Forging the Roman Rural Economy: A Blacksmithing Workshop and Its Tool Set at Marzuolo (Tuscany)

Oyen, Astrid Van; Tol, Gijs; Vennarucci, Rhodora G.; Agostini, Alexander; Serneels, Vincent; Mercuri, Anna Maria; Rattighieri, Eleonora; Benatti, Alessandra

doi:10.1086/718180

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 29 publications

(16 reference statements)

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“…Van Oyen et al 2022 for a preliminary publication and analysis of the blacksmithing workshop, its spatial layout, its chaîne opératoire and its assemblage of iron tools and objects.…”

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confidence: 99%

Roman Failure: Privilege and Precarity at Early Imperial Podere Marzuolo, Tuscany

Oyen

2023

J. Rom. Stud.

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The case of the early imperial small rural settlement of Marzuolo, in south-central Etruria, paints a micro-history of arrested developments: a couple of decades into the site's existence, an abandoned wine-production facility was converted into a blacksmithing workshop, which in turn burnt down and was abandoned soon after. But were both these endings failures? This article uses the concept of failure as an epistemic lens to examine inequality: who could fail in the Roman world, and for whom was failure not an option? It argues that failure was tied up with particular notions of the future, which were not equally distributed. Yet in contrast to modern paradigms, in the Roman world even the privileged seem not to have embraced failure as a stepping-stone towards growth.

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“…Van Oyen et al 2022 for a preliminary publication and analysis of the blacksmithing workshop, its spatial layout, its chaîne opératoire and its assemblage of iron tools and objects.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Roman Failure: Privilege and Precarity at Early Imperial Podere Marzuolo, Tuscany

Oyen

2023

J. Rom. Stud.

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Why a Human Ancient Economy Should Be Posthuman

Van Oyen

2024

Palgrave Studies in Ancient Economies

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Reconstructing the Lives of Urban Craftspeople in Archaic and Classical Greece

Murray

2024

Voiceless, Invisible, and Countless in Ancient Greece

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This chapter considers the evidence available to scholars hoping to reconstruct the lives of ancient Greek urban workers, with a focus on the group of people called banausoi: non-agricultural, skilled workers who produced durable goods to make a living. It begins by reviewing the textual evidence for the role of craftworkers in Greek society. It argues that, while we may read about these workers in ancient textual sources, these sources are unlikely to allow us to reconstruct the lives of these individuals with fidelity. Instead, we may glimpse the values and voices of workers from ancient Greece most clearly by looking at the epigraphic and material records, especially the remains of workshops and workers’ tools. The chapter also explores what material evidence can reveal about the spaces where banausoi worked and the objects that surrounded them and considers what ritual and belief systems that Greek urban workers may have followed based on evidence from dedications and curse tablets in urban and rural sanctuary spaces.

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Forging the Roman Rural Economy: A Blacksmithing Workshop and Its Tool Set at Marzuolo (Tuscany)

Cited by 3 publications

References 29 publications

Roman Failure: Privilege and Precarity at Early Imperial Podere Marzuolo, Tuscany

Roman Failure: Privilege and Precarity at Early Imperial Podere Marzuolo, Tuscany

Why a Human Ancient Economy Should Be Posthuman

Reconstructing the Lives of Urban Craftspeople in Archaic and Classical Greece

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