New Approaches to Republican Ceramics - RAC 2016

THE ROMAN ARCAHEOLOGY CONFERENCE 2016 (Sapienza - Università di Roma, March 16th – 19th) SESSION 30 - New Approaches to Republican Ceramics Organizers: Laura Banducci (Carleton University), Antonio F. Ferrandes (Sapienza - Università di Roma) and Marcello Mogetta (University of Missouri).

Scholars of recent decades have engaged in lively debates about the nature and effects of early Roman imperial expansion in the Republican period. A critical component of this is to articulate what might be recognizable as Roman material culture, analyzing this complex phenomenon particularly through the lens of urbanism and architecture. Domestic artefacts, ceramics in particular, rarely take centre stage in this broader debate. Yet, there is great potential for ceramics to uncover the social, economic, and cultural dynamics that influenced (or were influenced by) the formation of a territorial “empire” in Italy and the Mediterranean, especially given modern archaeometric techniques and computer applications. The proposed session, therefore, aims to provide a forum for discussing how innovative and integrative approaches to Republican pottery can address the problem and contribute to our broader understanding of Italian societies in this crucial period. The introductory papers offer some preliminary reflections on the recent theoretical and methodological debate (Banducci and Mogetta), and on the ways in which modern principles of stratigraphic analysis in its broader meaning can shed light on both society and economy (Ferrandes). The presentations make critical use of archaeometry and functional analysis with both fine wares and coarse wares (Louwaard and Revello Lami). Innovative methods are applied to material from field survey and recent excavations as well as to material that has been in storage for over a century (Boyer). Aspects of diffusion and circulation in colonial and non-colonial contexts are analyzed from the perspective of the consumers (Termeer) and the traders (Principal). The final paper brings the focus on the actual people that produced, distributed, bought and used these materials (Nonnis). 1. Approaching ceramics in the Republic Laura Banducci (Carleton University) and Marcello Mogetta (University of Missouri) 2. Economy and Society behind Stratigraphies, Contexts and Fragments: A Systemic Approach to the Roman Republic Antonio F. Ferrandes (Sapienza - Università di Roma) 3. Roman, local or just global? A diachronic and integrated approach to Republican pottery from Satricum (Latium, Central Italy) Muriel Louwaard and Martina Revello Lami (University of Amsterdam) 4. The Hidden Treasures of Rome Project: Preliminary Results from the University of Missouri, Columbia Johanna Boyer (University of Missouri) 5. Becoming Roman in a colonial context: a consumption perspective Marleen Termeer (Leiden University) 6. Unconfessable intentions: evolving commercial strategies of Rome in western Mediterranean (3rd c. BCE) Jordi Principal (Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya) 7. I protagonisti tra produzione e consumo: un approccio di storia sociale David Nonnis (Sapienza - Università di Roma) Discussant: Helga Di Giuseppe