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
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 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
