Panel 8.17 – Roman shops and workshops


Organiser/Chair:

  • Erich Kistler (University of Innsbruck)

 

Speakers:

Paper abstracts

1. Riccardo Di Cesare and Daniela Liberatore (Università degli Studi di Foggia)

Workshops and Tabernae: New Data for the Economic History of Alba Fucens
The foundation of Castra Vetera and the deployment of two legions a few years BC is the starting point of large scale economic acitivities in the region of what is today the city of Xanten. Grain, oil and meat in large quantitities were needed to feed the troops. But the legionaries needed also cloths, leather, ceramics, metal objects Recent archaeological excavations in Alba Fucens are shedding new light on the artisanal productions and the economic and religious life of the ancient Latin Colony. The discovery of a coroplastic workshop along the southern edge of the Forum, dating back to the III cent. B.C., has added new evidence and allows to reconsider old data and broader archaeological-historical problems. The kiln produced terracotta votives, lamps and architectural revetments for a nearby sanctuary; inscribed items, such as moulds and pottery, refer both to the workshop and the religious activity of the first inhabitants of the city. The kiln was dismissed when a large terracing was built and changed the destination of the area in the II cent B.C. At the end of the II-beginnings of the I cent. B.C rows of tabernae were built in the city centre, along the main streets and the southern edge of the Forum: one of these, next to the terracing, has been also excavated in recent years.
The paper will discuss the role of the crafts and workshops, the cults and the economy in defining the city of the III-I cent. B.C. At the same time it will address the issues of the transformations of the economic life and of the urban space from the Late Republican times until the beginnings of Late Antiquity.
A series of activities, of producers and customers, attested from the archaeological and epigraphical evidence, will also be analysed.

 

2. Eva Riediker-Liechti (Universität Zürich)

Wirtschaft und Handel auf dem Monte Iato (Sizilien) in römischer Zeit - das Beispiel der Garküche
Von 1992 bis 2007 wurde durch das Institut für Archäologie der Universität Zürich auf dem Monte Iato in Sizilien ein aus zwei Räumen bestehendes Gebäude aus römischer Zeit freigelegt, das mit einer mächtigen Zerstörungsschicht gefüllt war. Der Einsturz des Baus ist wohl mit einem Erdbeben in der frühen Kaiserzeit zu verbinden, dessen Auswirkung sich in mehreren Bereichen der antiken Stadt nachweisen lässt. Zahlreich aufgefundene Fragmente von Tafelgeschirr und Gebrauchskeramik, ein gemauerter Schanktisch, diverse Knochenfunde sowie ein Ofen führen zur Deutung des Gebäudes als Garküche.
In Pompeji existierten über 100 Beispiele solcher Gastronomiebetriebe, während in Sizilien erst vereinzelte Garküchen identifiziert und publiziert wurden. Mit dem Lokal auf dem Monte Iato wird nun erstmals für das römische Sizilien eine Garküche im Detail vorgestellt.
Anhand dieses Beispiels werden verschiedene ökonomische Fragestellungen untersucht. So soll die Ausstattung der Garküche, aber auch ein mögliches Angebot an Speisen und Getränken zur Sprache kommen. Ein Vergleich mit Garküchen in Pompeji erlaubt es, allfällige Besonderheiten des Ietiner Lokals aufzuzeigen, während die Analyse bestimmter Fundkategorien Hinweise auf Handelsverbindungen der Stadt liefern kann. Des Weiteren erhalten wir durch die Untersuchung der Funde und Befunde Einblicke in den Alltag der Gäste (hauptsächlich Angehörige der Unterschicht). Schließlich wird die Bedeutung der Garküche im städtischen Kontext diskutiert.

 

3. Jordi Pérez González (Universitat de Barcelona)

The Singularity of Rome. The sumptuary city.
The taverns were the focus point of artisanal and commercial activity in the capital of the Empire. In Rome it’s possible to recognize a movement of these shops as part of the urban and architectural evolution by the city, integrating within its urban and commercial fabric, consequence of its displacement from the original center to the periphery. This last displacement was also linked to the establishment of these stores in the new shopping centers of the time. This commercial concentration caused the commercial displacement for other merchants, who would be located in the premises closest to these buildings.
At the same time, we see that the displacement of commercial premises from an increasingly monumental center to a more distant area isn’t a problem for commercial activity to continue throughout most of the city. Thus, linked to the economic boom of the imperial period, there was an unprecedented commercial growth in the city, making Rome a kind of big 'bazaar'.
An analysis of all the inscriptions found in the Roman Empire where the characters dedicated to the trade of the luxury products that we’re interested in here are mentioned, allows us to emphasize, first, the singularity of Rome as the focus of attraction of the sumptuous traffic in comparison to the ‘The rest of the Italian regions and Roman provinces’, and second, the high interest of the urban elites for the jewels, cloths and ointments.

 

4. Macarena Bustamante-Álvarez

The domestic tabernae in Hispania
The study of the urban craftsman, his productive space and his problematic socioprofesional in the Antiquity is a well-known subject and well systematized in some points of the Roman Empire from the seventies, as in France or Italy. On the contrary, other geographic spaces like in Hispania, do not enjoy this advantageous position; Either because of poor conservation conditions of material evidence, or because research has focused on other macroeconomic and monumental aspects. This is why it is an open field, constantly breaking and potentially very fruitful for research in the coming years.
The aim of this presentation is to carry out a first archaeological and socioeconomic characterization of commercial and productive urban spaces within the framework of the Hispania (I a.C.-III d.C.). Fundamentally, we pursue the identification of these spaces and the detailed study of the material remains located there in a functional, polysemic and interdisciplinary clause. We will present a first list of the domestic tabernae located in Hispania.

 

5. Hilary Becker (Binghamton University)

Commerce in color: product choice in pigments at the Roman marketplace
Pliny’s account of pigments makes it seem like a wide range of pigments from across the Roman empire (and beyond) were available to Roman consumers. But to what extent is this true? How much choice did Roman consumers actually have? These questions, as well as the marketplace envisioned in Pliny’s "Natural History", are tested by looking at Roman pigment shops, a sector of study of the Roman economy neglected until now. This study looks at trade in pigments, fleshing out for the first time what pigment shops were like and the merchants who ran them (pigmentarii). An analysis of remains of pigment shops from Pompeii and one from Rome allows a consideration of what range of pigments might have been available to the average consumer. In addition, this paper considers whether there was one-stop shopping for pigments or whether some pigments had to be bought at other specialty shops.
This study provides an opportunity to step behind the scenes of a Roman fresco to understand the economic choices with which patrons and painters were familiar. In addition, this also offers an opportunity to compare text with archaeology. Pliny describes many different types of pigments in his text, but is this text representative—or is he operating at a super-capacity that collects more pigments than regular Romans could expect to experience?