Roman Architecture and Urbanism

No âmbito da investigação sobre povos e lugares do mundo pré-romano e romano do Ocidente hispânico, os problemas relativos aos Lancienses da Lusitânia constituem um dos tópicos que originaram mais ampla discussão e maior diversidade de propostas. Na sequência de um conjunto considerável de intervenções arqueológicas na Beira Interior, perspectivaram-se novas hipóteses e estabeleceu-se já, com bases sólidas, a identificação da sede dos Lancienses Transcudani com os vestígios subsistentes no sítio do Mileu, Guarda, cujos fundamentos aqui se sintetizam e reforçam. Reanalisando a documentação atinente aos Lancienses Oppidani, enunciam-se as razões da sua identidade com os Ocelenses e sistematizam-se os argumentos que sustentam a sua localização no território correspondente, de forma aproximada, à Cova da Beira. Por outro lado, reinterpretando-se os restos materiais descobertos na chamada Torre de Centum Celas e sua envolvência, aponta-se este lugar como a sede desta última entidade.

This paper offers an overview about the urban landscape of Roman
Spain from the beginning of the Roman presence until the end of the 1st century AD. For the republican period, highlights the importance of the walls as defining element of the urban space and the dominance of the capitol. The profound transformationof urban landscape is analyzed, from the reign of Augustus and throughout the Julio‑Claudian and Flavian dynasties, including the provincial capitals and a wide
selection of cities, with the most recent developments.

Much has been written about gentrification in the contemporary world, but far less work has interrogated whether a similar type of renewal can be observed in different places or periods. This article explores the archaeological application of this concept to the cities of Roman North Africa. Three baseline characteristics are identified for the gentrification process: the displacement of less affluent communities, transformations to the overall character of the built environment, and subsequent waves of gentrifying elites. Making use of the wealth of data for elite domestic construction in North Africa, I first demonstrate the archaeological traces of physical alterations that can be associated with these three factors—that is, evidence for the architectural dynamics of Roman gentrification. I then rely on queries provided by modern gentrification studies to explore the social dynamics of who is involved and why only some neighborhoods are gentrifiable. The resulting discussion highlights the contradictory trends and competing processes that are central to urban regeneration in the Roman world and best situated within the ongoing dialogue of Roman globalization. The introduction of gentrification into the globalization debate is thus a novel way to understand how connectivity shaped the dynamic city spaces of North Africa in antiquity.

This essay was written as the Introduction and Call for the 2016 Berkeley Prize on the Social Art of Architecture; an annual essay prize for undergraduate students sponsored by the College of Architecture and Environmental Design (http://www.berkeleyprize.org/). The essay considers architectural interventions in designing shelter for the 100 million people on the globe without a roof, trapped in the liminal zone between street and home. While Mass Housing is certainly the long-term structural solution, to which architects have long given much attention, much less attention has been directed to the basic questions of temporary shelter, camps, and street interventions. Considering the lack of political will to provide such housing alongside the rapid growth in the global houseless population over the past 20 years, even amidst the overall drop in global poverty rates, points to an urgent need for architectural responses  to provide more comfort, safety, and stability than the pavement  to the increasingly permanent emergency faced by the precarious, floating, and stateless factions of society.

Among the ancients, the regular representation of the built environment on coins was a purely Roman phenomenon.  In the Greek world, architectural representation on coinage was very uncommon; when it did appear it referred directly in some way to the local identity of the issuing state.  Coins of the Persian satrapies only rarely depicted fortifications in conjunction with traditional Persian emblems of royalty and power and temples of the chief deities in the minting city.  The Roman use of the iconography of building was fundamentally different.  From the first occurrence in 135 BC through the late Roman Empire, the architectural image on coins from Rome commemorated or politicized the monument in question.  By the mid-first century BC and into the Imperial period, architecture was commonplace in the repertoire of Roman coin iconography.

The subject of the representation of monuments is one of the most beloved (and belabored) topics in studies of Roman coin iconography.  It is also a theme in dire need of re-exploration.  Appealing to numismatists, archaeologists, topographers and art or architectural historians, architectural representations on Roman coins have been appreciated and studied primarily for the evidence they yield for the appearance or reconstruction of lost monuments. While numismatic representations may provide some evidence for the reconstruction or historical study of Roman monuments, there are a number of methodological problems.  This traditional and often uncritical approach to architectural representations has often treated the images as ‘snapshots’ or ‘blueprints’ of lost monuments, although creating wholly accurate representations of buildings – if the building even existed at the time that the coin was minted – was not the goal of the die engravers or the issuing authorities.  And less frequently have architectural representations been understood in the context of a moneyer’s or an emperor’s wider ideological or visual program as deployed on the coinage.  As a consequence, the actual phenomenon of architectural representation on Roman coinage has been inadequately studied in favor of more myopic considerations. 

Why was Rome the only ancient civilization that habitually depicted built monuments on its coinage?  Why did Greek urban centers with marble-clad monuments and politically charged building programs feature their great monuments on coins only after Roman domination?  What social and cultural developments prompted Roman moneyers in the late second and first centuries BC to depict buildings on coins for the first time?  What circumstances led to the decreasing frequency of architectural coin types in the third and fourth centuries AD until they ultimately disappeared from the Roman coinage in the fifth century?  And why were these late Roman depictions more symbolic in their lack of reference to specific constructions?  These are questions to be explored.  This book departs from the treatment of the images as sources for the appearance of ancient monuments and explores instead the historical, art historical, social, and cultural contexts of the iconography of building on Roman coins as it developed and evolved from its emergence in the late second century BC to its disappearance from the Roman coinage in the fifth century AD.

The thermal-baths of the archaeological site of Arucci (San Mamés, Aroche, Huelva) represent an interesting architectural complex in the context of the Baetica Province. Located in one of the highest levels of
the city, this thermal space has been delimited and partially excavated during various excavation campaigns and geophysical surveys framed in different research projects. All this data set has allowed to individualize numerous rooms, swimming pool, rooms, cistern, and so, and allow, today, to establish a possible bath circuit. From the chronological point of view, the whole seems to be built in the second half of 1st. century ad, very possibly framed in the second monumentalizing impulse that undergoes the city in Flavian epoch, and maintains its use until indeterminate moments of the 3rd. century ad, although it is true that could occur from the second third of the century, a period in which the first episodes of amortization and reuse of materials in monumental
public ensembles of the city are documented.

Contents:

Iva Mikl-Curk: Rimska mesta v SIoveniji nekaj parale arheoloških in spomeniško varstvenih paralel

Ljudmila Plesničar-Gec: Urbanistične značilnosti Emone

Branka Vikić-Belančić: Tipovi naselja u sjeverozapadnoj Hrvatskoj

Mirko Bulat: Stanje istraživanja antičkih naselja u Slavoniji

Ivana Iskra-Janošić: Prilog topografiji Cibala

Vladislav Popović: Glavne etape urbanog razvoja Sirmiuma

Olga Brukner: Rimsko naselje kod Beočina

Đuro Basler: Naselje uz metalurški pogon u dolini rijeke Japre

Ivo Bojanovski: Bosanska Posavina u antici u svjetlu novih istraživanja

La Arqueología ofrece datos que permiten reconstruir, comprender e interpretar la dinámica urbanística de las ciudades antiguas donde vivieron nuestros antepasados. El presente estudio nace con el objetivo de sistematizar, crear un corpus y analizar en conjunto la documentación arqueológica existente hasta la actualidad en Cádiz, centrándose el trabajo en época romana, es decir, del siglo I a.C. hasta el siglo IV/V d.C., sin obviar aspectos preliminares de época prerromana.
Esta monografía se presenta como el primer trabajo que aporta novedosas interpretaciones y propuestas sobre el entramado viario, el pomerium, la ubicación del foro, las áreas domésticas, el sistema de abastecimiento hídrico y la evacuación de los residuos, así como de las áreas suburbanas de la ciudad romana.

The focus of Regional Urban Systems in the Roman World is on urban hierarchies and interactions in large geographical areas rather than on individual cities. Based on a painstaking examination of archaeological and epigraphic evidence relating to more than 1,000 cities, the volume offers comprehensive reconstructions of the urban systems of Roman Gaul, North Africa, Sicily, Greece and Asia Minor. In addition it examines the transformation of the settlement systems of the Iberian Peninsula and the central and northern Balkan following the imposition of Roman rule. Throughout the volume regional urban configurations are examined from a rich variety of perspectives, ranging from climate and landscape, administration and politics, economic interactions and social relationships all the way to region-specific ways of shaping the townscapes of individual cities.

From the last quarter of the 18"' century to the end of the 20th the bath complex of the ancient Roman munidpium of Ocriculum was the subject of excavations and research, directed on one hand to discovering works of art to be exhibited in the new part of the Vatican Museums, and on the other hand to the investigation of the originai floor levels. None of the previous research has offered any analytic reading of the remains based on structural surveys carried out specifically for that purpose. The only graphic reproduction of this building, made by Arch. De Rubertis, although complete, was not supported by any analysis of the structures which might form the basis even for a partial interpretation and reconstruction.
The aim of this contribution is to offer as complete as possible picture of the data regarding the visible remains, integrating it where possible with indications obtained from previous research, in order to propose hypothetical reconstructions in the sections where the structural evidence allows it. This will allow the importance of this building to be appreciated, in relation not only to the city in which it sits, but especially to the whole of Roman architecture.

A Civil Town’s Early Roman history is more or less well known due to the more than 120 years of continuous archaeological research. The settlement started as a civilian vicus and the rapid urbanistic development began by the beginning of the 2nd c. AD  (during the Hadrian’s governorship) - as a result of Aquincum’s new status as a capital of Pannonia Inferior. Receiving the rank of municipium in the early 120s – during the reign of Hadrian -  also gave a great impetus to the development of the town: according to the previous researches this was the time ofconstructions of public buildings and utilities, town defences, or the fixed insula system. Re-evaluation of old materials and control excavations carried out in the past 15 years added new informations to the understanding of the structure of the town in the first decades of the 2nd c. AD as well as shedding new light on the function of some buildings. The paper will list and examine these new results and tries to fit these new data into the history of the 2nd c. Civil Town.

Трудът на Витрувий  Върху архитектурата е бил многократно разглеждан през вековете, като са давани различни и противоречиви тълкувания. Техен недостатък е че  са проекции на съвремеността на авторите им.  В началото на 20 век обаче се събира критично количество информация от археологически проучвания за римската архитектурата и изобщо устройството на Римската империя. Създават се условия за по-обективно тълкуване на  Витрувий като се поставя съдържанието на книгата в контекст. Така възниква идеята, че Върху Архитектурата е Закон с правила и стандарти устройващи архитектурата и строителството в империята.
Целта на презентацията ми е да популяризирам това тълкувание, тъй като считам че липсва като гледна точка в публикациите и дискусиите за Витрувий. Ще представя аргументите на едни от застъпниците на това тълкувание – Франк Гринджър, преводач на Харлианския препис от 8 век, публикуван 1934 и Марк Уилсън Джоунс, автор на Принципи на римската архитектура, публикувана 2001 г.

Due to the continuous occupation of the city of Valencia, it is not easy to trace the early stages of the development of the town. However, a significant increase in archaeological investigations in the last thirty years, has contributed important new knowledge and understanding.
New discoveries have shown that there was human activity north of the river Turia, between the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. Our understanding of the foundation of the Roman town between 138 and 75 BC and of the Imperial period has also increased significantly. The urban landscape in this later period changes significantly with the construction of the circus. The establishment of the Roman colonia in the 1st century BC , converted Valencia into the principal town of a highly urbanized local area.
The last third of the 3rd century AD saw widespread destruction, followed by a rapid recovery, though now in much less urbanised surroundings.
At the beginning of the 5th century AD there was a new collapse, which led to the development of a new town, established around the figure of the martyr Vicente

La collegiata di S. Maria Assunta di Otricoli e le sue collezioni d’arte sono state oggetto, a partire dalle indagini archeologiche e dai restauri svolti all’interno della chiesa ormai più di mezzo secolo fa, di una costante attenzione da parte degli studiosi. Le numerose ricerche hanno apportato un notevole contributo alla conoscenza di uno dei monumenti architettonici più rappresentativi dell’Italia centrale per quanto attiene l’Alto Medioevo, anche se, in relazione all’analisi e all’interpretazione delle numerose fasi costruttive che hanno interessato le strutture dell’edificio nel corso della sua storia secolare, sono emersi fra gli storici pareri tutt’altro che univoci.
I recenti interventi di scavo nel sotterraneo della collegiata, inoltre, dove sono venuti alla luce i resti di una possente muratura in opera quadrata, pertinente probabilmente al podio di un tempio pagano, risalente alla fase preromana del sito, hanno ulteriormente accresciuto la serie di dati materiali disponibili da analizzare, rendendo di conseguenza ancora più articolato il contesto storico di riferimento, che si è dovuto estendere a considerare l’intera evoluzione dell’insediamento urbano del municipio romano di Ocriculum, la cui fondazione da parte delle popolazioni umbre risale all’VIII secolo a.C.
In ragione proprio di tale esteso e problematico quadro critico, questo lavoro si pone l’obiettivo di affrontare, attraverso aggiornati percorsi di indagine, che hanno preso avvio con lo spoglio sistematico della documentazione d’archivio relativa ai restauri e agli scavi, conservata presso la Soprintendenza Archeologica, Belle Arti e Paesaggio dell’Umbria e l’Archivio di Stato di Perugia, e proseguiti, poi, con un accurato rilievo laser-scanner dell’intero complesso monumentale, tutte le principali questioni ancora oggetto di discussione sulla storia architettonica dell’edificio religioso, e proporre per queste nuove possibili chiavi di lettura.

This paper deals with the House of Leukaktios, which has been discovered during Polish excavations at Ptolemais, Libya, in 2001– 2007. The house has almost completely preserved mosaic pavements and the plan of Graeco-Roman type with an open central court (atrium), acting as the focal point around which the rooms were arranged. The name of one of the last owners, Leukaktios, is written twice on the mosaics in the atrium and in the triclinium. The author proposes the identification of several rooms. Room 1, a triclinium, has a mosaic with the characteristic U-shaped geometric frame around a central figural panel that depicts a personification of Victory or Nike. Room 14 is identified as an andron/triclinium with a similar U-shaped version lay out of the mosaic pavement. Room 9, which is situated in front of the andron/triclinium, could be interpreted as a gyneceum. The central panel which represents Dionysos and sleeping Ariadna has a parallel from the House of Dionysos in Cyrene, where the mosaic bears a rare Greek inscription dedicated to a woman.
Room 4 is identified as a reception hall. The mosaics are homogeneous in style and belong to the last phase of the building between AD 215 and 225.

This volume takes a look at the city of Rome and Emperor Augustus. The direct inspiration behind it was the bimillenial anniversary of death of one of the best known Roman emperors, falling in 2014. Still, we did not wish merely to revisit his times but rather reflect on his figure and the city of Rome from the perspective of contemporary humanities. The authors featured in the volume decided to address the times of Augustus as a moment when history did not so much revolve around one city, but around one man. Not only do the authors represent various
academic centres, diverse scholarly traditions and disciplines interested in antiquity, but also different generations of researchers. As a result, they adopt distinct modes of interpreting and elucidating history. Although the volume by no means covers all the aspects and relationships between Augustus and Rome, it certainly delivers a representative overview of how early Principate and urban space are approached in current research.