Region | Italy | American Journal of Archaeology

The Archaeology of Olive Oil Production in Roman and Pre-Roman Italy

website — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 22:12:36 +0000

This article provides a comprehensive synthesis and re-evaluation of the archaeological evidence for olive cultivation and oil production across Italy from prehistory through the Roman era. Italy is often neglected in studies of ancient olives and oil, with greater focus given to the eastern Mediterranean or Gaul, Spain, and North Africa. Extant studies on Italian regions fail to capture broader patterns and transregional developments. Scientific advancements, more rigorous sampling strategies, and a rapidly expanding paleoenvironmental and archaeological dataset encourage an updated state of the field. Traditional assumptions regarding the sparse prehistory of olive exploitation prior to Greek or Phoenician contact are challenged by growing paleoenvironmental evidence highlighting Neolithic and Bronze Age activity. This is complemented by indications of pre- and early Roman oil production sites, including perhaps the earliest rotary olive crusher. Substantial Roman-era oil production was not confined to southern Italy but occurred more widely across the peninsula using a diverse range of facilities, including large villas, farms, and rudimentary rural installations. Regional biases remain along with significant gaps in evidence, both geographically (e.g., Sardinia) and in terms of material culture (e.g., a notable scarcity of milling apparatus) compared with other regions.

The post The Archaeology of Olive Oil Production in Roman and Pre-Roman Italy appeared first on American Journal of Archaeology.

Marble Wall Revetment in Roman Times: Materials and Techniques

website — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 22:12:34 +0000

Making marble wall revetment in Roman times required real know-how. Surprisingly, ancient sources are silent on the installation methods of revetment. The archaeological literature is also sparse, but there are two schools of thought: one assumes that a plaster layer was applied before the marble slabs, while the other assumes that mortar was poured behind the slabs held in place by metal clamps. All point out the presence of shims on the plaster, although there has been no consensus as to their function. The recent discovery of an organic material (based on pitch and beeswax) helps us understand how these shims were laid: they were placed behind the slabs, before the slabs were installed, to hold them in place when the mortar set. Above all, it provides a clear understanding of how the Romans went about installing their marble revetment: choosing one or other of the two supposed variant methods as required. This synthesis also gives us the opportunity to present a typology of metal clamps and to discuss several adaptations of the technique, such as the practice at Pompeii of preparing the wall surface with a toothed chisel.

The post Marble Wall Revetment in Roman Times: Materials and Techniques appeared first on American Journal of Archaeology.

Horns, Crenellations, and Snakes: The Significance of Egyptian Censers in the Houses of Pompeii and Herculaneum

website — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 20:27:15 +0000

This article explores the significance of censers with Egyptian forms or featuring Egyptian-looking motifs found in the houses of Pompeii and Herculaneum. I offer the first full publication of seven unstudied bronze censers, many with known archaeological contexts. The typological analyses reveal that five artifacts featuring altar horns or crenellations originated in Egypt and the Levant, while two others, decorated with Egyptian uraeus snakes, are typical Roman tripods. From a modern perspective, these censers seem to reflect the influence of Egyptian culture in Early Imperial Italy. Comparable artifacts and images from the archaeological sites around Vesuvius, however, indicate that, despite their Egyptian origin, not all censers were likely to have been recognized as such. The horned altars can be linked conceptually to Isiac cults, but, like the other censers, they come from houses without any evidence of veneration of Egyptian deities, as would be attested by Egyptian motifs decorating walls or shrines. Being luxurious cult instruments without a demonstratable connection to cult practices, the censers reveal the versatile, often ambiguous ways in which Egyptian artifacts were perceived and used in Roman society. In doing so, they highlight the complex blend of cultural exchange, domestic and public religion, and Roman interpretation of Egyptian motifs.

The post Horns, Crenellations, and Snakes: The Significance of Egyptian Censers in the Houses of Pompeii and Herculaneum appeared first on American Journal of Archaeology.

Communities on the Move in Coastal Apulia (Southern Italy), 10th Century BCE to 17th Century CE: 2,600 Years of Human-Environment Coevolution at Salapia

website — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 15:22:12 +0000

The Gulf of Manfredonia, on the northern Adriatic coast of Apulia, has been the site of many settlements over nearly three millennia. In this article, we write the environmental history of the south-facing Salapia Lagoon and three towns—Salpia vetus, Salapia, and Salpi—bringing together archaeological, paleoenvironmental, climatological, and textual evidence. Each town manifested strategies to thrive in a wetland environment as a center for trade, administration, and logistics. Each also experienced periods of progressive decline caused by the overexploitation of lagoon resources and environmental challenges. We argue that the micromobility of these settlements served as a repeated and productive strategy to overcome insalubrity and precarity, ensuring the continuity of lagoon life. This case study reveals patterns informative for expanding current conversations around climate migration and how best to manage dynamic wetland environments.

The post Communities on the Move in Coastal Apulia (Southern Italy), 10th Century BCE to 17th Century CE: 2,600 Years of Human-Environment Coevolution at Salapia appeared first on American Journal of Archaeology.

The Reopening of the Museo Nazionale Jatta di Ruvo di Puglia

website — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 22:46:53 +0000

The Museo Nazionale Jatta in Ruvo di Puglia reopened late in 2023 following a two-year closure for work on the refurbishment of the galleries in the 19th-century Palazzo Jatta and the reinstallation of the collection. The organization of the collection and its display cases and pedestals follow the original scheme from when the museum was formed and its catalogue published by Giovanni Jatta, Jr., in 1869. Rather than reconceive the gallery and exhibition design, the museum focused on restoring the original design, with discreetly installed upgrades for utilities and environmental systems to bring the museum to contemporary standards. In doing so, the museum brings attention to the specific circumstances of the collection’s formation in the 19th-century, which were aimed at preserving some of the ancient cultural patrimony of Ruvo di Puglia. Further, the museum has preserved an important historical viewing context from that period and in so doing provides an occasion to think about how to engage viewers with artifacts in the 21st century. Providing the viewer with the opportunity to see the majority of the collection is admirable, but one needs to consider the best way of providing information to viewers today, when a printed catalogue is in some ways obsolete.

The post The Reopening of the Museo Nazionale Jatta di Ruvo di Puglia appeared first on American Journal of Archaeology.

Shipwreck Assemblages and Network Analysis: Reconstructing the Furniture Trade in the Mediterranean Using First-Century BCE Shipwrecks

website — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 19:54:34 +0000

Elite Romans residing in opulent villas in central Italy during the first century BCE are generally viewed as the main consumers driving the trade in luxury goods. However, evidence from shipwrecks shows this is not the full picture. This article utilizes assemblage theory and network analysis to examine relationships between luxury furniture and shipwreck assemblages in the Mediterranean in the first century BCE. It starts first with discussion of couches (klinai) and tables from five shipwrecks during this period and one from the first century CE to draw comparisons in furniture types and distribution networks. Then it examines the shared presence of objects and assemblages from other first-century BCE shipwrecks using network analysis. Viewing shipwrecks as nested sets of assemblages combines close analysis of singular wrecks with aggregate data from multiple shipwrecks in an interconnected interpretive framework. The resulting network serves as a starting point for understanding the circulation of objects and facilitating interpretation of shipwrecks, ultimately refining our view of the acquisition of luxury objects in the western Mediterranean during the first century BCE. Finding that luxury objects, such as klinai, were being shipped not only to Italy but also around the same time to the western Mediterranean shifts the focus of study from Italic consumers to wider integrated transportation networks.

The post Shipwreck Assemblages and Network Analysis: Reconstructing the Furniture Trade in the Mediterranean Using First-Century BCE Shipwrecks appeared first on American Journal of Archaeology.

Entella: A Resilient Ancient Sicilian Community

website — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 16:10:50 +0000

The third-century BCE Sicilian inscribed bronze plaques collectively known as the Entella tablets constitute remarkable evidence of a community’s response to near destruction. The decrees inscribed on these bronze tablets attest to the experience of a small western Sicilian polis during the First Punic War (ca. 264–241 BCE). When the inhabitants of Entella were expelled from their city, they were able to survive both individually and as a community thanks to the intervention of benefactors who sheltered them, fed them, and eventually helped them return home. Although previous work on the inscriptions has discussed significant elements of the episode and noted the fact that the decrees strengthened diplomatic relations with their benefactors, this article sets the tablets in their full historical context, clarifies some remaining questions they raise, and reconstructs their overall program, with particular attention to group dynamics and social and political life. Drawing on theories of community and communal trauma, I show how the Entellinoi commemorated their disastrous dislocation and embraced interaction with communities across Sicily so that they would not suffer so much from an existential threat again.

The post Entella: A Resilient Ancient Sicilian Community appeared first on American Journal of Archaeology.

Visual Experience in a Pompeian Domestic Space: Analysis Using Virtual Reality–Based Eye Tracking and GIS

website — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 16:10:50 +0000

Ancient sources indicate the importance that views and viewing had in Roman society, particularly in the domestic sphere. Archaeological studies have found evidence of this in the remains of Roman houses while at the same time remarking on the ritualistic character of the activities they hosted. View planning would therefore have been part of the homeowner’s social paraphernalia. Although relevant, these studies have relied on direct experience of physical remains, or models that privileged the single perspective frame. Human perception proves to be more complex, influenced by body and eye movement and illumination. This research, based on three case studies from the House of the Greek Epigrams in Pompeii and combining virtual reality–based eye-tracking technologies and geographic information systems, presents a novel investigation of perception in the Roman house and its manipulation for the construction of social identity.

The post Visual Experience in a Pompeian Domestic Space: Analysis Using Virtual Reality–Based Eye Tracking and GIS appeared first on American Journal of Archaeology.

Bringing Roman Light to Life

website — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Nuova luce da Pompei (New Light from Pompeii) explored the role of artificial light in the lives of ancient Romans. In addition to presenting 180 rarely seen bronzes from Pompeii, including lamps, candelabra, and elegant statues that held lamps, the exhibition demonstrated the effects and meanings these lighting devices generated. Clearly, Roman lamps have lost their agency, presented as objects in museums or in photographs—a problem addressed by encouraging visitors to handle replicas of lamps and to light them virtually. In a virtual reality recreation of the triclinium of the House of Polybius, visitors could use a torch to light lamps and see what they could reveal—or fail to reveal. Videos of elaborate lamps with figures standing on their oil holes were particularly noteworthy, demonstrating their potential for “shadow play.” In addition to plumbing the meanings of the astonishingly varied imagery, the show investigated bronze metallurgy and modern conservation, as well as the role lamps played in the convivium, cult, nighttime pursuits, and commerce. A section on the creation of pastiches and copies evoked the antiquarian culture sparked by the discovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum. In its Rome venue, curators added a roomful of rarely seen objects from Rome’s former Antiquarium Comunale.

The post Bringing Roman Light to Life appeared first on American Journal of Archaeology.

Representations of Gender: Recognizing the Role of Feminine Sacrificial Attendants in the Column of Trajan Sacrifice Scenes

website — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 04:00:00 +0000

This article offers an analysis of the Feminine Sacrificial Attendant figure type on the Column of Trajan frieze in Rome. We first present a detailed study of the Column of Trajan examples, focusing on both composition and broader narrative context. We argue, based on this methodology, that the traditional identification of these figures as masculine must be abandoned, in favor of a more demonstrable identification as feminine. By analyzing these figures as materializations of a sacrificial role—that both referred to contemporary norms and participated in their construction—this article demonstrates that our feminine identification has wide implications beyond the frieze itself. In particular, this figure type broadens our understanding of the variety of players in the life of the Roman army and the rites of Roman state religion more generally.

The post Representations of Gender: Recognizing the Role of Feminine Sacrificial Attendants in the Column of Trajan Sacrifice Scenes appeared first on American Journal of Archaeology.