Hai Ashkenazi, Omer Ze'evi-Berger, Boaz Gross, Guy D. Stiebel
{"title":"The Roman siege system of Masada: a 3D computerized analysis of a conflict landscape","authors":"Hai Ashkenazi, Omer Ze'evi-Berger, Boaz Gross, Guy D. Stiebel","doi":"10.1017/s1047759424000084","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1047759424000084","url":null,"abstract":"The 1st-c. CE Roman siege system of Masada exhibits a high degree of preservation due to its remote location and the arid climate. However, unlike the thoroughly excavated Masada fortress, the siege system has not received due attention. This article is part of a research project aimed at advancing our understanding of the conflict landscape around Masada using contemporary archaeological methods. Following a comprehensive surface survey and photogrammetric 3D modelling, we show that the circumvallation wall stood to a height of 2–2.5 m and served several functions – as an obstacle, a means of psychological warfare, and a platform from which to mount counterattacks. Based on our measurements and workload estimations, we argue that the construction of the siege wall and the camps around Masada occurred fairly quickly.","PeriodicalId":45533,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Roman Archaeology","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142190674","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Debating the domus ecclesiae at Dura-Europos: the Christian Building in context","authors":"Camille Leon Angelo, Joshua Silver","doi":"10.1017/s1047759424000126","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1047759424000126","url":null,"abstract":"<p>At Dura-Europos, homes were architecturally adapted across the late 2nd and 3rd c. CE by different religious groups to serve the needs of their communities. Although the Synagogue, Mithraeum, and Christian Building all began as domestic structures and share a similar architectural development, the origins of the latter have received unique attention through its classification as a <span>domus ecclesiae</span> or house church. This (hyper)focus on the structure's past use as a house does not do full justice to the archaeology of the building. Through an analysis of architectural adaptations, including before-and-after 3D reconstructions and daylight simulations, the authors show how the renovations significantly differentiated the Christian Building from its domestic antecedent and from Dura's houses more broadly. This approach is meant to shift attention away from more generalized, translocal, evolutionary models of Christian architectural development to micro-level archaeological analysis that situates structures within the spatial vernacular of their local contexts.</p>","PeriodicalId":45533,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Roman Archaeology","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141941998","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Louise Blanke, Pernille Bangsgaard, Stephen McPhillips, Raffaella Pappalardo, Tim Penn
{"title":"Down the drain: reconstructing social practice from the content of two sewers in a Late Antique bathhouse in Jerash, Jordan","authors":"Louise Blanke, Pernille Bangsgaard, Stephen McPhillips, Raffaella Pappalardo, Tim Penn","doi":"10.1017/s104775942400014x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s104775942400014x","url":null,"abstract":"This contribution examines social practices in the Central Bathhouse in Jerash in Late Antiquity based on the ceramic assemblage, vessel glass, faunal remains, and small finds retrieved from two sections of the bathhouse's sewer. We argue that although the bathhouse underwent significant architectural alterations from its construction in the 4th c. CE to its abandonment in the late 7th, the activities taking place inside the building remained largely the same. Our study shows that even towards the end of the bathhouse's lifespan, bodily grooming remained integral to the bathing experience, while food and drink were consumed on the premises even though the bathing facilities had been reduced to a bare minimum. The faunal remains indicate the type of food consumed, while the small finds illustrate a lively environment where gaming and gambling took place in a social space frequented by men, women, and children.","PeriodicalId":45533,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Roman Archaeology","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141505108","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On the inside looking out: gendered space and virtuous femininity in the Pompeian house","authors":"Kristina Milnor","doi":"10.1017/s1047759424000138","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1047759424000138","url":null,"abstract":"This paper considers the question of how to find “women's space” in the Roman house by looking at a painting of the myth of Pero and Mycon in a small cubiculum off the atrium of Pompeii's House of Marcus Lucretius Fronto. It argues that the combination of the image with an ecphrastic poem functions to draw viewers into the enclosed room, so that they experience the painting from a position of interiority. This echoes the interiority which is thematized in the myth and presented as an important aspect of the virtuous femininity it celebrates. By communicating gendered meaning through both images of place and the viewer's physical experience, the painting offers a way of understanding women's space as simultaneously material and representational.","PeriodicalId":45533,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Roman Archaeology","volume":"51 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141194657","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Antonio Monterroso-Checa, Claude Domergue, Christian Rico, Mar Zarzalejos-Prieto, Fernando Palero-Fernández, Sabine Klein, Isabel María García-Magdaleno, Pier Renato Trincherini, Massimo Gasparini, Francesca Marchegiani, Juan Carlos Moreno-Escribano, Stefano Nisi, José Rafael Ruiz-Arrebola
{"title":"La societas Sisaponensis, los lingotes de Doña Rama-Belmez y la explotación minera de los montes de Corduba","authors":"Antonio Monterroso-Checa, Claude Domergue, Christian Rico, Mar Zarzalejos-Prieto, Fernando Palero-Fernández, Sabine Klein, Isabel María García-Magdaleno, Pier Renato Trincherini, Massimo Gasparini, Francesca Marchegiani, Juan Carlos Moreno-Escribano, Stefano Nisi, José Rafael Ruiz-Arrebola","doi":"10.1017/s1047759424000035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1047759424000035","url":null,"abstract":"Resumen El objetivo principal de este trabajo es presentar importantes novedades sobre el marco histórico y productivo de la explotación minera de la sierra de <jats:italic>Corduba</jats:italic> en época romana, así como de la gestión de sus recursos. Desde hace años y a partir de la documentación epigráfica disponible, se ha venido apuntando una posible presencia en este territorio de la <jats:italic>societas Sisaponensis</jats:italic> y de la explotación de plomo y plata por su parte, a pesar de la afamada vinculación con el beneficio del cinabrio que recoge un conocido pasaje de Plinio. Nuestras investigaciones en el norte de Córdoba y los análisis arqueométricos realizados sobre tres lingotes de plomo recuperados en el paraje de Los Escoriales de Doña Rama, situado en la Sierra de Gata (Belmez-Córdoba), suponen una superación de la frontera del conocimiento sobre los aspectos reseñados, ya que permiten contrastar estas dos hipótesis tradicionales y proponer nuevas cuestiones sobre la explotación de estos parajes y la actividad de esta <jats:italic>societas</jats:italic>. Estos lingotes fueron encontrados en una instalación minero-metalúrgica romana, algo que es excepcional, y conservan una inscripción, S S, que los vincula sin duda con la <jats:italic>societas Sisaponensis.</jats:italic>","PeriodicalId":45533,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Roman Archaeology","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140833464","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Roman-period trade in ceramic building materials on the Levantine Mediterranean coast: evidence from a farmstead site near Ashqelon/Ascalon, Israel","authors":"Anat Cohen-Weinberger, Nir-Shimshon Paran, Itamar Taxel","doi":"10.1017/s1047759424000102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1047759424000102","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The production and distribution of ceramic building materials (CBM) in the Roman period have long attracted the attention of archaeologists, as they provide clues to aspects of trade, identity, and technological and architectural traditions. However, there has been a notable scarcity of studies focusing on plain CBM in the southern Levant, particularly in the Mediterranean coastal region. This study concentrates on CBM (bricks, tubuli, drainage pipes, and roof tiles) from a Roman-period wealthy farmstead (Khirbat Khaur el-Bak) near the city of Ashqelon/Ascalon, apparently owned by a serving member of the military or a veteran. The petrographic analyses indicate that apart from the locally produced drainage pipes, the CBM were imported from overseas, namely Cilicia and Beirut. The results shed light on CBM trade in the Eastern Mediterranean, and on the complex nature of the population and material life in and around Roman Ashqelon, which included local and foreign elements.</p>","PeriodicalId":45533,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Roman Archaeology","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140833460","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Muse of Zenon: from Syracuse to the Museum of Guadalajara","authors":"Julia Lenaghan, Patrick Lenaghan","doi":"10.1017/s1047759424000060","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1047759424000060","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article traces a statue, which Zenon of Aphrodisias carved, from Syracuse to its discovery at the Palace of Cogolludo in 2007. The study of this statue of the Muse Euterpe broadly demonstrates the appreciation for a figure from the classical world to Early Modern Europe and focuses attention on two understudied moments in the history of sculpture. It shows that Zenon carved the figure in the 4th c. CE, and its story reveals new connections between sculptors of Aphrodisias and specific patrons of the period. The statue's subsequent history attests to the high regard for ancient art and epigraphy in the Iberian Peninsula in 1500–1700. Since the statue probably belonged to Luis de la Cerda, ninth Duke of Medinaceli, it draws attention to a remarkable patron and a neglected aspect of Spanish cultural history.</p>","PeriodicalId":45533,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Roman Archaeology","volume":"76 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140811933","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Comparative advantage, specialized viticulture, and the economic development of Gallia Narbonensis","authors":"Candace M. Rice","doi":"10.1017/s1047759423000508","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1047759423000508","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores the processes of specialized viticulture in the province of Gallia Narbonensis over the first three centuries CE and brings this evidence to bear on broader economic questions, particularly as they relate to the effects of connectivity and globalization on Roman economic development. Evidence from small farms to sprawling villas suggests that specialized production stretched across multiple strata of society in Narbonensis, from so-called peasants to the wealthiest elites. The existence of specialized agricultural production at the scale documented in Narbonensis required significant demand, well-connected and integrated markets, sustained trade, and an awareness of these economic factors by the residents of the province. The evidence presented here demonstrates that the residents of Narbonensis recognized that they were part of an economic environment in which high levels of connectivity and integrated markets allowed them to pursue more profitable production strategies and that they pursued these opportunities.","PeriodicalId":45533,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Roman Archaeology","volume":"81 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139412534","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A monumental Archaic complex on the Sacra Via: a new interpretation of the domestic remains on the north Palatine slope","authors":"Amelia W. Eichengreen","doi":"10.1017/s1047759423000417","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1047759423000417","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents a new interpretation of the results of the 1980s excavations led by Andrea Carandini on the north Palatine slope. In contrast to Carandini's original reconstruction of the complex as four atrium houses, I propose one palatial complex on the Sacra Via that finds some parallels in recently excavated complexes elsewhere, like the Auditorium site in Rome and the Borgo at San Giovenale.","PeriodicalId":45533,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Roman Archaeology","volume":"53 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139412570","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"L'amphithéâtre de Lepti Minus: un acte de munificence locale","authors":"Lotfi Naddari, Najib Ben Lazreg","doi":"10.1017/s1047759423000466","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1047759423000466","url":null,"abstract":"RésuméUn texte récemment mis au jour dans les environs de Lepti Minus (Lamta, dans le Sahel tunisien), gravé sur sur la face principale d'une base de statue, apporte un éclairage substantiel concernant l’édification de l'amphithéâtre de la ville: le contexte d‘édification, la nature du financement et l'identité des évergètes qui l‘ont pris en charge. Il s'agit donc d'un hommage public que le <jats:italic>populus Leptitanorum</jats:italic> a rendu à <jats:italic>L. Octauius Felix</jats:italic>, un notable local, membre de l'ordre équestre, coopté en qualité de patron de la cité. Le texte présente ainsi des centres d'intérêt multiples: des considérations onomastiques et sociales, le cursus équestre du notable laptitain, <jats:italic>L. Octauius Felix</jats:italic>, du <jats:italic>primipilat</jats:italic>, à la préfecture du camp de la <jats:italic>Legio VII Gemina</jats:italic>, en Espagne, et a prise en charge de la construction de l'amphithéâtre.","PeriodicalId":45533,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Roman Archaeology","volume":"172 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139910393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}