This thesis presents a spatial analysis of insula V ii in Roman Ostia, the principal harbour city of Imperial Rome. The Severan and final phase of occupation of the insula are compared with each...Show moreThis thesis presents a spatial analysis of insula V ii in Roman Ostia, the principal harbour city of Imperial Rome. The Severan and final phase of occupation of the insula are compared with each other to gain a better understanding of the architectural and spatial changes that took place between the Severan phase, and the final occupation of the insula. This thesis seeks to answer the following question: How did the spatial organisation of insula V ii change between the Severan phase and the final phase? In order to answer this question, space syntax methods are used. By comparing the integration (real relative asymmetry) and control values of the units in the buildings between the two phases, an estimate can be given of the amount of privacy and the importance of the rooms. This thesis argues that, between the Severan and the final phase, a shift towards more privacy in the city block occured.Show less
Research master thesis | Archaeology (research) (MA/MSc)
closed access
Recent archaeological studies reflect a growing interest in neighbourhoods and neighbourhood studies, covering urban environments from antiquity to historical cities. This thesis investigates...Show moreRecent archaeological studies reflect a growing interest in neighbourhoods and neighbourhood studies, covering urban environments from antiquity to historical cities. This thesis investigates neighbourhoods in Roman Ostia, through examining the spatial relationship of one city block within itself and to the rest of the city. The central research question in this thesis is how the buildings in insula IV iv along the Via del Tempio Rotondo relate to each other, to the street, and to the contemporaneous structures on the opposite side of the street. A second part of this question is whether this area functioned as part of one neighbourhood. This thesis focuses on two buildings in the insula that directly border the Via del Tempio Rotondo, to be able to provide a complete overview of one side of the insula. Although this thesis forms part of the larger investigations of insula IV iv, owing to its comprehensive treatment of a section of the insula, it presents a complete subproject in its own right. In addition to remapping and investigating the material remains in situ, different methods of Space Syntax are used to examine the buildings and the surrounding area. Access analysis and visual analysis are used to investigate the buildings themselves, and to determine how life in these buildings would have functioned. Several axial analyses are then used to determine how the city block relates to the rest of the city of Ostia. It can then be concluded that the buildings under investigation in this thesis were part of the same neighbourhood, although this neighbourhood would have stretched beyond the limits of a single street front. Eventually, directions for future research are presented.Show less
Jewel or honorary symbol? The stephane has been depicted on statues and coins, mortal and divine women and over the course of more than a thousand years. Ever since the birth of archaeology, the...Show moreJewel or honorary symbol? The stephane has been depicted on statues and coins, mortal and divine women and over the course of more than a thousand years. Ever since the birth of archaeology, the scientific community of historians and archaeologists has been well acquainted with the object that is called the stephane. Its representation on statues and coins has been observed and commented, but its rarity in the archaeological record has received little attention. The intention of this study is to facilitate a better understanding of the function and meaning of the stephane in the context of the Roman world. In order to achieve this, a case study of the stephane in Roman Imperial portraiture in its numismatic context, is presented here. Several conclusions could be drawn from the case study, first among them the conclusion that the stephane was not worn as a piece of jewellery in the Roman world. Moreover, this study argues that the stephane was equal to the male honorary symbols like the royal diadema, signifying the elevated, semi-divine, status of its wearer.Show less
This thesis concerns the reflection of ancient Mediterranean piracy in textual evidence and the archaeological record. It also seeks why Mediterranean piracy occurred: which motives could have...Show moreThis thesis concerns the reflection of ancient Mediterranean piracy in textual evidence and the archaeological record. It also seeks why Mediterranean piracy occurred: which motives could have prompted people in the past to commit piratical activities? The central case-study in this thesis is concerned with the Illyrian pirates, operating in the Adriatic during Hellenistic times. First, the Illyrian pirates as they appear in the classical texts by Appian and Polybius are examined. The Illyrian pirates appear in these texts in relation to the Illyrian Wars. The texts provide us with two distinct motives, namely an economic and a political one. Archaeological evidence pertaining to Illyrian piracy is less direct. Through the methodology used in this thesis it is determined that certain types of archaeological evidence can point to piracy. The coin hoards found in Risan and Mazin, towns in Montenegro and Croatia respectively, contain coins which have a diversity in origin. This diversity in origin, called a conspicuous diversity, might indicate a buried piratical booty. In this case, piracy was committed for economic reasons. A burnt layer found in the ancient city of Rhizon is dated to 229 BC, the year of the first Illyrian war. According to Polybius, the pirate Queen Teuta fled to Rhizon and made it a stronghold during the war. The burnt layer points out a political reason for piracy, namely war. The burnt layer combined with the geographical location of Rhizon make a case for Rhizon being a binge-economy serving pirates. Proxy data, such as amphorae and coins, indicate an economic complexity characterized by long distance trade. Such a complexity is essential for piracy to flourish, since it provides the pirates with victims to attack. Modern day piracy in the Strait of Malacca committed by Somali pirates has much more complicated roots, but its reasons are still political and economic. Besides piracy for economic benefits, they also commit piracy to revolt against the current political situation. This might also be the case with the Illyrian pirates, since their political situation was similar to that of Somalia. The Illyrians were divided into tribes, with constant wars and without political unity.Show less
This thesis investigated the spatial organisation and functional patterning of the rooms of the Oppian pavilion of the Domus Aurea, which was built by Emperor Nero in AD 60-68. The study uses a...Show moreThis thesis investigated the spatial organisation and functional patterning of the rooms of the Oppian pavilion of the Domus Aurea, which was built by Emperor Nero in AD 60-68. The study uses a combination of an analysis of the decorative programme of the Domus as published by Meyboom and Moormann in ‘Le Decorazioni Dipinte e Marmoree Della Domus Aurea di Nerone a Roma’ (2013), and an analysis of the spatial organisation of the building using Space Syntax techniques. The Oppian pavilion has never been subject to a formal spatial analysis prior to this thesis. The new perspective the analyses offer on the pavilion allows to shed new light on an area until now hardly explored. The results achieved by this thesis suggest that the Oppian pavilion was very unlikely to have had residential functions. Concluding from the Visibility Graph Analyses performed, most of the rooms were visually highly integrated, presuming rather a public function. At least two big dining rooms were present: rooms 40 and 128. The spatial and decorative characteristics of these rooms complement and amplify each other. The two rooms, moreover, were included in a pattern of visibility lines, called an ‘enfilade’. The enfilade pattern emerged from room 45a and continued on to the eastern end of corridor 92, from there it continued its way to room 132, and from room 132 it went through the Pentagonal Courtyard garden (no. 80a) and the porticoed gallery (no. 21), to end in room 9. A noticeable fact is that the enfilade pattern is cut off where the ‘Second Pentagonal Court’ is thought to have started. Hence it is very likely that th e ‘Second Court’ had a function that was entirely different from that of the rest of the Oppian pavilion. The spatial analysis in this thesis was applied from the perspective of the entrances of the pavilion only. Future investigations of the Domus which focus on all individual rooms as the root nodes for convex spatial studies could well contribute to gaining even more new insights into the spatial organisation of the pavilion.Show less
This study explores the religious developments on the Maltese archipelago from the Neolithic period until the incorporation of the islands into the Byzantine Empire in 535 CE. By chronologically...Show moreThis study explores the religious developments on the Maltese archipelago from the Neolithic period until the incorporation of the islands into the Byzantine Empire in 535 CE. By chronologically analyzing evidence for religious activities on the islands, gleaned from the corpus of published works, in a diachronic perspective and using an explorative approach, the continuity of traditions, sites and possibly beliefs are systematically studied. The result then is a religious biography of the islands, discussing mainly the continuity of phenomena and the development of religious activities. The Maltese archipelago was subjected to many different cultural influences, which is reflected in the development of religious activities. A gradual evolution from the early Neolithic up till the start of the Bronze Age can be witnessed, during which foreign influences can be recognised. After the Bronze Age, which was fundamentally different in religious traditions than its predecessor, the Orientalising influence brought upon by the Phoenicians shaped the religious landscape of the archipelago, laying the fundaments for the succeeding millennium-and-a-half. The rise of several powers in the Mediterranean area (such as the Etruscans, Greeks and the Romans) influenced Malta indirectly. During the Punic and Roman phases the religious activities are affected by Hellenising influences, seen in material culture and the identification of deities. Under Roman Imperial rule the population gradually adopts more Roman religious customs. There is some evidence for some of the Eastern mystery cults of Mithras and Isis, but future research should help to elucidate this. From the fifth century CE onwards there is enough evidence to confirm the presence of a Diaspora Jewish community, as well as infer that a good amount of the population at that time followed the religion of Christianity. The religious developments show how insularity at one hand encouraged local development of traditions, while the high connectivity due to the geographical location of the islands encouraged the introduction of new traditions. As a result a clear line of development can be traced and influencing trends can clearly be distinguished. There are still some areas, such as some of the iconography encountered, which require further exploration to provide a better understanding of the religious developments on the islands.Show less
Over the past decades there have been new theories and methods applied to research in archaeology. This research is an attempt to apply some of these new ideas to the archaeological site, Lepcis...Show moreOver the past decades there have been new theories and methods applied to research in archaeology. This research is an attempt to apply some of these new ideas to the archaeological site, Lepcis Magna. The theory of Space Syntax will be applied to create new data that can be analyzed and interpreted. Recently, there have been multiple studies on identity that have been examined and researched more extensively in relation to the field of archaeology. A combination of space syntax theory and identity studies will be applied in order to have a deeper understanding of past cultural identity of the people of Lepcis Magna between the late first century BC to the Severan period. It has been documented that the inhabitants of Lepcis Magna had a strong Punic background during their incorporation into the Roman Empire. In previous publications on the city, the people are often described as rejecting the Romanization process. New approaches to identity studies on the provincial cities throughout the Roman Empire have attempted to step back from Romanization theory and reexamine the culture and identity of the people. A conscious effort will be made to try and examine the material from an unbiased Romanization point of view. There will also be an evaluation of the space syntax methods to see if it is feasible to approach the study of identity through the examination of space. One will attempt to analyze and interpret areas of high connectivity that will be determined by the analysis applied. Within the areas of high connectivity one will determine if there is a specific identity being projected. It will be from the interpretations that one might discover a collective cultural identity of the people. This research aims to gain a better understanding of past identities of the people of Lepcis Magna through the application of Space Syntax theory.Show less
This thesis was written with the objective to re-examine the Aegyptiaca on Malta and Gozo during the Phoenician and Punic phases, in order to achieve a better understanding of the cultural exchange...Show moreThis thesis was written with the objective to re-examine the Aegyptiaca on Malta and Gozo during the Phoenician and Punic phases, in order to achieve a better understanding of the cultural exchange processes, which would have occurred during the first millennium BCE. Because of the geographic location of the islands in the middle of the Mediterranean, Malta holds a unique position, where several different cultures meet and merge. Based on previously published material (Hölbl 1989 and Sagona 2005), every object has been critically discussed and analyzed within its archaeological and cultural context. While some of the objects were created in Egypt, others were good copies of Egyptian originals, produced elsewhere. While a number of the objects might have been associated with purely aesthetic values, some of our objects allow for a deeper religious association. On Malta we see a convergence of Egyptian and Levantine influences, merged together in Phoenician art. This is not a strange phenomenon, as the Phoenicians themselves already adopted and changed many aspects of different cultures, which they again distributed across the Mediterranean. Where cultures meet they can merge together to form a new culture, but that is not always the case. People can also resist a new dominating culture by falling back on an older culture. This feat is shown in the numismatics of Malta and Gozo, as even under the new Roman domination coins were minted with Punic and Phoenician deities and motifs displayed on them.Show less
