RICERCA ITALIANA     

ATELIER, WORKSHOP, YARD. TECHNIQUES AND CULTURE OF THE PRODUCTION IN THE ROMAN WORLD

Università degli Studi di Bologna

Abstract

The ancient craftsman modus operandi – as builder, decorator, manufacturer- entails technical, economical, social and cultural aspects of great importance in the Roman world: spaces where manufacturing activities were performed, materials used, techniques, as well as training of craftsmen, handing over of skills and patterns and interacting with patrons, were all peculiar of the Roman society. Literary sources only occasionally hint at such aspects, and treatises like those written by Vitruvius and Pliny the Elder (though essential bases) have been largely outrun by the variety of real cases and, of course, by later developments.
The project aims to thoroughly investigate, within the huge vastness of this theme, some specific aspect.

- Domestic activities (professional, manufacturing and trading)
which represent an essential part of the economy of the ancient city as well as a considerable social phenomenon which testifies, under the archaeological viewpoint, to the growth of middle and low-middle classes in the Roman imperial society. Archaeological evidence refers to the period between the first and the second cent. AD and entails comparisons between some Italian and Middle-European sample contexts.
Beginning with Pompei, which represents a primary reference for the wealth of documentation it yielded, research will then consider Northern Italy contexts. Investigating urban manufacturing in the transalpine provinces (Gallia Belgica and >>>

Principal Investigator

Daniela Scagliarini Università degli Studi di BOLOGNA

Research Objectives

The proposed theme is important for the knowledge of Roman society and culture, and it is proportionally wide and complex. Therefore the project aims to provide a systematic and complete documentation on specific and limited aspects, but also very representative; finally, on this largely contextualized documentation an historical interpretation will be developed.
The research on the craftsman modus operandi in the yard, the workshop, and in the atelier, will initially be carried out in the Vesuvian area, which can provide a comprehensive documentation both for archaeologists and archaeometrists, and then it will be also comparatively extended to Cisalpina and other provincial areas to verify both continuity and gaps, in space and in time, in the use of techniques.
The targets of the research’s analytical section are the following:

1. Workshop-houses:
1.1 - definition of the main features of these particular kind of dwellings in Pompeii, even on the grounds of earlier research carried out by members of the team, establishing also comparison parameters;
1.2 - a representative selection of archaeological remains testifying to domestic productive activities in the Cisalpina area, and their recording as well;
1.3 - archaeometrical analysis (materials characterization)
1.4 - comparison with sample-cases from Gallia Belgica and Raetia
1.5 - comparative study of archaeological materials with the documentation provided >>>

First Results

The research fields within which this research project will be developed, such as house-building, wall and floor decoration, architecture and masonry techniques, had been already dealt with in a number of earlier research that resulted in long-held knowledge; such research, however, have always neglected the specific subject of this project, that is the modus operandi of craftsmen and builders, decorators, manufacturers of various good: a solid base of canonical skills to which an heritage of specific workshop skills, often "local" as linked to the territorial context, was added.
To investigate in a systematic way on such an heritage of techniques and methods means to shed light on an important aspect of the ancient society, an interface among economy, technologies and artistic culture, to which the literary sources only occasionally hint at, while treatises like those written by Vitruvius and Pliny the Elder (essential bases, besides) have been largely outrun by the variety of real cases and, of course, by later developments.

Expected results, their interest for the advancement of the research and possible application potentialities


According to the sectors into which the research is divided, the expected results can be schematized as follows:

Workshop-house:
The circumstantial and documented definition, through an ample selection of cases, of the productive role of the house, basing on the >>>

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

Techniques, organisation and production culture in the roman world: this theme in the last decades has been object of several searches, that however focused on other purposes.
In the international scientific landscape the peculiarity of this project is the integrated approach, archaeological and archaeometric, on a selection of significant cases of study, representative of different productive backgrounds:
1 - Productive activities (commerce, craftsmanship, professional life) in the city house, as a relevant component of the socio-economic life of the ancient city, because it constitutes a major archaeological reflex of the growing middle and lower middle class population in Roman Imperial Society.
2 - The decorators atelier (painters, plasterers, mosaicists) as the place where competences, experiences and artistic culture are formed and transmitted.
3 - The yard as the place of application of traditional constructive techniques, but also as the place of experimentation of new solutions

1- PRODUCTIVE ACTIVITIES (COMMERCE, CRAFTSMANSHIP, PROFESSIONAL LIFE) IN THE CITY HOUSE

The multifunctionality of the Roman House has been explored with regard to the Vesuvian cities in the scholarly work of Wallace-Hadrill 1994, Laurence and Wallace Hadrill 1997 and Zanker 1995, more devoted to social life, communicative and representative functions than to productive activities. On this basis further studies considered the >>>