Verba Volant, Scripta Manent: Reconstructing the Linguistic Landscape of Ostia

This thesis studies a reconstruction of the Linguistic Landscape of Ostia, the ancient harbour town of Rome. The principal of Linguistic Landscape Studies originates in Sociolinguistics, where it is used to study the interrelationship between texts and the space in which they are placed. The goal of this thesis is twofold. Its primary purpose is to interpret the Linguistic Landscape of Ostia. The secondary objective concerns the question whether or not the framework can be used to study a past urban environment. The second chapter focuses on the history of Ostia, from its foundation up to its abandonment. It describes the historical development of the settlement, its political organisation and the religious practices that occurred during Antiquity. The third chapter describes the history after the city was abandoned, focusing on the post-depositional processes and the excavation history. Chapter four introduces the theoretical framework central to this thesis, first detailing the...Show moreThis thesis studies a reconstruction of the Linguistic Landscape of Ostia, the ancient harbour town of Rome. The principal of Linguistic Landscape Studies originates in Sociolinguistics, where it is used to study the interrelationship between texts and the space in which they are placed. The goal of this thesis is twofold. Its primary purpose is to interpret the Linguistic Landscape of Ostia. The secondary objective concerns the question whether or not the framework can be used to study a past urban environment. The second chapter focuses on the history of Ostia, from its foundation up to its abandonment. It describes the historical development of the settlement, its political organisation and the religious practices that occurred during Antiquity. The third chapter describes the history after the city was abandoned, focusing on the post-depositional processes and the excavation history. Chapter four introduces the theoretical framework central to this thesis, first detailing the relation between texts and archaeology, including the recent concept of Written Space. It then discusses Linguistic Landscapes and its applications, before combining these into a single framework. The fifth chapter lays out the methodology that is used in the study of the Linguistic Landscape, describing the research area and the nature of the dataset used in this study. Chapter six then presents the analysis of the texts that are included in the corpus, studying patterns in their spatial distribution as well as in their various characteristics. The data presented in these previous chapters are then used in chapter seven to interpret the Linguistic Landscape of Ostia. Here, it is shown that there is a clear relationship between certain types of texts and the areas where they are placed. Texts therefore had a purpose within the spatial environment as well, and the various actors, both official and unofficial, placed the texts accordingly. One of these functions was to create a landscape of memorials, preserving the names of deceased individuals who had been important in the history of the city. The reconstruction also showed, however, that these texts eventually lost their function and were reused for the material upon which they were placed. This change in perception of texts appears to coincide with the rise of Christianity as the most prominent religion. The chapter also notes that the large amount of texts visible in the city shows that previous thoughts on literacy in Antiquity need to be reconsidered, since the texts would be meaningless without a sizable readership. The conclusion summarises these interpretations and relates them back to the research questions presented at the start of the thesis. It then determines that the reconstruction of the Linguistic Landscape of Ostia was a useful tool to better understand the relationship between texts and space in Antiquity. It is therefore concluded that the framework is indeed useful to study a past environment. Finally, a brief outlook on future applications of Linguistic Landscapes and its value for Archaeology is presented, paving the way for new research.Show less

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Verba Volant, Scripta Manent: Reconstructing the Linguistic Landscape of Ostia