Remaking the Roman House, recasting social relations (original) (raw)

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The paper explores the multifunctional role of wealthy Roman town houses, particularly focusing on the Insula of The House of The Fountains in Beirut, during the period from the mid-fourth century to the first quarter of the sixth century. It examines how social and political changes influenced the architectural and spatial configurations of these dwellings, revealing insights into the occupants' aspirations and self-perceptions. The study highlights the dynamic processes of remodeling within the house, emphasizing the significance of circulation spaces in shaping social interactions and self-image.

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The Insula of the House of the Fountains in Beirut

2019

Berytus is an international peer-reviewed journal devoted to archaeological and ethnoarchaeological studies on Syria and Lebanon from prehistoric to Islamic times, but will also publish articles on neighbouring regions and in related fields. Berytus is published annually by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of the American University of Beirut (AUB). The subscription rate is US$ 30 per volume plus postage, payable by credit card or bank draft.

Gendelman P. and Porath Y. 2022. The Late Antique Mansion Occupying Insula W2S4 Caesarea Maritima. In W. Atrash, A. Overman and P. Gendelman eds. Cities, Monuments and Objects in the Roman and Byzantine Levant. Studies in Honour of Gabi Mazor. Oxford. Pp. 178-193.

W. Atrash, A. Overman and P. Gendelman eds. Cities, Monuments and Objects in the Roman and Byzantine Levant. Studies in Honour of Gabi Mazor. Oxford, 2022

The Late Antique mansion (late 4th/early 5th-first half of the 7th century AD) exposed by the IAA team during the 1990s within Insula W2S4, is the so far most extensively excavated elite dwelling of Late Antique Caesarea. The mansion includes a lavishly decorated living and hosting unit on its south, and a vast horreum-warehouse on its north. The living part consists of a peristyle court with a fountain, an additional court surrounded with living rooms, two triclinia of which one is a triconch flanked by rooms; all paved with multicolor tessellated and opus sectile mosaics, lined with marble and glass mosaics. All parts of the complex were connected by the east-west corridor, which also enabled access to the Low Garden facing the sea. The garden was adorned with a fountain and a pergola. The private bath of the owners and a piscina-fishpond, were partially exposed on the southernmost part of the mansion. Being the only extensively exposed upper-class residential complex, the Insula W2S4 mansion provides most valuable information about Caesarea elite dwellings. The size of the complex, the division into two units and the luxurious decoration indicate that the owners of the mansion were among the wealthiest and most influential Caesarea inhabitants, which likely held an office in the city council and/or in the provincial administration.

CAMINNECI V., PARELLO M.C. 2019, The bath in the Insula IV of the Hellenistic and Roman Quarter of Agrigento

AIAC XIX Bonn-Colonia 22-28 maggio 2018, Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Classical Archaeology,Volume 41: Agrigento: Archaeology of an Ancient City Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Classical Archaeology, Cologne/Bonn, 22 – 26 May 2018, Archaeology and Economy in the Ancient World Edited by Martin Bentz and Michael Heinzelmann, Volume 41 Edited by Luigi Caliò–Giuseppe Lepore, Agrigento: Archaeology of an ancient city.Urban form, sacred and civil spaces, productions, territory, Panel 8.2, Published at Propylaeum, Heidelberg University Library, pp.63-74.

The Ottoman Archaeology of the Beirut Souks

The excavations in downtown Beirut have had an international if not always favourable profile, articles have appeared and continue to appear in many respected popular and academic journals. Nearly all however deal with what has been described as the holy trinity of Lebanese archaeology, ie that which is essentially western in outlook and concerns the archaeological remains of the Romans, Greeks and Phoenicians. Later Islamic and Ottoman deposits have so far received little mention in published works, a situation which forces one to ask if this has been due to their absence from many sites or whether it has been removed wholesale with little archaeological record in order to rapidly gain access to what is commonly perceived to be the culturally “more important” classical material below? In this paper I hope to present a sample of the Later Mamluk and Ottoman archaeology encountered on three sites BEY 006, 007 and 045 excavated by an Anglo Lebanese team from the AUB and ACRE (Archaeological Collaboration for Research and Excavation) in downtown Beirut between 1995 and 1997.

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