The Archaeology of Seasonality

Seasonality — the passage of time and the change in the environment across the course of a year — is universally recognized as having a major impact on the relationship between people and nature, yet it has rarely been examined as a topic of study in its own right. In the past, many areas of life were constrained and furthered by the cycle of the seasons, from the production of crops and grazing of animals in rural areas, to dress and diet, urban development, and religious activities. This volume offers an in-depth study of the impact of the seasons on the Graeco-Roman world, drawing on the archaeology of seasonality to open up new perspectives into the temporal dimension that underpins human activity, as well as offering fresh insights into space and spatial practices in the ancient world. The contributions draw on a wide range of archaeological evidence to explore the archaeology of the seasons from a number of different perspectives, including economic strategies, catastrophic events, religious activities, iconography, and the role of the individual. Together, they offer a pioneering new approach to classical archaeology that it is hoped will further our understanding of the temporal dimensions to archaeological evidence.

List of Illustrations

List of Abbreviations

Introduction. The Archaeology of Seasonality: Widening Archaeology’s Interpretational Framework — ACHIM LICHTENBERGER AND RUBINA RAJA

I. Economic Strategies in a Seasonal Perspective

Seasonality and Urban Economy: The Case of Gerasa in the Decapolis — ACHIM LICHTENBERGER AND RUBINA RAJA

Seasonal Labour and Migratory Work in the Roman Empire — WERNER TIETZ

Seasonal Diet in the Mediterranean — ERICA ROWAN

Seasonality and the Sea — STEFAN FEUSER

The Seasonality of Building Works in the Athenian Epigraphic Evidence — CRISTINA CARUSI

Flowers and Faeces: Seasonal Signals from Shivta’s Early Islamic Rubbish Middens — DANIEL FUKS, GUY BAR-OZ, YOTAM TEPPER, AND EHUD WEISS

To Everything There Is a Season: The Dynamics of Seasonality in the Deserts of the Southern Levant in Ancient Times — STEVEN A. ROSEN

II. Seasonality, Time, and Chronology

Solar Flare Events and Archaeology — JESPER OLSEN

Seasonality and the Calendar in Ovid’s Exile Poetry — ANKE WALTER

III. Seasonality of Religion

Seasonality of Timpone della Motta (Northern Calabria) during the Iron Age and the Archaic Period — JAN KINDBERG JACOBSEN, FELICE LAROCCA, JOOS MELANDER, AND GLORIA MITTICA

The Sanctuary of Jupiter Dolichenus at Doliche and the Seasonality of Sacrifice — MICHAEL BLÖMER

IV. Seasonality and the Individual

Seasonal Dress in the Graeco-Roman World — GLENYS DAVIES

Lumen ab Occidente Hiberno: Seasonality in the Pompeian Domestic Bath — CRISTINA M. HERNÁNDEZ

Roman Luxury Villas: Environmental Considerations and Seasonal Uses — MANTHA ZARMAKOUPI

Maritime Villas and Seasonality — ANNALISA MARZANO*

Seasonally Adaptive Design in Roman Public Architecture and Urban Space — EDMUND THOMAS

V. Iconography of Seasonality

L’iconografia delle Stagioni nella ceramica magnogreca — MONICA BAGGIO

Visualizing the Passing of Time: Personifications of Seasons in Greek and Roman Imagery — MARION MEYER

Tempora Anni: Time Recurring — DIETRICH BOSCHUNG

VI. Seasonal Dimensions of Catastrophic Events

Tracing the Season of the Santorini (Thera) Eruption — FELIX HÖFLMAYER

The Complicated Problem of Seasonality at Classical Olynthos, Greece — LISA NEVETT

New Evidence for the Date of the Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius — MASSIMO OSANNA and CHIARA COMEGNA

Pompeian Houses and Seasonality: A Contextual Approach — PENELOPE ALLISON