Dominik Maschek – författare

The twenty-second Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference (TRAC) was held at the Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main in spring 2012. During the three-day conference fifty papers were delivered, discussing issues from a wide range of geographical regions of the Roman Empire, and applying various theoretical and methodological approaches. An equally wide selection of subjects was presented: sessions looked at Greek art and philhellenism in the Roman world, the validity of the concept of ‘Romanisation’, change and continuity in Roman religion, urban neighbourhood relations in Pompeii and Ostia, the transformation of objects in and from the Roman world, frontier markets and Roman archaeology in the Provinces. In addition, two general sessions covered single topics such as the ‘transvestite of Catterick’, metal recycling or Egyptian funeral practice in the Roman period. This volume contains a selection of papers from all these sessions.

From Concept to Monument: Time and Costs of Construction in the Ancient World celebrates Janet DeLaine’s seminal work on Roman architecture and construction. One of the foremost scholars of the last decades, her pioneering research has offered important insights not only into individual structures in central Italy but also into the processes involved in creating ancient buildings. Her approach has provided important conceptual frameworks that have allowed scholars to understand Roman buildings in their proper social and economic contexts. The volume collects papers from an international conference held in Janet’s honour at Wolfson College, Oxford, in January 2020. The various contributions focus on modelling the costs of construction over the course of 2,500 years, from Bronze Age Greece to the early Middle Ages. They discuss both broader issues of methodology and particular case studies, with particular attention to the effort needed in the different steps of architectural creation, such as the exploitation of raw materials (e.g. quarries), transport, and the construction processes on building sites. The papers not only cover a wide chronological and geographical area of the ancient world but also take up many of the themes explored by Janet throughout her career on Roman architecture, urbanism, building technologies, materials, and the principles of design. The wide range of papers reflects the scope and vibrancy of Janet’s scholarship on Roman architecture and her enormous contribution to the discipline.