A b stra c tThe study ofceramicfunction, use, a n d re-use is becoming an important facet o f the archaeology o f the ancient Mediterranean. The abundant a n d detailed ceramic typologies o f classical archaeology have m eant that the Junction o f pottery is typically assumed based on vesselform. Ipropose a way ofnuancing our understanding o f ceramic function a n d use to reveal repetitive habitual actions: the traces o f seemingly ephemeral behaviors ofdaily life. I introduce a m ethodfor the empirical study o f ceramic use through the application o f ' alteration analysis' ( more commonly known as ' use-wear analysis' ): that is, the recording o f accretion a n d attrition o f the surfaces o f domestic pottery. I describe a recording method to capture qualitative observations o f pottery in a quantitative way. This approach allows fo r the generation o f relatively large datasets that can be subjected to statistical analysis in order to observe real patterns o f use. We can begin to make inferences about behaviors like cooking a n d serving, the length o f ceramic use-life, a n d the extent o f ceramic consumption. I demonstrate the utility o f this method w ith a case study o f ceramics fro m two Republican-period sites in central Italy.
Excavations carried out at the Latin city of Gabii between 2012 and 2019 have contributed new data to a number of debates around the emergence, lived experience, maintenance, decline, and resilience of cities. Gabii's urban trajectories demonstrate both seemingly familiar forms of urbanism and, on closer study, many locally circumscribed elements. Specifically, the Gabii Project excavations have uncovered an early Iron Age (8th-5th centuries B.C.) hut complex that has provided evidence for architecture, funerary rites, and quotidian activities during the initial polynuclear settlement at urbanizing Gabii. A unique monumental complex constructed in the 3rd century B.C. has been identified and is interpreted as a public structure potentially used for ritual activities; the study of this complex raises questions about the creation and reception of markers of civic identity. Excavation data has further characterized the reorganizations that took place during the first centuries A.D., when Gabii's settled area contracted. Rather than unidirectional decline, evidence for industrial activities increases, and elite investments in the city persist, especially in the mixed-use elite domestic and agricultural complex. These results provide detailed evidence for how ancient cities developed and transformed in the face of shifting local and regional conditions, especially smaller urban centers (Gabii) at the periphery of mega-urban centers (Rome).
Excavations at the Latin city of Gabii in 2012–15 conducted by the Gabii Project have uncovered a monumental building complex, hitherto known only very partially from previous excavations in the 1990s. Organized on a series of three artificial terraces that regularized the slope of the volcanic terrain, it measures some 60 m by 35 m, occupying an entire city-block. It is prominently situated at one of the most central locations within the city, on the main urban thoroughfare at the important intersection of the roads from Tibur, Praeneste and Rome. Stratigraphic evidence and construction techniques date the original phase of the building to the mid-third century BC. This report focuses on a contextualization and description of this first, mid-Republican phase and offers a preliminary interpretation of this complex as a public building, with spaces designed for a variety of functions: bathing, public feasting, and ritual activity. If this is correct, it now represents one of the very few examples of public buildings other than temples and fortifications known from the mid-Republican period, and sheds important light on the development of Roman architecture and of the Latin cities in a crucial and obscure period.
e journal is open to international research submitted by individual scholars as well as by interdisciplinary teams, and especially wishes to promote work by junior researchers and new and innovative projects. Challenging research themes can be explored in dedicated issues. eoretical approaches are welcomed as much as presentation of material culture assemblages.
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