Jeroen Poblome
Phone: +3216324749
Address: Department of Archaeology
University of Leuven
Blijde Inkomststraat 21/3314
BE-3000 Leuven
Address: Department of Archaeology
University of Leuven
Blijde Inkomststraat 21/3314
BE-3000 Leuven
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arrival of the oldest of these fragments coincides with a phase of development of the urban fabric of Sagalassos and its associated material culture. It is suggested that the appearance of amphorae at Sagalassos and the associated participation in wider trade networks is one attestation of a wider transition phase, signifying a shift from the primordial roles of individual households towards the workings of the newly developing urban community as a whole.
archaeological discipline can hardly be overstated. In this paper, we discuss the pottery found at the settlement at Düzen Tepe (SW Anatolia), following the template of the well-established typological and fabric identification practices developed by the Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project for the Sagalassos Red Slip Ware production from Roman imperial times. A newly devised typology of the late Achaemenid to early Hellenistic (5th to 2nd centuries BCE) material of Düzen Tepe is presented. Comparisons with parallels in pottery material indicate that this material was firmly embedded in a (southwestern) Anatolian framework, generally matching a chronological window from the fourth to third centuries BCE.
related cultural practices have become increasingly popular in archaeology. In this paper we contribute to this body of research by examining the foodways at Düzen Tepe. This late Achaemenid-early Hellenistic site in the ancient region of Pisidia (SW Anatolia) was discovered, excavated and studied by the Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project (KU Leuven). This resulted in extensive datasets which allow for a detailed reconstruction on the diet and food practices at this settlement. Wine consumption, examined via ceramic drinking vessels and archaeobotanical remains, seemingly took place in an Anatolian sphere under Achaemenid influence. Dining culture, in turn, is best characterized as a simple cuisine mainly serving ‘wet meals’ such as stews, soups and porridges which were ladled out of an incurved rim bowl with a spoon or piece of flat bread. As food consumption is considered being a significant aspect of cultural practices, this paper will look into the diet and foodways to deduce to which culture the inhabitants of Düzen Tepe belonged.
the local community, in providing the stage for the familiar fusion of commerce, politics,
administration and cult that characterised urban life in antiquity. The current state of the
agora, as it has been unearthed by archaeologists, is the product of centuries of monumental
accretion, re-arrangement, make-over and removal, making it an excellent platform for
the diachronic study of urban development. In this sense, the Upper Agora constitutes an
architectural manifestation of processes of urbanisation and community formation that
occurred at this ancient settlement.
In 2014, a two-year programme of control excavations was initiated in order to
complete reconstructing the chronology of origin, construction and changes to the public
square, as well as to finalise the excavation and study of the surrounding public buildings
and monuments. It is the aim of this paper to present the preliminary results of these targeted
small-scale excavations conducted during the campaigns of 2014 and 2015 in a sequence of
seven chronological phases, representing the occupation history of the square and its immediate
surroundings between the 3rd century BCE and the 7th century CE.
arrival of the oldest of these fragments coincides with a phase of development of the urban fabric of Sagalassos and its associated material culture. It is suggested that the appearance of amphorae at Sagalassos and the associated participation in wider trade networks is one attestation of a wider transition phase, signifying a shift from the primordial roles of individual households towards the workings of the newly developing urban community as a whole.
archaeological discipline can hardly be overstated. In this paper, we discuss the pottery found at the settlement at Düzen Tepe (SW Anatolia), following the template of the well-established typological and fabric identification practices developed by the Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project for the Sagalassos Red Slip Ware production from Roman imperial times. A newly devised typology of the late Achaemenid to early Hellenistic (5th to 2nd centuries BCE) material of Düzen Tepe is presented. Comparisons with parallels in pottery material indicate that this material was firmly embedded in a (southwestern) Anatolian framework, generally matching a chronological window from the fourth to third centuries BCE.
related cultural practices have become increasingly popular in archaeology. In this paper we contribute to this body of research by examining the foodways at Düzen Tepe. This late Achaemenid-early Hellenistic site in the ancient region of Pisidia (SW Anatolia) was discovered, excavated and studied by the Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project (KU Leuven). This resulted in extensive datasets which allow for a detailed reconstruction on the diet and food practices at this settlement. Wine consumption, examined via ceramic drinking vessels and archaeobotanical remains, seemingly took place in an Anatolian sphere under Achaemenid influence. Dining culture, in turn, is best characterized as a simple cuisine mainly serving ‘wet meals’ such as stews, soups and porridges which were ladled out of an incurved rim bowl with a spoon or piece of flat bread. As food consumption is considered being a significant aspect of cultural practices, this paper will look into the diet and foodways to deduce to which culture the inhabitants of Düzen Tepe belonged.
the local community, in providing the stage for the familiar fusion of commerce, politics,
administration and cult that characterised urban life in antiquity. The current state of the
agora, as it has been unearthed by archaeologists, is the product of centuries of monumental
accretion, re-arrangement, make-over and removal, making it an excellent platform for
the diachronic study of urban development. In this sense, the Upper Agora constitutes an
architectural manifestation of processes of urbanisation and community formation that
occurred at this ancient settlement.
In 2014, a two-year programme of control excavations was initiated in order to
complete reconstructing the chronology of origin, construction and changes to the public
square, as well as to finalise the excavation and study of the surrounding public buildings
and monuments. It is the aim of this paper to present the preliminary results of these targeted
small-scale excavations conducted during the campaigns of 2014 and 2015 in a sequence of
seven chronological phases, representing the occupation history of the square and its immediate
surroundings between the 3rd century BCE and the 7th century CE.
One of the most robust patterns observed in the collected ceramic tableware data in the Roman East is the variability of distribution patterns of different tablewares (products characterised by a distinct clay fabric and produced in different centres). Some wares such as Eastern Sigillata A were distributed on a supra-regional scale for centuries, others were of somewhat more restricted importance (Eastern Sigillatas B, C, and D), whilst yet other wares were purely produced for local consumption (e.g. Boeotian tablewares). What were the mechanisms that led to these strong differences in the wideness of products’ distribution patterns? A number of hypotheses have been published identifying and coupling possible contributing factors, including the role of social networks in allowing for the flow of information and goods both within and between markets. Most scholars seem to agree that a complex mix of mechanisms working on multiple levels was responsible for the considerable differences in tableware distribution patterns. However, these mechanisms remain untested given the need in Roman studies for workable methods that allow for expressing and evaluating a complex mix of hypothetical processes to better understand archaeologically attested large-scale distribution patterns (Davies 2005; Morris et al. 2007).
This paper aims to evaluate aspects of two such hypotheses: Bang’s (2008) claim that differences in the distribution of tablewares can be the result of weak market integration, and Temin’s (2013) opposing claim that the markets in the Roman world were well-integrated. It presents an agent-based network model simulating the social networks which enable the flow of information and goods between traders. The model by Jin and colleagues (2001) is modified to create social networks of traders on different markets, where different degrees of market integration can be enforced by modifying the value of one variable. The results of experiments with variable degrees of market integration are subsequently compared to the tableware data collected in the ICRATES database (Bes and Poblome 2008). The results suggest that, contrary to Bang’s hypothesis, limited availability of reliable commercial information from different markets is unlikely to give rise to the large differences in the wideness of tableware distributions observed in the archaeological record. A degree of market integration is necessary (between 12-40% of all transactions according to the model). However, it also emphasises the importance of intra-market transactions (60-88% of all transactions). Moreover, tablewares produced close to large urban centres will have a much higher probability of being distributed to many sites than tablewares produced close to small urban centres. We conclude that agent-based network modelling provides scholars of Roman trade a tool for expressing aspects of their hypotheses and that future work should focus on factors driving market integration against a dominant background of local market-based trade.
This paper concludes that the study of the Roman economy would very much benefit from embracing computational modelling approaches because (i) it forces scholars to consider the comparability of descriptive models, (ii) it allows comparison of simulated outputs with archaeologically observed outputs, and (iii) it allows to map out the grey zone between extreme hypotheses and refocus our descriptive models away from hypotheses that do not compare favourably with the archaeological record.
Keywords: roman economy, ceramics, agent-based modelling, network science
References
Bang, P. F. (2008). The Roman bazaar, a comparative study of trade and markets in a tributary empire. Cambridge: Cambridge university press.
Bes, P. M., & Poblome, J. (2008). (Not) see the Wood for the Trees? 19,000+ Sherds of Tablewares and what we can do with them. In Rei Cretariae Romanae Fautores Acta 40 (pp. 505–514). Bonn.
Davies, J. K. (2005). Linear and nonlinear flow models for ancient economies. In J. G. Manning & I. Morris (Eds.), (pp. 127–156). Stanford.
Jin, E. M., Girvan, M., & Newman, M. E. (2001). Structure of growing social networks. Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics, 64(4 Pt 2), 046132.
Morris, I., Saller, R. P., & Scheidel, W. (2007). Introduction. In W. Scheidel, I. Morris, & R. P. Saller (Eds.), The Cambridge economic history of the Greco-Roman world (pp. 1–12). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Temin, P. (2013). The Roman Market Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
focuses on the sherd’s profile and the other that examines visual features of the sherd’s surface. The
methods are validated using a set of pottery sherds that were collected during surveys at the ancient site of
Koroneia (Greece), which were carried out by the ‘Ancient Cities of Boeotia’ team (under the directorship
of Professor J. Bintliff). Both automatic classification techniques produce good results using different
sherd classification criteria, such as shape, production technique and chronology.
coherence, interplay and (dis-)continuity between town and country in times of rapid and seemingly far-reaching socio-economic transformation: in which way did the foundation of colonies subvert traditional systems of production and exchange? How did settlement
hierarchies change during late antiquity and how did this affect economic interrelations? We welcome contributions dealing with different periods and different areas within the Mediterranean, and are particularly interested in papers that present methodological innovations that enhance more traditional studies on settlement patterning and ceramic distributions.