Early Roman Research Articles

Ulrich Werz (January 15, 1964 – June 14, 2023)

Ulrich Werz, who died on 14th June 2023 at the age of 59, was well known in Germany and beyond for his work on Roman countermarks, and later, for his analyses of coin finds and contributions to the new research area of digital numismatics. Born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1964, he studied Classical Archaeology, Ancient History and Archaeology of Asia Minor at the Georg August University in Göttingen. He then attended the Goethe Universität in Frankfurt am Main where he turned to numismatics, writing a masters’ thesis on depictions of Aphrodite on Roman Provincial coins in Asia Minor. From 1996 Werz worked on his doctoral study concerning the countermarks on Roman bronze coins of the early Roman Empire in the Rhine area under the supervision of Hans-Markus von Kaenel. The resulting dissertation, Gegenstempel auf Aesprägungen der frühen römischen Kaiserzeit im Rheingebiet: Grundlagen, Systematik, Typologie was published in Winterthur in 2009 and included more than 12,100 countermarks. Werz travelled widely to collect material for his study and made thousands of plaster casts.

Egyptian and Oriental Ornaments in the Necropolis of Iulia Traducta (Algeciras, Strait of Gibraltar). Reflections on the Socio-Cultural Influences in the “Circle of the Strait” During the Early Roman Empire

Three small items belonging to different grave goods found in the Roman necropolis of Iulia Traducta (Algeciras, southern Spain) are analysed in this paper. Their clear provenance from Eastern Mediterranean contexts, as well as their characteristics, allow us to make some observations on the influence and continuity of Punic cultural, economic, and social traditions in this city at the start of the Roman Early Imperial period. The survival of certain Punic features in the face of Roman cultural currents has already been observed and reported by other researchers in various locations in the Strait of Gibraltar.

Guy Bradley: Early Rome to 290 BC. The Beginnings of the City and the Rise of the Republic.

Guy Bradley: Early Rome to 290 BC. The Beginnings of the City and the Rise of the Republic.

Fanari Hill in the Urban Plan of Hellenistic and Early Roman Nea Paphos and the Question of the ‘Two Akropoleis’ of Nea Paphos

The topography of ancient Nea Paphos features two hillocks, Fabrika and Fanari, that would provide a natural setting for buildings of some significance in the city’s life. Recent discoveries at Fabrika have identified its southern part as a sacred area of the Hellenistic and early Roman period. In contrast, Fanari hill remains virtually unexplored while there are reasons to believe that, beside housing another temple, it was the seat of the civil/military power of the Ptolemies. The aim of this paper is to re-examine all topographical and archaeological evidence related to the Fanari site and its role in the life of Nea Paphos.

Tripolis and the Maeander River

The Büyük Menderes River, which plays an important role in the formation of the geomorphology of Western Anatolia, has been a factor directly affecting the life established on the geography where it has been located for millennia. In the case of Tripolis, the importance of the Büyük Menderes River and the archaeological excavations that have been going on for ten years, our knowledge and views on how the trade of the city may have been shaped by the role played by the Büyük Menderes River are increasing day by day. In this study, we have tried to convey our views and information about the city's connection with the Büyük Menderes River and its dominance over the river and the valley formed by the river. As a result of the archaeological excavations, it has been revealed that Tripolis, located within the borders of the Lydia Region, has been intensively involved in commercial activities since the Late Hellenistic and Early Roman Imperial Periods. Both written sources and archaeological data show that Tripolis had a significant share in interregional trade. The fact that the city was built on a hill close to the fertile lands of the Menderes Valley allowed it to dominate the fertile agricultural lands irrigated by the Menderes River. It is understood that the city used the conveniences provided by its geopolitical position in a very efficient way, and it shows that the city also benefited from all the opportunities offered by the Büyük Menderes River.

A Cognitive View of the Legend of “EL DORADO”

The classical 1st attention spared in autism, the quantum 2nd attention hurt in it, and the classical-quantum blend (or 3rd attention) hurt in madness are echoed by the legend of El Dorado—the Colombian Muisca coated with gold dust who released it after sailing to and diving into the center of Lake Guatavita[1]. El Dorado suggests that nature re-creates finiteness (1st) through infinity (2nd) in nothingness (3rd). That vision makes the “logos heuristics.” El Dorado, logos, Leonardo da Vinci’s mural “Fight for the Standard,” Alfred Wegener’s 1915 drift of continents, and plate tectonics tell us that Sir Walter Raleigh never wrote Shakespeare’s plays (e.g., “The Merchant of Venice”). They also tell us that climatic avalanches can be barred by a Third Rome assembly, built at the very least by the USA, Ukraine, and Russia (Hitler’s nemeses). The Third-Rome should follow a Cincinnatus[2] as wily as was in the 9th century the Viking St. Olga, her grandson St. Vladimir/Volodymyr, her Norse father-in-law Riúrik, or his great-grandson Yaroslav the Wise.[1] The nothingness at the center of a circle/cross makes a shut door in the 2nd and an open door into the 3rd attention.[2] Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was a retired and mythical short-term dictator in the early Roman Republic.

Photogrammetry and GIS to investigate modern landscape change in an early Roman colonial territory in Molise (Italy)

Legacy data in the form of historical aerial imagery can be used to investigate geomorphological change over time. This data can be used to improve research about the preservation and visibility of the archaeological record, and it can also aid heritage management. This paper presents a composite Image-Based Modelling workflow to generate 3D models, historical orthophotos, and historical digital elevation models from images from the 1970s. This was done to improve the interpretation of survey data from the early Roman colony of Aesernia. The main challenge was the lack of high-resolution recent digital elevation models and ground control points, and a general lack of metadata. Therefore, spatial data from various sources had to be combined. To assess the accuracy of the final 3D model, the RMSE was calculated. While the workflow appears effective, the low accuracy of the initial data limits the usefulness of the model for the study of geomorphological change. However, it can be implemented to aid sample area selection when preparing archaeological fieldwork. Additionally, when working with existing survey datasets, areas with a high bias risk resulting from post-depositional processes can be indicated.

Criminal law principles in the legends of ancient Rome

The description of the history of early Rome (VIII-IV centuries BC) in the works of ancient authors is usually perceived as a mythological legend, which shifts the focus of scientific discussion to assessing the degree of reliability of the events being told. As a result, the normative-value and legal significance of ancient legends sufficient attention of researchers. The oral and therefore naturally plastic nature of archaic law creates additional difficulties for its modern study, in contrast to numerous and well-studied legislative texts. The author proposes to refer to modern types of legal understanding and turn down strict positivism with the aim of expanding the boundaries of legal analysis, rethinking the legend (on the example of Lucius Junius Brutus), recognizing it as a source of Roman law, and reconstructing its criminal law content. For this purpose, using socio-psychological, historical-legal, formal-logical and other scientific methods, the author singles out that part of the story that was not lost, but was steadily reproduced from generation to generation. The surviving core of the legend remained in history because it carried socially significant information modeling of behavior (behavioral stereotypes) of the ancient Romans. The article shows that children`s execution by the first republican magistrate not only legitimized the right of paternal power (patria potestas), but also proclaimed the priority protection of the public interest (civitas) that became the cornerstone of the Roman legal order. The legend set a special imperative for citizens, shaped their worldview and sense of justice. From the criminal law standpoint, this precedent fixed the standard of both prohibited behavior and retribution for it, i.e., a measure of justice, broadcast the requirements of the inevitability and personal nature of responsibility, laid foundation for the requirement of legal equality of all citizens before the law. Ultimately, the legend set the vector for the development of Roman criminal law, which led to the formation of its principles, many of which are accepted and developed in modern legal systems.

Romulus és Remus Veiiben

Romulus and Remus in Veii
 Much has been written in Classics about the relationship between early Rome and the Etruscans, from scholarly articles to secondary school textbooks. Inspired in part by recent research in archaeogenetics, this article argues for the feasibility of an approach which sees Rome and its northern neighbours as political subsystems of the same cultural unit instead of interacting as separate cultural entities. As an example of that, if one reads the early archaeological material of Veii, an Etruscan city neighbouring Rome, and the Roman origin stories transmitted in Latin literature as products of the same culture (temporarily disregarding the linguistic-ethnic divide between the two cities that became so important later on), one can shed light on the vast scale of possible interpretations which could develop in both directions.
 Keywords: early Rome, Roman myth, meta-historiography, Livy, Etruscans, ethnicity in antiquity, Veii, heroon, casa Romuli

:Etruscan Literacy in Its Social Context

:<i>Etruscan Literacy in Its Social Context</i>

When Balts Met Vikings at the Curonian Lagoon. Strategies of Social Representation at the Viking-Age Cemetery at Linkuhnen

The cemetery at Linkuhnen by River Memel had a long history of usage by local Baltic tribes, starting in the early Roman Period and continuing to the Viking Age, with the highest number of burials in the 10th–11th centuries AD. When Linkuhnen was excavated in the 1930s by German archaeologists, it was considered a Viking cemetery, since some of the grave goods (especially weaponry) seemed to bear signs of Scandinavian influences. However, the Scandinavian influence was overstated and the interaction between local Balts and Vikings was never thoroughly explained by the excavators. New research on the old excavation archives indicates that Linkuhnen was not a Viking burial ground but that incoming influences from Scandinavia brought a shift to the internal strategies of representation by local Baltic elites. The burial rite changed from simple single cremation graves to lavishly equipped collective cremation graves for members of powerful families or military units. Another remarkable feature is the large number and ‘international’ character of weaponry in the burials, some of the highest quality (Ulfberht), while the jewellery represents local types only. Unlike other Scandinavian-influenced sites on the southern Baltic coast, the Scandinavian presence in the River Memel area only led to minor interactions between Balts and Vikings, though it had a significant influence on the local Baltic elites’ internal representation of status.

Roman Seas: A Maritime Archaeology of Eastern Mediterranean Economies

Roman Seas: A Maritime Archaeology of Eastern Mediterranean Economies

Synagogues in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods: Archaeological Finds, New Methods, New Theories and The Synagogue in Ancient Palestine: Current Issues and Emerging Trends

Synagogues in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods: Archaeological Finds, New Methods, New Theories and The Synagogue in Ancient Palestine: Current Issues and Emerging Trends

Five Anastasiae and Two Febroniae: A Guided Tour in the Maze of Anastasia Legends. Part Two. The Roman Dossier. I. Anastasia Between Aquileia and Rome. 1a. From Aquileia back to the Early Roman Legend

Sections from 1 to 4 of Part Two of our study, which is dedicated to the western legends of Anastasia, are focused on an investigation of the Aquileian legend and, then, going in the reverse chronological order, on the early Roman legend before its reception in Aquileia. The plot line dedicated to Chrysogonus is an Aquileian addition lacking from the earlier Roman legend. The pious mother of Anastasia called Fausta belongs to the same plot line, whereas the mother of the “original” Anastasia was pagan.

David Abulafia, The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean: Rethinking the Mediterranean in Jewish and Christian Literary Culture from the Early Roman Empire

As part of NTT JTSR’s series on Key Texts, the present article discusses David Abulafia’s monograph The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean. It explains Abulafia’s approach to the Mediterranean as a distinctive region in the context of the wider field of Mediterranean studies. The article then explores the potential impact of Abulafia’s specific approach on the study of Judaism and Christianity from the Graeco-Roman period, taking several Jewish and Christian literary texts from the early Roman Empire as case studies. It is suggested that Abulafia’s transmaritime approach to the Mediterranean as a region offers a range of potential research avenues that has not yet been exploited by scholars of ancient Judaism and early Christianity, inviting us to recognise the pivotal role of the Mediterranean Sea in ancient Judaism and early Christianity, both as a topos and as a shaping force.

The Parable of the Tenants as a Sociolinguistic Medium of Agrarian Revolution

This paper deploys Jeffery M. Paige’s sociological theory of agrarian revolution to understand the collective violence of the parable of the tenants (Mark 12:1–12, Gos. Thom. 65). I begin with the idea that the parable involves a sharecrop-ping relation. I then use Paige’s theory to highlight that sharecropping systems in agricultural export sectors are not only correlated with revolutionary violence in Paige’s work (with statistical significance), but are part of the parable’s realistic fiction. I argue that the economic infrastructure of early Roman Palestine, including Galilee, and the violence in the parable are well explained by Paige’s theory. I also employ V. N. Voloshinov’s sociolinguistic theory of language-ideology to derive the central thesis of this paper: as a semiotic medium of social life, the parable functions as part of the ideological process that creates a fiction of a world in which agrarian revolution is realistic and acceptable.

Nicola Terrenato, The Early Roman Expansion into Italy. Elite Negotiation and Family Agendas , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2019, XX + 327 p.

Nicola Terrenato, The Early Roman Expansion into Italy. Elite Negotiation and Family Agendas , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2019, XX + 327 p.

An Early Bronze Age I Tomb, a Dwelling Cave, and a Quarry at the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem

A small salvage excavation was conducted in 2007 at the Mount of Offence (part of the Mount of Olives, Ras el-‘Amud neighborhood), overlooking Jerusalem’s old city. The excavation revealed finds of three periods: the EB Ib, late Iron Age IIc, the Early Roman, and the Byzantine periods. The EB Ib remains included a burial cave, which was only partly excavated. The remains provide important information about the inhabitants of early Jerusalem. Later, in the Late Iron Age IIc, part of the cave was cleared and used for temporary habitation, perhaps in anticipation of the impending Babylonian siege. Lastly, in the Early Roman and Byzantine periods, the mountainside was made into a quarry, unaware of the early cave. These three chronological episodes offer us a glimpse into some of the activities on the outskirts of ancient Jerusalem.

Editorial log book and review comments for Tony Björk, How to Bury the Dead: A study on regional variations in the southern Baltic area during Late Pre-Roman and Early Roman Iron Age

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How to Bury the Dead. A study on regional variations in the southern Baltic area during Late Pre-Roman and Early Roman Iron Age

This article deals with the question of regional variation in funeral customs during a part of the Early Iron Age in the Baltic Sea area. The backbone of this study is a presentation of a comparison between a selection of investi-gated cemeteries in the south Baltic area, including parts of Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Poland. The starting point is the graves of southern Sweden in general and the Istaby cemetery in particular.The graves of the elite are very important and interesting from many differ-ent aspects, but for the purposes of this study the graves of the more ordinary people are considered to better highlight the main features of the regional vari-ations. The study of burials from Late Pre-Roman Iron Age and Early Roman Iron Age in the southern Baltic includes a world of a thousand details. Sev-eral interesting observations are made regarding similarities and differences in the chronology of the cemeteries, cemetery size and complexity, visible grave monuments, burial customs, artefact types and combinations. The different and partly overlapping regional expressions in the ritual systems, makes the contacts with other people, across the sea, especially clear. A correspondence analysis shows three themes of how the dead were equipped and displayed, following rather strict patterns, suggesting that these were widely distributed idealized metaphors.Despite many differences between the regions, the main feature is the great similarities. One main conclusion drawn from this study is that there were several regional traits in burial practices in the different areas and in many of the single details mentioned above. In contrast to obvious variations, the cem-eteries had several traits in common; these give an impression of the occurrence of governing ritual norms that were generally adopted throughout a large area around the southern and western parts of the Baltic Sea. This is a very strong indication of overlying and governing ritual norms and religious beliefs that were shared among the Germanic tribes.