Imperial Estate Research Articles

Looters to collectors

Abstract During the plunder of the Summer Palace in Beijing (commonly ‘Pekin’ in English until the 1890s) by the Anglo-French army in 1860, soldiers of the British forces acquired imperial objects. They repurposed these at home in Britain as commodities, trophies and decorative art. This essay takes a critical look at their activities as collecting – the purposeful selection and assembly of objects – and considers the tastes and priorities that were factors in the selection of treasures from the imperial estate; it then examines how, in the hands of soldiers, dealers and collectors, new meanings accrued to objects that were economic, political and aesthetic. This collecting history is told through case studies involving exhibitions, designed interiors and auctions at which objects from the Summer Palace figured, and situates these within the wider collecting and exhibition cultures of the later nineteenth century. The facts show that soldiers’ collections of Summer Palace material not only fed the art market, but also had a formative impact on the understanding and valuation of the objects in the marketplace.

Isotopic Insights into Livestock Production in Roman Italy: Diet, Seasonality, and Mobility on an Imperial Estate

ABSTRACTAgriculture is the most important intersection between farming communities and the natural world, with major implications for land exploitation and labour organisation. In Italy, at the heart of the Roman Empire, understanding of agriculture remains heavily dependent on ancient sources, which are unable to provide a regional or diachronic view of practices across the socio-economic spectrum. In order to gain insight into agricultural economies in Roman Italy and their social and environmental implications, this article reconstructs agro-pastoral strategies at an imperial estate in southern Italy through a multi-isotope investigation of livestock bone collagen and tooth enamel. Analysis of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and strontium isotopes (δ13C, δ15N, δ18O, 87Sr/86Sr) are combined to evaluate animal management and mobility at Vagnari vicus and the villa of San Felice in the Basentello Valley. Results reveal taxon-specific herding strategies with the potential for significant inputs from legume forage/fodder and/or natural environments. Caprine herding did not appear to include long-distance transhumance. This analysis moves past previous text-based generalisations to provide a new and nuanced perspective on animal production in rural southern Italy and its economic and environmental implications.

:The Making of a Roman Imperial Estate: Archaeology in the Vicus at Vagnari, Puglia

:<i>The Making of a Roman Imperial Estate: Archaeology in the Vicus at Vagnari, Puglia</i>

Imperial Rhetoric in the Publicism of the Palatinate before the Bohemian Coronation of Elector Frederick V

At the turn of the 16th — 17th centuries, the imperial discourse was changing, the new German princes were determined to protect the “true faith”, and they were not against revising the agreements reached by their predecessors. Confessional and imperial propaganda was on the increase in Germany. Did the publicism of the beginning of the 17th century reflect the religious social and political demarcation between the Catholic and Evangelical estate? In the Palatinate funeral sermons and speeches of professors of the University of Heidelberg, which were distributed among the subjects of the Palatinate and fellow Calvinists, the apology of the “true faith” came to the fore, and the place of the “imperial estate” was occupied by the Evangelical and Catholic estates, which were opposed to each other. However, in the writings that had spread throughout Germany, imperial rhetoric did not recede into the background, but was transformed along with the image of the Empire itself. This was evidenced by an anonymous text of 1618 of Palatinate origin on the reasons for the destruction by the troops of the Evangelical Union of the fortress of Udenheim, erected by the bishop of Speyer, a member of the Catholic League. In the 1570s — 1580s the Empire was presented as a common home for Protestants and Catholics, an assembly of estates headed by the emperor, and before the Thirty Years’ War the rhetoric of the texts of the Palatinate was increasingly moving towards understanding the Empire only as an elite community without a clear leader. This source allows us to speak about two motives of the Elector of the Palatinate Frederick V’s decision to demolish the Udenheim fortifications: the protection of the Empire and the protection of hereditary possessions, and both of these motives are indissoluble linked — the security of hereditary lands and subjects could only be ensured in the absence of threats to the Empire. Frederick V is shown in the text as one of the main persons responsible for the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation on the banks of the Rhine. The defense of the Empire for him meant the defense of his own corner of the imperial home — territories that had traditionally, since the 14th century, been under the influence of the Rhine palatine counts.

Het Voornse Berkenrijs: van keizerlijk hakhout tot caravanopslag

Berkenrijs on Voorne: from imperial coppice to caravan park Berkenrijs means ‘birch coppice’, which was formerly used for the periodic harvesting of branches and twigs. On Voorne, ‘Berkenrijs’ is a field name that appears in records and on maps from the Middle Ages onwards. Now there are still street names: Berkenrijs, Berkenrijspad and Berkenrijsweg, all near the old Limiet between the former lordships of Rockanje and Oostvoorne. There is no longer any birch wood to be found here, but there is a single row of alders. If the land had remained the property of large landowners, coppices along the inner dune fringe would have often turned into standing wood, such as on the Voorne estates of Mildenburg and Kranenhout. After the old imperial estate Berkenrijs was given an agricultural purpose, probably not until the 20th century, it even ended up as a caravan park. In the protected village landscape established by the state (Ontginningen Voornes Duin, 2017), Berkenrijs appears to be a blind spot.

Viticulture, opus doliare, and the patrimonium Caesaris at the Roman imperial estate at Vagnari (Puglia)

AbstractThis article focuses on the establishment of a winery on the Roman imperial estate at Vagnari in southeast Italy in the 2nd c. CE and the ceramic vats (dolia defossa) needed to mature and store the estate's vintages. A scientific analysis of the clay used to make the dolia has revealed their likely place of manufacture to have been in Latium or on the border between Latium and Campania on the Tyrrhenian (west) coast of Italy. With these analytical results in hand, it is now possible to inquire into the historical and economic significance for the imperial fiscus of importing dolia for wine making in the vicus at Vagnari, the route and mechanisms by which they might have traveled to the other side of the Italian peninsula, and the connectivity between this Apulian imperial estate and other potential imperial properties in western Italy. This places the present study at the intersection of agriculture, manufacturing, and property transfer within the patrimonium Caesaris.

Tracce dell’organizzazione di una figlina imperiale a Mursa

This article aims at investigating the administration, the economic activities and the evolution of an imperial estate epigraphically attested in ancient Mursa, in Pannonia inferior, along the Drava river. Particularly, there are evidences of imperial slaves engaged in business management as well as many stamped bricks with different inscriptions. By matching these two types of epigraphs, it can be sketched that the property began its activities between the 1st and 2nd century AD, reached its maximum bricks production under Hadrian, in connection with the establishment of the colony, and went on until a sudden stop due to the Marcomannic invasion. Now, we are quite sure that the production resumed under the Severian dynasty, even if we do not know for how long it continued in the 3rd century, as is the case of neighboring provinces.

Archaeometric analysis of building ceramics and ‘dolia defossa’ from the Roman imperial estate of Vagnari (Gravina in Puglia, Italy)

This paper concerns the archaeometric analysis of ceramic finds dating to the Roman Imperial period, brought to light during the excavation campaigns conducted at Vagnari (Puglia) in south-east Italy. On the site of the central village (vicus) of this imperial estate, established by the Roman Emperor in the early 1st century CE, large dolia (wine vats) sunk into the floor of a winery of the 2nd century CE recently were brought to light. Other discoveries include kilns for the production of ceramic roof tiles and also kiln wasters such as misfired tiles. The purpose of the analytical approach was therefore twofold: 1) to establish the composition of local ceramic products and of raw clay resources available nearby; 2) to prove that the dolia were imported and not produced locally (as macroscopic observations of the ceramic vessels would suggest) and to offer a hypothesis concerning their provenance through petrographic observations and chemical analysis. The results show that roof tiles for the settlement were manufactured locally from readily available clay deposits, but the dolia were imported, by sea and/or land, from distant workshops in volcanic zones on the west coast of Italy around Rome or south of Rome near Minturno on the Campanian border.

Roman Soldiers and Imperial Properties in the Galatian-Phrygian Borderland: A New Inscription from the Eskişehir Museum

In this paper I introduce a new inscription from the Eskişehir Archaeological Museum which houses a numerous collection of inscribed material from the main civic centres such as Pessinous, Midaion, Nakoleia and chiefly of course from Dorylaion. This inscription, carved on a marble slab was discovered in the county of Mihalıccık, ca. 100 km north-east of Eskişehir (ancient Dorylaion). According to the some previously published inscriptions, a large part of this county was called Choria Considiana in antiquity, which comprised seven villages and was incorporated into the patrimonium Caesaris as early as the reign of Hadrian. Given the find-spot and the expressions διὰ τῶν Καίσαρος χωρίων κωμῶν and ἐν ταῖς τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Καίσαρος κώμαις, it can be securely said that the imperial estate recorded in this new inscription is identical with that named Choria Considiana. The attestation of the “misthotai = leaseholders” in the estate demonstrate that it was not a compact estate run by an imperial slave (=oikonomos), without the supervision of a procurator, as had previously been suggested. The inscription in all likelihood concerns a letter issued by the imperial legate of the province of Galatia and it shows that the inhabitants of Choria Considiana experienced tough times due to the inappropriate and illegal behaviour of military men and some imperial staff such as freedmen of the emperor, tabellarii, presumably conspiring with the misthotai. This letter stipulates that the soldiers and other officials shall not be provided with free lodgings and hospitality and they are required to buy the remaining things (τὰ δὲ λοιπά) at a fixed/ an offering price (παρεχούσης τειμῆς) in each place (ἑκάστῳ τόπῳ) from the coloni (παρὰ τῶν παροίκων). The inscription offers a list of punishments whose details are not known due to the fragmentary condition of those parts of the stone, if these gubernatorial orders are not adhered to. We are not sure whether these became effective in the long term based on the fact that the Skaptopara inscription manifestly records it had become a habit after some time that the orders of the governors began to be ignored, although they may have been followed for a while. There is unfortunately no hint as to the date of the inscription, because the name of the emperor or the governor is not recorded. Considering the parallel texts which also contain the complaints of the villages to the emperors and the responses they receive and which are mostly found within specific time span, ranging from the end of the 2nd century to the first half of the 3rd century A.D., one can also propose a similar date for this new inscription, which is also supported by the lettering forms employed.

Tracking Roman lead sources using lead isotope analysis. A case study from the imperial rural estate at Vagnari (Puglia, Italy)

Recent studies have utilised isotopic analysis for an understanding of the supply sources of lead to major Roman cities in Italy to good effect. Far less attention has been focused on contemporary rural sites in Italy or on the evidence for lead ore sources and the use and processing of lead in such locations. Rather than the more common focus on the isotopic analysis of lead pipes and ingots, this study concentrates on the lead processing and recycling debris, as well as the finished utilitarian objects, excavated in the central village of an imperial estate at Vagnari in south-east Italy. The archaeological and isotopic evidence indicates that the source of lead used in the production of implements here was not uniform, rather the ores stem from various regions within the Roman empire ranging from Italy, Spain, and Greece, to France or possibly Britain.

VillaMagna. An Imperial Estate and its Legacies. Excavations 2006–10. Edited by ElizabethFentress, CarolineGoodson and MarcoMaiuro, with MargaretAndrews (graphics) and J. AndrewDufton (web publication) et al. Archaeological Monographs of the British School at Rome 23. London: The British School at Rome. 2016. xix + 516 pp. €78; £ 90; US $110. ISBN 9780904152746. Digital records of the excavation available at http://archaeologydata.

VillaMagna. An Imperial Estate and its Legacies. Excavations 2006–10<b>.</b> Edited by ElizabethFentress, CarolineGoodson and MarcoMaiuro, with MargaretAndrews (graphics) and J. AndrewDufton (web publication) <i>et al</i>. Archaeological Monographs of the British School at Rome 23. London: The British School at Rome. 2016. xix + 516 pp. €78; £ 90; US $110. ISBN 9780904152746. Digital records of the excavation available at http://archaeologydata.

Эволюция казахского дворянства 19 века

Regional features played a critical role in determining the nature of the transformation ofperipheries under imperial rule and the particularities of their integration into that larger polity. Essentialto this process was the manner in which distinct societies adapted to the empire’s socio-political system–that is, their individual way of embedding themselves within a uniform imperial model. As with manyother cases, Kazakh nomadic society had an individual way of adapting and entering into the imperialsystem. Yet if regional political transformations of the Kazakh steppe in the 19th century have been theobject of historical investigation, then problem of social change in this region at the time remains largelyunstudied. This essay represents an attempt to fill this designated lack. It explores social transformationsin the second half of the 19th century, when certain members Kazakh nomadic society embraced thesocial system of the empire. The essay seeks to show how the historically closed Kazakh elite began toacquire the characteristics of an imperial estate and furthermore opened to ordinary Kazakhs. It arguesthat the integration of ordinary Kazakhs into the empire’s privileged estates –principally the nobility andso-called honored citizens–is the proof of evolution of the Kazakh nobility. The research work based onmethodology as new imperial history, social history.

The sanctuary of Zeus Sarnendenos and the cult of Zeus in northeastern Phrygia

AbstractThis article presents the discovery of two fragmentary inscriptions which demonstrate the existence of an unknown naos of Zeus Sarnendenos in the northern part of the Choria Considiana, an extensive imperial estate in northeastern Phrygia. It also presents a votive offering to Zeus Sarnendenos and five new votive inscriptions to Zeus Akreinenos found in the village of Kozlu near İkizafer (ancient Akreina?), which was apparently part of another estate, belonging to the Roman senatorial family of the Plancii, situated to the east of the Choria Considiana. These inscriptions were found during the course of an epigraphic survey carried out in 2015 in Mihalıççık, a region located 90km to the northeast of Eskişehir in modern Turkey. The article consists of three main parts. It begins with an introduction to the historical and geographical backgrounds of the survey area; this is followed by a catalogue of inscriptions and, finally, an analysis of the sanctuary of Zeus Sarnendenos and the new votive offerings to Zeus Akreinenos, with reference to other evidence for the cult of Zeus in Phrygia and neighbouring regions. The inscriptions discovered in this area provide new information about the location and dispersal of the cult of Zeus in northeastern Phrygia.

E. FENTRESS, C. GOODSON and M. MAIURO, with M. ANDREWS and J. A. DUFTON, VILLA MAGNA: AN IMPERIAL ESTATE AND ITS LEGACIES: EXCAVATIONS 2006–10 (Archaeological Monographs of the British School at Rome 23). London: The British School at Rome, 2016. Pp. xvi + 516, illus. isbn9780904152746. £90.00.

E. FENTRESS, C. GOODSON and M. MAIURO, with M. ANDREWS and J. A. DUFTON, VILLA MAGNA: AN IMPERIAL ESTATE AND ITS LEGACIES: EXCAVATIONS 2006–10 (Archaeological Monographs of the British School at Rome 23). London: The British School at Rome, 2016. Pp. xvi + 516, illus. isbn9780904152746. £90.00. - Volume 108

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Next article FreeOPEN ACCESS ON AJA ONLINE (www.ajaonline.org)Online-Only ContentPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreOnline-only content accompanying American Journal of Archaeology Volume 122, Number 3 (July 2018)SUPPLEMENTARY CONTENTImage Gallery: The Functions of Masons' Marks in the Bronze Age Palace at Malia (Crete), by Maud DevolderImage Gallery: A Cultural History of the Cretan Labyrinth: Monument and Memory from Prehistory to the Present, by Antonis KostonasImage Gallery: Urban Images in Glass from the Late Roman Empire: The Souvenir Flasks of Puteoli and Baiae, by Maggie L. PopkinAppendix: Dataset of Minoan Masons' Marks, by Maud DevolderAppendix: Inscriptions and Images That Appear on the Surviving Flasks of the Puteoli-Baiae Group, by Maggie L. PopkinMUSEUM REVIEWPresenting the Warrior? Iron Age Scythian Materials and Gender Identity at the British Museum, by James A. JohnsonREVIEW ARTICLECreating Meaning in Archaeology, by Peter S. AllenBOOK REVIEWSSocial Theory in Archaeology and Ancient History: The Present and Future of Counternarratives, edited by Geoff Emberling. Reviewed by Guy D. MiddletonGendered Labor in Specialized Economies: Archaeological Perspectives on Female and Male Work, edited by Sophia E. Kelly and Traci Ardren. Reviewed by Thomas E. EmersonKataret Es-Samra, Jordan: The 1985 Excavation and Survey, by Albert Leonard, Jr. Reviewed by Alexander AhrensMrs. Naunakhte and Family: The Women of Ramesside Deir al-Medina, by Koenraad Donker van Heel. Reviewed by Margaret Taylor DeaneThe Sunshade Chapel of Meritaten from the House-of-Waenre of Akhenaten, by Josef Wegner. Reviewed by Jacquelyn WilliamsonSummer Farms: Seasonal Exploitation of the Uplands from Prehistory to the Present, edited by John Collis, Mark Pearce, and Franco Nicolis. Reviewed by Emily HoltMaritime Transport Containers in the Bronze-Iron Age Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, edited by Stella Demesticha and A. Bernard Knapp. Reviewed by Stefano GimatzidisThe Art of Contact: Comparative Approaches to Greek and Phoenician Art, by S. Rebecca Martin. Reviewed by Jeremy TannerA Companion to the Etruscans, edited by Sinclair Bell and Alexandra A. Carpino. Reviewed by Laurel TaylorThe Dancing Lares and the Serpent in the Garden: Religion at the Roman Street Corner, by Harriet I. Flower. Reviewed by David PotterEgypt in Italy: Visions of Egypt in Roman Imperial Culture, by Molly Swetnam-Burland. Reviewed by Arabela BaerVilla Magna: An Imperial Estate and Its Legacies. Excavations 2006–10, edited by Elizabeth Fentress, Caroline Goodson, and Marco Maiuro, with Margaret Andrews and J. Andrew Dufton. Reviewed by Helena FracchiaCaddeddi on the Tellaro: A Late Roman Villa in Sicily and Its Mosaics, by R.J.A. Wilson. Reviewed by Jerrad LancasterVisualizing the Afterlife in the Tombs of Graeco-Roman Egypt, by Marjorie Susan Venit. Reviewed by Christina RiggsThe Mithraeum at Caesarea Maritima: The Joint Expedition to Caesarea Maritima Excavation Reports. Vol. 2, by Robert Jehu Bull, with Jane DeRose Evans, Alexandra L. Ratzlaff, Andrew H. Bobeck, and Robert S. Fritzius. Reviewed by Caroline DowningParadigm and Progeny: Roman Imperial Architecture and Its Legacy. Proceedings of a Conference Held at the American Academy in Rome on 6–7 December, 2011, in Honor of William L. MacDonald, edited by D. Favro, F.K. Yegül, J. Pinto, and G. Métraux. Reviewed by Lynne C. LancasterList of Books Received Next article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Archaeology Volume 122, Number 3July 2018 The journal of the Archaeological Institute of America Views: 96Total views on this site Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.3764/aja.122.3.online Copyright © 2018 by the Archaeological Institute of America. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Book Review of Villa Magna: An Imperial Estate and its Legacies. Excavations 2006-10, edited by Elizabeth Fentress, Caroline Goodson, and Marco Maiuro, with Margaret Andrews and J. Andrew Dufton

Book Review of Villa Magna: An Imperial Estate and its Legacies. Excavations 2006-10, edited by Elizabeth Fentress, Caroline Goodson, and Marco Maiuro, with Margaret Andrews and J. Andrew Dufton

Leichoudes’ pronoia of the Mangana

Leichoudes held the pronoia of the Mangana. In this case that means that he was a pronoetes of an imperial estate, in latin a curator domus divinae. The pronoia thus implies that he held an emphyteutic lease. He held it twice between 1042 and 1050 and then again in 1057-1059, while he was mesazon. He gave back the pronoia to the emperor in 1059 because of an objection raised within the synod. Someone seems to have noticed that the pronoia would be unacceptable with his new role as patriarch. This may be due to canonical restrictions imposed on higher clergy in relation to revenue and sales of property, which would be contrary to the terms of an emphyteutic lease. Therefore, the pronoia of the Mangana was a kouratoreia, the administration of an imperial estate and Leichoudes was a curator domus divinae.

Elizabeth Fentress , Caroline Goodson , Marco Maiuro , Margaret Andrews &amp; J. Andrew Dufton (ed.). Villa Magna: an imperial estate and its legacies: excavations 2006–10 (Archaeological Monographs of the BSR 23). 2016. xx+516 pages, 34 colour and 295 b&amp;w illustrations, tables. London: British School at Rome; 978-0-904152-74-6 hardback £90.

Elizabeth Fentress , Caroline Goodson , Marco Maiuro , Margaret Andrews &amp; J. Andrew Dufton (ed.). Villa Magna: an imperial estate and its legacies: excavations 2006–10 (Archaeological Monographs of the BSR 23). 2016. xx+516 pages, 34 colour and 295 b&amp;w illustrations, tables. London: British School at Rome; 978-0-904152-74-6 hardback £90.

皆川卓著, 『等族制国家から国家連合へ-近世ドイツ国家の設計図「シュヴァーベン同盟」-』, 創文社, 二〇〇五・一刊, A5, 三七一頁, 六八〇〇円

皆川卓著, 『等族制国家から国家連合へ-近世ドイツ国家の設計図「シュヴァーベン同盟」-』, 創文社, 二〇〇五・一刊, A5, 三七一頁, 六八〇〇円

Two Galatian Cults in Dacia

An unpublished inscription from Ancyra or its territory contains a dedication to Zeus Erusenos . This deity is also attested on two Latin inscriptions found in Roman Dacia (Roumania), and the cult, like several other local cults from Galatia or eastern Bithynia, was exported from Asia Minor to the new province of Dacia after it was conquered and annexed by the emperor Trajan. A Greek dedication to Zeus Sittakomikos recorded in Dacia should be emended to Zeus Heptakomikos , and identified with the cult of Zeus of the Seven Villages ( Zeus Heptakomeiton ), who was worshipped on the imperial estate called the Chora Considiana in western Galatia. Many of the Galatian migrants may have been involved in mining and quarry work.