Imperial Age Research Articles

A Cippus from Turris Libisonis: Evidence for the Use of Local Materials in Roman Painting on Stone in Northern Sardinia

The ancient Roman town of Turris Libisonis was located on the northern coast of Sardinia and was known in the past as an important naval port. Located in the Gulf of Asinara, it was a Roman colony from the 1st century BCE and became one of the richest towns on the island. Among the archaeological finds in the area, the cippus exhibited in the Antiquarium Turritano is of great interest for its well-preserved traces of polychromy. The artefact dates back to the early Imperial Age and could have had a funerary or votive function. The artefact was first examined using a portable and non-invasive protocol involving multi-band imaging (MBI), portable X-ray fluorescence (p-XRF), portable FT-IR in external reflectance mode (ER FT-IR) and Raman spectroscopy. After this initial examination, a few microfragments were collected and investigated by optical microscopy (OM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy in ATR mode (ATR FT-IR) and micro-ATR mode (μATR FT-IR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) to improve our knowledge and characterize the materials and to determine their provenience. The results contribute to a better understanding of the provenance of materials and shed light on pigments on stone and their use outside the Italian peninsula and, in particular, Roman Sardinia.

Unearthed, Smuggled and Decontextualized Carl Schmidt and the Provenance of Hamburg’s Papyrus Bilinguis 1

Abstract Information regarding the provenance of papyrological material that was acquired in the Egyptian antiquities market in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is scarce and often unreliable. This article investigates the provenance of Hamburg’s Papyrus Bilinguis 1, famed for containing the apocryphal Acta Pauli. By researching archival files documenting the acquisition and the context of the find, the papyrus is shown to have been acquired in breach of the Egyptian antiquities law of 1912. The article reveals how Carl Schmidt (1868–1938), the collector who acquired the manuscript for the Hamburg library, by concealing information, tried to cover up his own criminal involvement in the smuggling of the manuscript. Through the investigation of a manuscript that was acquired by a public German institution in awareness of its illegality, the article hopes to contribute to current debates on the translocation of cultural heritage artefacts to Europe and the US in the age of European colonialism and imperialism.

RELIEF SCULPTURE OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS FROM ANCIENT GERASA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

GERASA, in north Jordan, dating to the Roman period, has been found to contain impressive and well - Musicians and Musical instruments carving on architecture elements (pedestal or candelabrum base). The Gerasa carving expertly combined motifs with a long tradition, some going back to the Roman imperial age and earlier. This study is concerned with the musical instruments appear on architecture elements. The article provides a study of the musical instruments that can be classified into two main types: Aulos and Kithara. Purpose of this paper is to examine the details of those instruments and compare them with other musical instruments from the Roman period, where influences in design within and between regions can be seen. Wherever possible, comparative examples have been chosen from sites that are relatively nearby to establish an overview of musical instruments in the region, but also to distinguish the influences coming from Asia Minor and other areas.

Book Review: Scott Eastman, A Missionary Nation: Race, Religion, and Spain's Age of Liberal Imperialism, 1841-1881

Book Review: Scott Eastman, <i>A Missionary Nation: Race, Religion, and Spain's Age of Liberal Imperialism, 1841-1881</i>

Global Monarchy: Royal Encounters in the Age of Empire

AbstractMonarchy is one of the oldest truly global social structures. On the eve of the imperial age, most of the world was governed by monarchs. But as the European empires expanded, this order was radically transformed. During the long nineteenth century, most non-European monarchies were conquered by imperial powers. Often, European imperial powers abolished them, imprisoning, killing, or exiling local rulers; in other cases, the imperial powers incorporated the conquered monarchies into new imperial orders of indirect rule. Yet, there were some monarchies that survived Europe’s imperial expansion. In fact, every country that retained its independence in the era of high imperialism was ruled by a monarch: Ethiopia, China, Japan, the Ottoman empire, Persia (Iran), and Siam (Thailand). To some extent, these monarchs lived in the same social worlds as their European counterparts, forming a global, status-based community. This article offers some observations on the relationship between the world’s monarchs in the age of empire by focusing on encounters between European monarchs and those of the few non-European countries that retained their independence.

La Vestale Massima Flavia Publicia e l’immunitas della tabella di Turris Libisonis

Abstract In order to frame the legal status of the Vestals in the imperial age regarding the immunities granted to the priestesses of Vesta, the study of the tabulae immunitatis which mentions the Vestal Virgin Maxima Flavia Publicia, who lived in the 3rd century A.D., appears of great interest. The object of analysis will be the two tabulae immunitatisattesting to the granting of immunitas in jugo to Flavia Publicia and the tabula in naucellamarina found in 2007 in Sardinia, in Porto Torres, the ancient Iulian colony of Turris Li-bisonis, in which reference is made to an unprecedented immunity concerning the exemp-tion from the payment of portoria for goods transported from Flavia Publicia, from TurrisLibisonis to Ostia, with a ship owned by her conducted by the slave of the Vestal Maxima,Eudromos, appointed by the priestess to the role of magister navis.

Vowel mergers in the Latin of the Danubian provinces of the Roman Empire as evidenced in inscriptions

AbstractThe present study analyzes the transformation of the vowel system and especially the process of vowel mergers based on the Latin inscriptions of the Danubian provinces. With the help of the Computerized Historical Linguistic Database of the Latin Inscriptions of the Imperial Age (http://lldb.elte.hu/), it tries to draw and then compare the phonological profiles of the selected provinces and to describe the dialectal position of the Danubian provinces regarding vocalism in the first four centuries AD. The analysis, which also covers comparisons with certain provinces of Italy and Dalmatia, is carried out considering four aspects: the ratio of vocalic versus consonantal changes, the ratio of vowel mergers compared to vocalic changes, the ratio of e-i and o-u mergers compared to each other, and the ratio of vowel mergers by stressed and unstressed syllable. As a result of the present study, it was revealed that Danubian provinces cannot be treated as a unit or as clearly separate from the other areas studied according to either aspect of the study. The Dacian development, which can only be observed in the 2nd–3rd century, can easily be placed among the Danubian provinces, so it is not necessary to connect it with the developmental trends in southern Italy. The present study, which continued József Herman's research, managed to explore the hitherto little-known linguistic and dialectological features of Latin in the Danubian provinces.

Histories of Scale: Java, the Indies and Asia in the Imperial Age, 1820–1945, by Vincent Houben

Histories of Scale: Java, the Indies and Asia in the Imperial Age, 1820–1945, by Vincent Houben

A Sociolinguist's Look at the “Language” in Large Language Models

Abstract Large language models (LLMs) work by training text-generating systems through the use of digitized corpora that make natural language available in datafied form for natural language processing. LLMs are rooted in these culture-specific, socio-historically conditioned understandings of language, inaugurated during the imperial age of national print cultures and further consolidated by computing culture itself. However, understanding languages as digital data sets whose patterns can be probabilistically reproduced is a simplistic reduction of an already reified linguistic epistemology. This article discusses the sociolinguistic implications of LLM design and implementation.

The Julio-Claudian Roman Family and Their Role in Establishing the Foundations of the Early Imperial Age (14–68 AD)

The Julio-Claudian family was credited with solidifying the foundations of the Roman Empire, which was anxious due to the deeply rooted republican thought in the Senate (Senatus), which was looking for opportunities to pounce on the empire and return it to the republican era. However, this family stood against this project by creating the Imperial Guard (Praetorian), especially after the assassination of Julius Caesar inside the Senate with knives by the council members. The decisive word in the power transition process was for the leaders of the Imperial Guard, whose command to maintain their influence and dominance was linked to the emperor’s survival; therefore, they stood against the return of the republic.

Kaçak electricity: negotiating rights and privileges in the Ottoman Empire during the imperialist era

ABSTRACT What are the political and economic relationships between public utilities, companies, states and people that contemporary societies inherited from the age of imperialism, when new energy infrastructures and technologies started spreading across the world? Through a historical-anthropological exploration of kaçak (informal/illicit/smuggled) electricity use and exchange during the late Ottoman Empire, this article analyzes how the relationships between companies, state and consumers were negotiated at the outset of electrification and how the moral economic discourses established in this era continues to influence the current nexus. By examining the terms of formal and informal access to electricity in the Ottoman Empire, first as a privilege for the few and then as a public good, I show how people living in the periphery during capitalist markets’ expansion to the Ottoman Empire related to electricity as a new commodity. Through examining kaçak use and exchange in the process of Ottoman electrification, I argue that the question of kaçak is a moral economic discourse on who is a citizen worthy or deserving of access to public utilities and infrastructure, extending to the relationship between economic privileges and political rights that is also at the center of the current global debates about neoliberalism and privatization.

Ancient Roman Coins from the Republican Age to the Imperial Age: A Multi-Analytical Approach

We report here the results of a multi-analytical approach to characterize twelve Roman coins dating from the third century B.C. to fifth century A.D. that were found in the surroundings of Rome and for which the year of minting is determined by numismatic analysis. The coins were studied using SEM-EDS, EMPA, XRD, and FTIR techniques, enabling semi-quantitative and quantitative determinations of the chemical and mineralogical composition of the alloys and corrosion products. SEM-EDS analyses highlighted the occurrence of corrosion products on the surfaces and wide chemical variations due to selective enrichment or depletions of the alloying metals. The EMP analyses showed that three of the twelve coins are made of copper (1), one is a copper–tin alloy (2), five are copper–tin–lead alloys with elements in different proportions (3), two are copper–lead alloys (4), and another one is a subaerata coin (5). In addition, the physical parameters of the coins, i.e., density, weight, and diameters, were measured to have an overall characterization.

Exaptation in Transitional Urban Morphologies: First Notes on the Dynamics of Urban Form Read through the Theories of Natural Evolution

Studying the dynamics of urban form means questioning the processes of evolution of the form in general. The current discussion on the architecture of buildings and urban spaces has drawn the concept of adaptation from theories of natural evolution. These notes propose a reflection on the opposite and controverse concept of exaptation as it was proposed by the biologist and paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould in 1982. Through some examples (the different transformations of some Roman amphitheaters of the imperial age and the metamorphoses that occurred in the 20th century to some Chinese urban fabrics, originally made by courtyard houses), it is possible to extend to urban forms the idea of the casual co-optation for new uses of organs and anatomical parts developed for other reasons. This kind of reflection opens up innovative considerations on the potential of transitional urban analysis and its repercussions on evolutive urban transformation processes.

Communicating disease, care and healing. The role of medical inscriptions and patient reports in temple medicine from classical antiquity to the roman imperial age

Communicating disease, care and healing. The role of medical inscriptions and patient reports in temple medicine from classical antiquity to the roman imperial age

Characterization and provenance of Roman tiles from the archaeological sites of Cariati, Scala Coeli and Terravecchia (Calabria, Southern Italy)

This paper concerns the archaeometric study carried out on a group of tiles and a brick belonging to the Roman period. In particular, the samples are dated back to the late 3rd-1st century BC and they come from the archaeological sites of Cariati, Scala Coeli and Terravecchia, in the province of Cosenza (Calabria, Southern Italy). Some of these samples are impressed with the stamps L./N. LUSIPETEL and M. MECONI, belonging to a production plant that operated in the north-central Ionian coast of the Calabria Region between the late Republican period and the Imperial age, owned to two important families of Petelia (today Strongoli). All samples were analyzed by Optical microscopy, X-ray Powder Diffraction and Energy Dispersion Microanalysis by Scanning Electron Microscope, in order to determine their minero-petrographic features and their geochemical composition, to identify the extraction area of the raw materials and the technological aspects related to the processing of the clay. In addition, the comparison between the chemical composition of the samples with the clay and the sand coming from some quarries of the Cariati area confirms that most of the samples were locally produced using raw materials from natural Pliocene outcrops.

Designs on Empire: America's Rise to Power in the Age of European Imperialism. By AndrewPriest. Columbia University Press, 2021. xi + 290 pp. £30.00.

Designs on Empire: America's Rise to Power in the Age of European Imperialism. By AndrewPriest. Columbia University Press, 2021. xi + 290 pp. £30.00.

Inventing the Middle East: Britain and the Persian Gulf in the age of global imperialism; Worldmaking in the long great war: how local and colonial struggles shaped the modern Middle East

Inventing the Middle East: Britain and the Persian Gulf in the age of global imperialism; Worldmaking in the long great war: how local and colonial struggles shaped the modern Middle East

Reconstruction and Empire: The Legacies of Abolition and Union Victory for an Imperial Age ed. by David Prior (review)

Reconstruction and Empire: The Legacies of Abolition and Union Victory for an Imperial Age ed. by David Prior (review)

About the Circulation of the Heracles Myth in the Imperial Age Some Suggestions on theHerakliskosof PhilostratusMinor

The fifth Imago of PhilostratusMinor, which portrays baby Heracles’ struggle against the snakes sent from Hera, appears to be inspired by two Pindaric works (Nem. 1 and *Pae.20). This paper explores the possibility that some linguistic features of Philostratus’ ekphrasis can be borrowed (presumably by secondary source) from Panyassis’ lostHerakleia. By going against thecommunis opinio, it is suggested that this archaic exametric poem may have survived through Imperial Age, until the 2nd century AD, alongside other mythographic and poetic works about the Heracles’ saga.

Il nutrimento dell'infante tra costume e diritto

Abstract - In ancient Rome, the phenomenon of infants fed by hired nurses could be dated back as early as the late republic. The practice became even more widespread during the imperial age, owing to the updating social customs and the medical culture of that time. Although it is widely believed in the literature that the age of the Antonines there was an attempt to curb this tendency, by reverting back to encouraging mothers to assume the role of feeding the infants, there is no specific legislative intervention to attest. However, my research points out that the testimony of Gellius, who reports on Favorinus, a strenuous defender of traditional maternal care for infants, and some other sources from the 2nd century seem to give actual confirmation of the great topicality of this subject at that historical moment.