The incorporation of new provinces in the Roman Empire, both in
the East and the West, coincides with marked changes in urban
infrastructure and layout, and in rural settlement patterns, as is
attested by numerous excavations and surveys.
While scholars agree on the quantitative and qualitative
transformation of cities and their territories, such as an increase
in the number of monumental buildings and rural sites, a
significantly higher degree of urbanization, a more sophisticated
lifestyle etc., little research has been devoted to the ways in
which these structures and sites, and their internal components,
were organized spatially.
The eleven papers presented in this volume result from workshops
organized by the
international, interdisciplinary ROCT-network (Roman Crafts and
Trade).
From a heterogeneous chronological and geographical background, the
peer-reviewed
collection of papers focuses on one central issue: the use of space
in the Roman world.
Space, on all sorts of levels, shapes human life, now as in the
past. The edited volume
contrasts two dimensions of space: the macro-scale at regional
level and the micro-scale
at local level. Moreover, the selected papers are written against a
variety of
methodological backgrounds and practices, including excavation and
surveying strategies,
contextual analysis and material culture studies. The variety of
content, approaches and
interpretation results from the conscious deliberation that this is
the only possible way
to think about space in the Roman world. The contributions cover
the Roman world with its
provinces, throughout the long period in history which can be
considered Roman in each of
the study areas.
Frank Vermeulen is professor of Roman archaeology and of
archaeological method at Ghent University. His research interests
cover settlement history and landscape development in the western
Mediterranean during Antiquity.
Raymond Brulet est Professeur d'Archéologie nationale
à l'Universitécatholique de Louvain
(Louvain-la-Neuve). Il est spécialisé dans lapériode de l'Antiquité tardive et dans le domaine
de l'Archéométrie.
Hannelore Vanhaverbeke is a Postdoctoral Fellow of the
Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO-Belgium); she is the field
director of the annual rural surveys near Sagalassos and teaches at
the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium).
Jeroen Poblome is a research professor at the Katholieke
Universiteit Leuven. He studies artisanal production organization
and exchange patterns and mechanisms in the ancient eastern
Mediterranean, with fieldwork in Boeotia, Pisidia and
Cilicia.