Download or read book Urban Change in Late Antique Hispania written by Daniel K. Osland and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation focuses on the Roman city of Augusta Emerita, modern Mérida, Spain, as a case study for understanding changes in the culture, economy, and society of Hispania in late antiquity. The evidence presented here shows that some of the major cultural shifts that appear in the archaeological record for the sixth and seventh centuries have their roots in the fourth century, when Emerita was still fully integrated into the Roman Empire. This evidence also shows that Visigothic period residents were driven by a different set of values and interests from those that inspired urban investment in the Roman period, while the wealthy Christian hierarchy was a key stabilizing force throughout the Late Antique period. A presentation of the physical setting and the infrastructure of the Roman city serves as the foundation for my analysis of the ancient city of Emerita. Public buildings were important venues for elite display, at times even receiving attention from provincial and imperial officials, especially in the early Roman period. In the Late Roman period, the class that had built the Roman face of the city was also instrumental in the de-Romanization of Emerita, by permitting or even participating in the deconstruction and privatization of the public monuments and spaces. For the Visigothic period, archaeological and textual evidence, including the Vitae Patrum Emeritensium, both point to shifting venues for elite investment, away from structures associated with traditional Roman identity to those associated with Christianity. The elite of Visigothic Emerita expressed and enhanced their status not through further contributions to the city's Roman identity, but through new contributions to the promotion of Christian ideals. My unprecedented analysis of the ceramic record from a cross-section of Emerita's late antique sites has allowed me to provide new insights into changing trade networks, dining habits, and the technology of pottery production. I have included a discussion of the potential causes for, and ramifications of, these changes, in order to flesh out the image of the city that is cast by architectural remains and written sources. By offering a comprehensive analysis of the available evidence, this dissertation goes beyond the narrative of decline and stagnation that often frames discussion of the late antique West.
Download or read book Hispania in Late Antiquity written by Kim Bowes and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2005-07-01 with total page 660 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays on late Roman Hispania describes the relationships between the peninsula and the rest of the late antique world. Its contributors – archaeologists, historians, and historians of art – address both the historical evidence and the complex historiography of late antique Hispania.
Download or read book The Power of Cities written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-09-16 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Power of Cities is an interdisciplinary, cultural-comparative volume on Iberian urban studies. It is the first attempt to bring together recent research on the transformation of Iberian cities from Late Antiquity to the 18th century combining archaeological and historical sources.
Download or read book Urban Centers and Rural Contexts in Late Antiquity written by Thomas S. Burns and published by MSU Press. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent publications on urbanism and the rural environment in Late Antiquity, most of which explore a single region or narrow chronological niche, have emphasized either textual or archeological evidence. None has attempted the more ambitious task of bringing together the full range of such evidence within a multiregional perspective and around common themes. Urban Centers and Rural Contexts seeks to redress this omission. While ancient literature and the physical remains of cities attest to the power that urban values held over the lives of their inhabitants, the rural areas in which the majority of imperial citizens lived have not been well served by the historical record. Only recently have archeological excavations and integrated field surveys sufficiently enhanced our knowledge of the rural contexts to demonstrate the continuing interdependence of urban centers and rural communities in Late Antiquity. These new data call into question the conventional view that this interdependence progressively declined as a result of governmental crises, invasions, economic dislocation, and the success of Christianization. The essays in this volume require us to abandon the search for a single model of urban and rural change; to reevaluate the cities and towns of the Empire as centers of habitation, rather than archeological museums; and to reconsider the evidence of continuous and pervasive cultural change across the countryside. Deploying a wide range of material as well as literary evidence, the authors provide access not only into the world of élites, but also to the scarcely known lives of those without a voice in the literature, those men and women who worked in the shops, labored in the fields, and humbled themselves before their gods. They bring us closer to the complexity of life in late ancient communities and, in consequence, closer to both urban and rural citizens.
Download or read book Late Roman Spain and Its Cities written by Michael Kulikowski and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2011-01-03 with total page 517 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking history of Spain in late antiquity sheds new light on the fall of the western Roman empire and the emergence of medieval Europe. Historian Michael Kulikowski draws on the most recent archeological and literary evidence in this fresh an enlightening account of the Iberian Peninsula from A.D. 300 to 600. In so doing, he provides a definitive narrative that integrates late antique Spain into the broader history of the Roman empire. Kulikowski begins with a concise introduction to the early history of Roman Spain, and then turns to the Diocletianic reforms of 293 and their long-term implications for Roman administration and the political ambitions of post-Roman contenders. He goes on to examine the settlement of barbarian peoples in Spain, the end of Roman rule, and the imposition of Gothic power in the fifth and sixth centuries. In parallel to this narrative account, Kulikowski offers a wide-ranging thematic history, focusing on political power, Christianity, and urbanism. Kulikowski’s portrait of late Roman Spain offers some surprising conclusions, finding that the physical and social world of the Roman city continued well into the sixth century despite the decline of Roman power. Winner of an Honorable Mention in the Association of American Publishers’ Professional and Scholarly Publishing Awards in Classics and Archeology
Download or read book City Walls in Late Antiquity written by Emanuele Intagliata and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The construction of urban defences was one of the hallmarks of the late Roman and late-antique periods (300–600 AD) throughout the western and eastern empire. City walls were the most significant construction projects of their time and they redefined the urban landscape. Their appearance and monumental scale, as well as the cost of labour and material, are easily comparable to projects from the High Empire; however, urban circuits provided late-antique towns with a new means of self-representation. While their final appearance and construction techniques varied greatly, the cost involved and the dramatic impact that such projects had on the urban topography of late-antique cities mark city walls as one of the most important urban initiatives of the period. To-date, research on city walls in the two halves of the empire has highlighted chronological and regional variations, enabling scholars to rethink how and why urban circuits were built and functioned in Late Antiquity. Although these developments have made a significant contribution to the understanding of late-antique city walls, studies are often concerned with one single monument/small group of monuments or a particular region, and the issues raised do not usually lead to a broader perspective, creating an artificial divide between east and west. It is this broader understanding that this book seeks to provide. The volume and its contributions arise from a conference held at the British School at Rome and the Swedish Institute of Classical Studies in Rome on June 20-21, 2018. It includes articles from world-leading experts in late-antique history and archaeology and is based around important themes that emerged at the conference, such as construction, spolia-use, late-antique architecture, culture and urbanism, empire-wide changes in Late Antiquity, and the perception of this practice by local inhabitants.
Download or read book Urban Transformations in the Late Antique West Materials Agents and Models written by André Carneiro and published by Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra / Coimbra University Press. This book was released on with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is the fruit of a highly productive international research gathering academic and professional (field- and museum) colleagues to discuss new results and approaches, recent finds and alternative theoretical assessments of the period of transition and transformation of classical towns in Late Antiquity. Experts from an array of modern countries attended and presented to help compare and contrast critically archaeologies of diverse regions and to debate the qualities of the archaeology and the current modes of study. While a number of papers inevitably focused on evidence available for both Spain and Portugal, we were delighted to have a spread of contributions that extended the picture to other territories in the Late Roman West and Mediterranean. The emphasis was very much on the images presented by archaeology (rescue and research works, recent and past), but textual data were also brought into play by various contributors.
Download or read book Re using Ruins Public Building in the Cities of the Late Antique West A D 300 600 written by Douglas R. Underwood and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-04-09 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In (Re)using Ruins, Douglas Underwood presents the history of Roman urban public monuments in the Late Antique West, demonstrating that their vibrant, yet variable, development was closely tied to significant shifts in urban ideologies and euergetistic patterns.
Download or read book Cities and the Meanings of Late Antiquity written by Mark Humphries and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-11-04 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines how cities have become an area of significant historical debate about late antiquity, challenging accepted notions that it is a period of dynamic change and reasserting views of the era as one of decline and fall.
Download or read book Public Space in the Late Antique City written by Luke Lavan and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates the nature of 'public space' in Mediterranean cities, A.D. 284-650, meaning places where it was impossible to avoid meeting people from all parts of society, whether different religious confessions or social groups. 0The first volume considers the architectural form and everyday functions of streets, fora / agorai, market buildings, and shops, including a study of processions and everyday street life. 0The second volume analyses archaeological evidence for the construction, repair, use, and abandonment of these urban spaces, based on standardised principles of phasing and dating. The conclusions provide insights into the urban environment of Constantinople, an assessment of urban institutions and citizenship, and a consideration of the impact of Christianity on civic life at this time.
Download or read book Landscapes of Change written by Neil Christie and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-03-02 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Only in recent years has archaeology begun to examine in a coherent manner the transformation of the landscape from classical through to medieval times. In Landscapes of Change, leading scholars in the archaeology of the late antique and early medieval periods address the key results and directions of Roman rural fieldwork. In so doing, they highlight problems of analysis and interpretation whilst also identifying the variety of transformations that rural Europe experienced during and following the decline of Roman hegemony. Whilst documents and standing buildings predominate in the urban context to provide a coherent and tangible guide to the evolving urban form and its society since Roman times, the countryside in many ages remains rather shadowy - a context for the cultivation, gathering and movement of food and other resources, inhabited by farmers, villagers and miners. Whilst the Roman period is adequately served through occasional extant remains and through the survey and excavation of villas and farmsteads, as well as the writings of agronomists, the medieval one is generally well marked by the presence of still extant villages across Europe, often dependent on castles and manors which symbolise the so-called 'feudal' centuries. But the intervening period, the fourth to tenth centuries, is that with the least documentation and with the fewest survivals. What happened to the settlement units that made up the Roman rural world? When and why do new settlement forms emerge? Landscapes of Change is essential reading for anyone wanting an up-to-date summary of the results of archaeological and historical investigations into the changing countryside of the late Roman, late antique and early medieval world, between the fourth and tenth centuries AD. It questions numerous aspects of change and continuity, assessing the levels of impact of military and economic decay, the spread and influence of Christianity, and the role of Germanic, Slav and Arab settlements in disrupting and redefining the ancient rural landscapes.
Download or read book Change and Resilience written by Miguel Ángel Cau Ontiveros and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2019-06-30 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Change and Resilience offers a view of the main Mediterranean islands from West to East in Late Antiquity because Mediterranean islands can contribute in fundamental ways to our understanding not only of earlier colonizations but also later periods. The volume explores specifically the time frame from the fall of the Roman empire to the Medieval period. A first group of papers covers islands and island groups in the Central and Western Mediterranean, including the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, and the Adriatic islands. Together, these five papers highlight several common themes across the region: local or indigenous sites were often reoccupied in Late Antiquity, the rural countryside typically played a significant role in the contributions of islands to wider Mediterranean economic networks, and islands big and small often played significant roles in shifting political and religious power. The second group focuses on the Eastern Mediterranean. Three papers cover a range of islands, including Crete, the Cyclades, and Cyprus. Together they emphasize the impacts external shifts in political power and economic ties in the Eastern Mediterranean had on island landscapes, as well as the connected relationship between sacred space and territorial occupation across many of these islands. The final group of papers pivots on changing perceptions of island landscapes in Late Antiquityor island mindscapes. Three papers focus on how communities adapted as they underwent Christianization in island contexts, emphasizing the diverse and varied ways that island landscapes became Christianized, as well as how other political and economic factors shaped the dynamics of change.
Download or read book The Roman Villa in the Mediterranean Basin written by Annalisa Marzano and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-30 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers a comprehensive survey of Roman villas in Italy and the Mediterranean provinces of the Roman Empire, from their origins to the collapse of the Empire. The architecture of villas could be humble or grand, and sometimes luxurious. Villas were most often farms where wine, olive oil, cereals, and manufactured goods, among other products, were produced. They were also venues for hospitality, conversation, and thinking on pagan, and ultimately Christian, themes. Villas spread as the Empire grew. Like towns and cities, they became the means of power and assimilation, just as infrastructure, such as aqueducts and bridges, was transforming the Mediterranean into a Roman sea. The distinctive Roman/Italian villa type was transferred to the provinces, resulting in Mediterranean-wide culture of rural dwelling and work that further unified the Empire.
Download or read book Ostia in Late Antiquity written by Douglas Boin and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-07-22 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Ostia in Late Antiquity' narrates the life of Ostia Antica, Rome's ancient harbor, during the later empire.
Download or read book The Afterlife of the Roman City written by Hendrik W. Dey and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-11-17 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a new perspective on the evolution of cities across the Roman Empire in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages.
Download or read book The Iberian Peninsula Between 300 and 850 written by Javier Martínez Jiménez and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first work to address the end of Roman Hispania and the emergence of Medieval Spain from a principally archaeological perspective
Download or read book Using Images in Late Antiquity written by Stine Birk and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2014-04-30 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fifteen papers focus on the active and dynamic uses of images during the first millennium AD. They bring together an international group of scholars who situate the period’s visual practices within their political, religious, and social contexts. The contributors present a diverse range of evidence, including mosaics, sculpture, and architecture from all parts of the Mediterranean, from Spain in the west to Jordan in the east. Contributions span from the depiction of individuals on funerary monuments through monumental epigraphy, Constantine’s expropriation and symbolic re-use of earlier monuments, late antique collections of Classical statuary, and city personifications in mosaics to the topic of civic prosperity during the Theodosian period and dynastic representation during the Umayyad dynasty. Together they provide new insights into the central role of visual culture in the constitution of late antique societies.
