Space and Society at Morgantina: An Analysis of Urban Form, Meaning, and Ideology from the Fifth to Second Centuries B.C. (original) (raw)
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Morgantina in central Sicily has been the site of human activity since the Neolithic era and settlement since at least the Bronze Age. However, the periods of its history best known to archaeologists are the Iron Age, Archaic, Hellenistic, and Roman. Employing the settlement component of Franco De Angelis’ proposed model for understanding ancient state formation, this paper analyzes patterns in the settlement data across these periods according to categories of domestic, agoratic, sacred, and fortified space. It concludes that Morgantina’s settlement type best fits that of a town. This paper was developed as part of a group project in Dr. Franco De Angelis' Fall 2014 graduate seminar on the formation of the Greek polis. Each student chose a topic in the areas of settlement, economy and society that bear upon state formation at Morgantina and were expected to make use of each other's research. As such, this paper cites student presentations (in particularly that of Brad Morrison on demography) in addition to published academic sources.
Urban Space and Urban History in the Roman World
2020
This volume investigates how urban growth and prosperity transformed the cities of the Roman Mediterranean in the last centuries BCE and the fi rst centuries CE, integrating debates about Roman urban space with discourse on Roman urban history. The contributions explore how these cities developed landscapes full of civic memory and ritual, saw commercial priorities transforming the urban environment, and began to expand signifi cantly beyond their wall circuits. These interrelated developments not only changed how cities looked and could be experienced, but they also affected the functioning of the urban community and together contributed to keeping increasingly complex urban communities socially cohesive. By focusing on the transformation of urban landscapes in the Late Republican and Imperial periods, the volume adds a new, explicitly historical angle to current debates about urban space in Roman studies. Confronting archaeological and historical approaches, the volume presents developments in Italy, Africa, Greece, and Asia Minor, thus significantly broadening the geographical scope of the discussion and offering novel theoretical perspectives alongside well- documented, thematic case studies. Urban Space and Urban History in the Roman World will be of interest to anyone working on Roman urbanism or Roman history in the Late Republic and early Empire.
The Impact of Roman Rule on the Urban System of Sicily
Regional Urban Systems in the Roman World, 150 BCE - 250 CE, 2020
The principal aim of this paper is to study the gradual transformation of the urban system of Sicily which took place after the imposition of Roman rule in the second half of the third century BCE. The most recent study covering this topic is Roger Wilson's survey article which carries the ambitious title 'Changes in the pattern of urban settlement in Roman, Byzantine and Arab Sicily' .1 Wilson's treatment can only be described as absolutely excellent, but more than thirty years have passed since its publication. In this paper I want to reexamine the evolution of Sicily's urban system in the light of new archaeological research carried out during the past three decades. My second goal is to provide an explanation, or explanations, for the striking realignments in the urban system of the island which can be observed between late-Classical times and the early third century CE. * This article could not have been written without the generous support provided by many Sicilian friends and colleagues from whom I single out Oscar Belvedere and Aurelio Burgio. Special thanks are also owed to Lorenzo Campagna, Annapaola Mosca and Alessio Toscano Raffa for providing me with important publications on urbanism in Hellenistic and Roman Sicily.
The city in southeast Italy. Ancient topography and the evolution of urban settlement 600-300 BC
Accordia Research Papers 4 (1993): 63-77, 1993
A significant number of the ancient sites of southeast Italy are settlements of substantial size, showing evidence of a degree of economic and cultural complexity which is often associated with urbanisation. However, their appearance, layout and internal organisation is very different from that of the Greek or Roman city, and they are rarely described as cities, but as pre- or proto-urban settlements. This paper examines definitions of urbanisation, and questions whether scholars are more willing to attribute urban status to settlements which conform to ideas of urban life derived from Greek and Roman norms.
Conference: Urban life and the built environment in the Roman world - Leiden, 7-9 December 2016
This conference builds upon recent and ongoing discourse in the study of Roman urbanism to explore the relation between architecture and society in the Roman world. While recent decades have seen spectacular developments in the theories and concepts that inform the study of Roman urbanism, not all spheres of urban life have profited equally, a lot of discourse has gravitated around a limited number of showcase sites (particularly Pompeii and Ostia), and there have been relatively few attempts to draw links with the world beyond Central Italy. This conference focuses on four spheres of activities—religion, politics, commerce, and movement—and brings together specialists focusing on several parts of the Roman world, with a particular focus on the more densely urbanized regions in the Mediterranean. Approaches will vary between micro-scale and more wide-ranging, and issues on the agenda particularly include the identification of regional trends, and the impact of urban development on local communities. Confirmed speakers include Touatia Amraoui, Marlis Arnhold, Eleanor Betts, Chris Dickenson, Elizabeth Fentress, Miko Flohr, Annette Haug, Patric-Alexander Kreuz, Simon Malmberg, Stephan Mols, Eric Moormann, Cristina Murer, Candace Rice, Amy Russell, Saskia Stevens, Christina Williamson, Andrew Wilson, and Sandra Zanella. A detailed program can be found below the break. PROGRAMME Wednesday 7 December Gravensteen (Pieterskerkhof 6), Room 1.11 I. Urban life between theory and practice Chair: Eric Moormann, Radboud University 14:15 – 14:45 Introduction: Urbanism, urban space, and urban life (Miko Flohr, Leiden University) 14:45 – 15:30 Multisensory approaches to Roman urban space (Eleanor Betts, Open University (UK)) 16:00 – 16:45 Emotion and the City: the example of Pompeii (Annette Haug, University of Kiel) 16:45 – 17:30 Rome – the Moving City: Approaches to the Study of Urban Space (Simon Malmberg, University of Bergen) Thursday 8 December Gravensteen (Pieterskerkhof 6), Room 0.11 II. Urbanism and the sacred Chair: Tesse Stek, Leiden University 10:00 – 10:45 Urbanizing the sacred landscape. Rural sanctuary complexes in Asia Minor (Christina Williamson, Groningen University) 11:15 – 12:00 Religion in the urbs: Defining the special case of Imperial Rome beyond the political centre (Marlis Arnhold, University of Bonn) 12:00 – 12:45 The Economy of the Sacred (Elizabeth Fentress, Rome). III. Landscapes and Citizens Chair: Luuk de Ligt, Leiden University 14:00 – 14:45 Topographical permeability and dynamics of public space in Roman Minturnae (Patric-Alexander Kreuz, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Amman) 14:45 – 15:30 Statues and public life in the cities of Roman Greece: Athens, Corinth and Messene (Chris Dickenson, University of Oxford) 16:00 – 16:45 Political space and the experience of citizenship in Republican Rome: monumentality, interpellation, and performance (Amy Russell, Durham University) 16:45 – 17:30 Female Citizens and Cityscaping in Africa Proconsularis (Cristina Murer, Free University, Berlin) Friday 9 December Gravensteen (Pieterskerkhof 6), Room 0.11 IV. Landscapes of Interaction Chair: Nathalie de Haan, Radboud University Nijmegen 09:30 – 10:15 The urban borderscape as an arena for social, political and cultural interaction (Saskia Stevens, University of Utrecht) 10:15 – 11:00 I risultati delle recenti indagini in una zona suburbana di Pompei. Per una rilettura del dato topografico (Sandra Zanella, Université Montpellier – Labex Archimede) 11:30 – 12:15 Roman roads as indicators of urban life: the case of the Via Appia near Rome (Stephan Mols & Eric Moormann, Radboud University Nijmegen) 12:15 – 13:00 The commercial landscape of Roman ports (Candace Rice, University of Edinburgh) Chair: Tyler Franconi, University of Oxford 14:00 – 14:45 Urban workshops in Roman Africa: location, ownership and management (Touatia Amraoui, Casa de Velázquez, Madrid) 14:45 – 15:30 Fora and commerce in Roman Italy (Miko Flohr, University of Leiden) V. Concluding Remarks & General Discussion Chair: Tyler Franconi, University of Oxford 16:00 – 16:20 Concluding Remarks (Andrew Wilson, University of Oxford) 16:20 – 17:00 General Discussion
Marsala's Hinterland: The Evolution of Roman Settlement in Western Sicily
2015
This thesis comprises a study of the evolution of human settlement in the hinterland of Marsala, in western Sicily, during the island's period of Roman control. The years between the third century BCE–eighth century CE were a period of frequent and significant change. Paradoxically, they are also a period during which Sicily is comparatively little known. A variety of factors have conspired to minimize scholarly attention on Roman Sicily, and as such, the ways in which the island responded to events in the wider Roman Mediterranean. Among the aims of the Marsala Hinterland Survey—an archaeological survey project active between 2007–2010—was to redress this imbalance. On the basis of ceramic materials collected during surface survey, and analyzed using Geographical Information Systems software, I reconstruct the history of settlement in the area of the survey's activity. This history, I go on to demonstrate, is characterized by an impressive degree of continuity, both in resp...
2020
This paper aims to analyse the Etruscan city of Marzabotto, the ancient Kainua, with an integrated approach which considers all the aspects, from the urban layout to sacred and domestic architecture, handcraft production, identity values, and social structure. The quality and variety of the data collected permit the virtual recreation of the whole Etruscan city, based on theoretical principles and a rigorous archaeological analysis. The virtual Kainua is first of all an analysis tool. As a matter of fact, through forms of interactivity and simulations the virtual model allows us to formulate important considerations about historical and social issues.
This paper aims to analyse the Etruscan city of Marzabotto, the ancient Kainua, with an integrated approach which considers all the aspects, from the urban layout to sacred and domestic architecture, handcraft production, identity values, and social structure. The quality and variety of the data collected permit the virtual recreation of the whole Etruscan city, based on theoretical principles and a rigorous archaeological analysis. The virtual Kainua is first of all an analysis tool. As a matter of fact, through forms of interactivity and simulations the virtual model allows us to formulate important considerations about historical and social issues.