Art History and Archaeology

The 1970s and 1980s witnessed an explosion of interest in the archaeology of Republican and earlier Latium. The results of this wave of work, which was conducted primarily by Italian teams, were presented at large conferences and published in landmark volumes. In recent decades, however, this coherent program of research and divulgation has to a certain extent disintegrated. While excavations and surveys continue to be carried out throughout the region, their results are seldom presented with the thematic unity and depth that characterized earlier efforts. In an attempt to return to and extend the impetus of the golden years of the archaeology of Latium, we bring together members of four large research projects for the first of a series of open discussions on the state of the art in the field. The theme of this initial meeting focuses on the theoretical and methodological innovations in the archaeology of Latium. The complex record from the region poses significant research challenges; key Republican and earlier sequences at many sites are difficult to access, and continued development is threatening entire landscapes. Research projects both old and new have met these challenges by adapting or developing progressive theoretical approaches and survey and excavation techniques. The panelists represent three large-scale urban excavations (Gabii; Rome-S. Omobono; Satricum) and a regional survey (Hidden Landscapes Project) that have made important contributions to the archaeology of Latium in recent years. The discussant, Christopher Smith, has produced seminal syntheses of the archaeology and history of the region and, as Director of the British School at Rome, is intimately familiar with how research on Republican and earlier Latium has been evolving.

5th International Workshop on the Archaeology of Roman Construction - Arquelogía de la Construcción V: Man-made materials, engineering and infrastructure, 11-12 April 2015 University of Oxford, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, Oxford

Concrete is regarded as a quintessentially Roman achievement. The spread of the technology is usually dated to the fourth or third centuries B.C., and interpreted as a symptom of Rome’s early expansion in Italy. In this paper I offer a reappraisal of the
available evidence for early concrete construction in Rome. On the basis of stratigraphic evidence, I conclude that a later date should be assigned to most of the remains. I situate the origins of the technological innovation within the radical change in
architectural styles that unfolded in the middle of the second century B.C., affecting both domestic architecture and public building. The new chronology has an impact on current models of cultural diffusion in Roman Italy, linking the development of Late Republican architecture with the broader debate on the cultural implications of the Roman conquest.