An interdisciplinary reassessment of a vital and understudied field.
Material remains of houses and textual evidence for private living are
crucial to our understanding of the architectural and decorative
characteristics of the ancient house and the way private space was used.
As buildings in which a range of activities could take place, ancient
houses constitute an indispensable source for understanding social,
economic, political, and religious aspects of past societies. However,
despite their invaluable significance for our knowledge of ancient
times, they remain a largely underappreciated research field. This
volume intends to add a contribution to housing studies by using a broad
diachronic and transcultural approach that addresses Roman, Late
Antique, Byzantine, and the Early Islamic periods. The contributions are
based on papers presented at the 8th International ANAMED Annual
Symposium The Palimpsest of the House: Re-Assessing Roman, Late Antique,
Byzantine, Early Islamic Living Patterns (Koç University Research Center
for Anatolian Civilizations in Istanbul, 2013). The volume focuses on
the developments, continuities, changes, and exchanges private housing
across the Mediterranean underwent in these time periods, giving ancient
Constantinople, the venue of the symposium, special attention. All
contributions present up-to-date results and interpretations of field
and research projects as well as new readings of literary and
epigraphical evidence.
Of the multiple perspectives that can be explored when studying ancient
housing, this volume opts for a diachronic and interregional approach
prioritizing a focus on the architectural remains of urban, suburban,
and rural upper-class houses, which due to their often century-long
occupation allow retracing different building and occupation layers and
thus to study them as "palimpsests." By considering a broad time frame
and utilizing a cross-cultural viewpoint, the volume intends to reflect
on transitional periods and the impact of historical events and
investigates patterns of networks, encounters, and (mutual) exchanges.
