eutropius contains information not in Victor and does not reproduce Victor's peculiar style or personal biases, things which he could hardly have avoided. Therefore Eutropius cannot be copying Victor. Since neither could have copied the other, there must therefore have been a common source. In his Chronici canones Jerome appears at first to be simply copying Eutropius. Yet when he deviates from Eutropius, his deviations usually mirror other histories, such as Suetonius, Victor, Festus, even the Epitome and the Historia Augusta, two works that had not even been written when Jerome compiled his chronicle and that did not use, and would never have used, the Christian chronicle as a source. Jerome was hurriedly dictating to his secretary, he had no time to peruse four or five works at a time for his brief notices. There must have been a single source that contained both the Eutropian material and the deviations common to Jerome and the other works. That source was the KG. It is the purpose of this paper to add to the above list of authors who relied upon the KG two other writers whose work can be shown to have derived, either at first hand or later, from the KG: Polemius Silvius and Ausonius.



2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Kacprzak

JULIAN, ULPIAN AND THE ATYPICAL LOAN: ON ANALOGY AS APPLIED IN LEGAL REASONINGSummary The paper concerns the legal controversy as to the possibility of transforming a debt that is due under a contract of mandate or any other consensual contract into a loan by means of a bare agreement (pactum). Under such an agreement the creditor would entitle his debtor to keep the equivalent of the debt – which already existed between them – as a loan. The discussion took place between Julian, the eminent jurist of the midsecond-century A.D, and Ulpian, the jurist of the first half of the third century A.D. Julian argued against the possibility of classifying the contract in question as a loan. His arguments were based on analogy, distinction, and reductio ad absurdum (D.17,1,34 pr.). Ulpian, on the other hand, defended the possibility that was ruled out by his predecessor. Interestingly enough, the latter relies on analogy as his main argument as well. His conclusion is drawn, however, from analogy with the very same situation which Julian considered distinct from the case in question (D. 12,1,15). In the article, it is argued that this diversity of opinions can be explained by the different interpretations of the characteristic of the loan as a real contract. From Julian’s standpoint, this characteristic required the loan to be the title of acquisition by the borrower of ownership of money or things that are thereby considered the object of the loan: if the money or things were acquired on any other grounds, no loan could be construed (not to mention the case where the debtor does not – materially – acquire any money at all). Ulpian, on the other hand, was concerned not as much with the material substrate of the loan as with the economical calculus: in this perspective, indeed, the agreement – which tended to replace the hitherto debt by the loan-debt of the same amount – turned out to be a perfect substitution of a double payment, which would lead to the same effect. It is important to note one of the consequences to which Ulpian’s reasoning could lead: the possibility that someone who has never obtained any money from anyone or indeed never had them, nevertheless could be considered to have borrowed them (e.g. someone obliged to pay damages is entitled by the creditor to keep the amounts due as a loan of money that he never materially obtained). In order to accept this consequence, some serious redefinition of the concept of the loan as a real contract seems necessary, to say the least. The paper argues that – when ruling out the transformation – Julian strove to avoid accepting this very consequence.



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