Roman Empire Research Articles

State, Local Communities, and Water Management at the Dawn of China’s Imperial Era in the Light of Newly Excavated Documents

State, Local Communities, and Water Management at the Dawn of China’s Imperial Era in the Light of Newly Excavated Documents

Science in Community: Anatomy, Academy, and Argument in the Eighteenth-Century Holy Roman Empire.

Understanding physicians as actors who implemented the early modern ideal of collective empiricism into their practices within the local contexts of everyday life, the paper explores two cases from imperial cities in southern Germany in the 1720s and 1780s in which anatomical studies were contested. By analyzing the strategies and arguments that the two physicians used to justify and continue their anatomical dissections, it focuses on their references to different kinds of (local) community and relates these references to another type of collective: membership in a scientific academy. To examine references to community, it is proposed, offers an opportunity to better understand the spread and practice of the ideal of the study of nature as a collective project and how it was intertwined with concepts and structures of order and society in the Holy Roman Empire.

Facing death: a multidisciplinary analysis of a Romano-Egyptian mummy mask at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen

Funerary masks played a crucial role in ancient Egyptian burial practices, as part of the rituals to ensure a successful afterlife. This study presents the first comprehensive analysis of a gilded mummy mask from the Roman period in Egypt from the collections of The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen. Portraying a young female, the mask belongs to a distinctive group of mummy masks, whose origins can be identified to be coming from the Dakhlah and Kharga oases. The construction of the mask (plaster, textiles) and the constituents of its polychromy (pigments, binding media) was analysed using various non- and micro-destructive methods: imaging, cross-section analysis, optical microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy coupled to energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Additionally, samples were taken for palaeoproteomic analysis with liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. A wide range of pigments such as yellow and red ochre, carbon-based black, and Egyptian blue were identified, reflecting common materials in polychromy in Egypt during the Roman period. Notably, indigo was detected, suggesting its usage in mixtures to render purple hues. Analysis of adhesives and media identified plant gum and collagen-based animal glue. Proteomic analysis identified Equus asinus (donkey) as the predominant protein source for the collagen-based glue. The results shed light on the materials and techniques employed in ancient polychromy in Egypt in the Roman period, further enriching our understanding of artistic practices at the time.

Biological basis of extrapolation to humans from animal drug trials

A careful assessment of “life expectancy” from past centuries to the present day leads one to consider how it has gradually increased since the early 19th century, from 35 to 40 years in the period of the Roman Empire to about 53 years for men and 56 for women in 1930-35, to 66 and 70 years respectively from 1955 to 1960, with a tendency at the present time for a further modest increase especially in the female sex.

The Prisca Theologia in the Early Reformation Debates

The paradigm of the prisca theologia, developed by Marsilio Ficino in the second half of the fifteenth century, had a huge influence throughout the early modern period. Its influence on the Reformation debates, however, has not yet been investigated. In the present article, I make an initial contribution to filling this gap. In the first part, I show that theprisca theologia was widely disseminated in the territories of the Holy Roman Empire at the beginning of the sixteenth century, including at the University of Erfurt where Martin Luther was educated. In the second half, I focus on two figures central to the Reformation debates: Johann Eck and Martin Luther. As I show, Eck had an ambivalent attitude towards theprisca theologia: on the one hand, he aimed to reconcile the scholastic tradition with the ancient doctrines of theprisci theologi; on the other hand, he distanced himself from the Hermetic and magical implications of theprisca theologia. Luther, meanwhile, developed an anti-paradigm to Ficino’s prisca theologia: he argued that the improper mixing of black and white magic was born in Persia and then developed in Egypt and Greece.

The roman saltworks of the Atlantic coast of Gallaecia: Traces and evidence of a large sea salt production complex

Judging by the numerous references to its many uses and applications in the literary sources, salt was a precious commodity in Antiquity. However, the archaeological traces of sea salt production are rather scarce with only a few known sites throughout the Mediterranean preserving remains of ancient salinae. In the Roman Empire as a whole, it is the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula that has provided the greatest amount of direct evidence of sea salt production. After analysing the archaeological evidence documented in excavations and field surveys conducted during the past 10 years, this paper describes the Roman salt landscapes on the Atlantic coast of ancient Gallaecia, the distribution of evidence, and the chronological indicators allowing to date them to the Roman Imperial period. The legal and tax system determining the forms of ownership and labour organization of saltworks is also examined. In light of the results, it is possible to conclude that on the northwest Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula there was a major sea salt and fish salting production network which had a direct impact on the socioeconomic structure of provincial society.

The famous fish beds of Lebanon: the Upper Cretaceous Lagerstätten of Haqel, Hjoula, Nammoura and Sahel Aalma

The fossils of the Lebanese Upper Cretaceous Lagerstätten, especially the articulated fish, are world renowned. Famous for their soft tissue preservation and highly sought after by fossil collectors, Lebanese fossils provide key information concerning the evolution of several major extant and extinct groups of Mesozoic organisms including cephalopods, crustaceans, hagfish, sharks, marine reptiles and pterosaurs. In fact, fossils from Lebanon are so exceptional that historical documentation describing them extends back to the Roman Empire. However, despite over 1600 years of knowledge of these fossils, a thorough understanding of the depositional environments, taphonomy and palaeoecology of the four main sites, Haqel, Hjoula, Nammoura (each Cenomanian in age) and Sahel Aalma (Santonian), is lacking. Here we compile a review of the palaeoenvironments, fauna and flora of these four Lebanese Lagerstätten. Our synthesis outlines the history of fossil discovery, and describes the current understanding of the geology, ages, mode of preservation and organisms found at these four sites. We also undertake a bibliometric and holotype analysis to investigate the impact that scientific colonialism has had on Lebanon. Our data confirm that local Lebanese researchers are typically not included in publications pertaining to Lebanese fossils and that the majority of Lebanese type material is stored in large historical collections outside Lebanon, predominantly in institutions within the northern hemisphere. Here, we recommend some basic practices for researchers utilizing historical collections that can help develop local Lebanese fossil collections and establish more research opportunities for local palaeontologists.

Grylloi: A Being with Mixed Depictions from Konya

This study is based on a mixed figure on a ring stone from the Roman period (1st - 2nd. century AD) preserved in the Konya Archaeology Museum. This figure is seen as a combination of four elements: a horse protome, a Silenus mask body, rooster feet and a ram's head. This depiction, which is encountered in different typologies in Antiquity, is called Grylloi. A Greek-Roman word, widely used on ring stones since the 1st century BC, this depiction is also known by other names such as mask-animal, multi-headed creatures and fantastic concoction. These beings, usually depicted on oval rings with easily workable jasper stones, were thought to be worn as talismans or amulets with an apotropaic function. In this way, they were probably intended to ward off evil, possibly as amulets.

Военные походы варваров в Закавказье и на Боспор в 395 г. в свете современных исследований по истории европейских гуннов

In 395, according to the evidence of late antique authors, the Huns raided the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire in Transcaucasia. In the domestic historiography there is an opinion that during this raid a part of the nomads separated from the main "horde" and invaded the territories of the Bosporan kingdom, as a result of which the Bosporus (Late Antique Panticapaeum) suffered. In this article, based on the analysis of written sources and archaeological material discovered during field research in the Northern Black Sea region and the Upper Don region, the author determines the tribal affiliation of the nomads of Hunnish time, who made this rapid raid. According to his interpretation, the campaign to Transcaucasia should be associated with the Akatsirs, who were not inferior in military power to the "royal" Huns. Regarding the devastation of Panticapaeum, the author notes that the city could have suffered in the course of the established trade and economic contacts of the Bosporan kingdom with the nomads, as periodic raids and the policy of distant exploitation by the steppes were more profitable for ordinary nomads than trade. However, as the author notes, this reconstruction of the course of events can be finally confirmed only by further archaeological research in the Azov steppe, careful analysis of material sources found in the territories under the control of the Akatsirs and research in the western ethnocontact zone of the Bosporan kingdom, where organized border fairs could be located in the late 4th - early 5th centuries.

Palaeoparasitological evidence for a possible sanitary stone vessel from the Roman city of Viminacium, Serbia

The aim of this research is to determine whether palaeoparasitological analysis of mineralized concretions found within a stone vessel from the Roman city of Viminacium can shed light on its past use. The ruins of Viminacium, the capital of the Roman province of Moesia Superior, are situated 90 km southeast of the Belgrade in Serbia, and about 12 km from the town of Kostolac in the vicinity of villages Stari Kostolac and Drmno. It was established as a military camp in the first century CE with a legion permanently stationed there. The stone vessel was discovered during systematic archaeological excavations of the public bath complex with a public toilet near the amphitheater in Viminacium. The finding is dated by relative chronology in the second half of the third century. The vessel is topologically defined as a mortarium according to shape and size. Mineralized deposits were preserved inside the vessel rim, sides, and base. Microscopic analysis of the mineralized deposit revealed eggs of intestinal nematode roundworms (most likely Ascaris sp., but possibly Pterygodermatites sp.) from the sides and base of the vessel. This is the first time that parasite eggs have been identified from concretions inside a Roman stone vessel, and have strong parallels with a previous finding of parasite eggs in mineralized deposits from a ceramic chamber pot from late antique Sicily. The finding suggests the possible use, or secondary use, and function of the stone vessel as a sanitary item (such as storing wiping implements) for personal hygiene in the public bath of Viminacium. Further paleoparasitological research requires a systematic analysis of calcified deposits from Roman period stone vessels for more clear insights into their function, use and reuse.

More Water at Moatra: Archaeology, Geomorphology and Toponymy in the Territory of Sagalassos

While evidence of ancient place names is a crucial element for our understanding of the historical landscape, many of those toponyms, other than those of major urban centres, have often disappeared in the course of history. The traditional localization of one such ancient toponym, Moatra in the territory of Sagalassos, at the present-day village of Bereket in the central district of Burdur Province (SW Türkiye) has recently been questioned. Allegedly, the vicinity of the modern village presents insufficient remains to support an identification of an ancient settlement there during the Roman Imperial period and this caused scholars to look for its location elsewhere in the area. This article presents an overview of the archaeological evidence from the Bereket intramontane basin and combines it with other strands of evidence to contest this new localization and explain why Moatra could not have been situated anywhere else but at Bereket. These arguments are based on the combination of the results of past and ongoing archaeological, geomorphological and paleo-environmental research, as well as toponymic study. These data help to shed light on the long occupation of the area and clarify the somewhat exceptional nature of the settlement of Moatra within the territory of Sagalassos, providing an outstanding example of how different disciplines can contribute to our understanding of the ancient settlement landscape and the human-environment relationship in the Late Holocene.

Survey Techniques and Landscape Archaeology on the Banks of the Ancient Lacus Ligustinus (Southern Spain)

ABSTRACT The use of complementary techniques in this paper contributes to a better understanding of the long-term evolution of the riparian landscape on the southern banks of the lacus Ligustinus (current Guadalquivir marshlands) through the knowledge of related human settlements. The techniques used included field-transect surveys, malacology, anthracology, radiocarbon dating, and magnetometry. Deep plowing at the archaeological site of Haza de Santa Catalina revealed vestiges of different time periods. Comprehensive datasets based on best archaeological practices were collected to explore holistic ecological perspectives and changes over time. Here, we focus specifically on the transition between the 4th and 3rd millennia (Neolithic) and the 1st millennium b.c. (Iron Age–Early Roman period) in western Andalusia. In addition, the theoretical frameworks related to the concepts of riparia and emptyscape are expanded with the knowledge gained in the archaeological fieldwork.

Vitiligo in the 19<sup>th</sup>-century dermatological works of Vincenzo Chiarugi, Robert Willan, Jean-Louis Alibert, and Ferdinand von Hebra

Vitiligo is an iconic dermatological pathology as its clinical manifestations indelibly mark the patient through the appearance of white spots all over the body. The oldest written testimonies referring to vitiligo are: the first texts of Ayurveda, the Ebers Papyrus and the Leviticus of the Old Testament. During the Roman Empire, the doctors Aulus Cornelius Celsus and Galen, respectively in the I and II centuries AD, were the first to describe this skin disease and their statements were used by all subsequent authors. Hieronymus Mercurialis in the XVI century, Joseph Jakob Ritter Plenck in the XVIII century and Vincenzo Chiarugi again in the XIX century based their writings on the references of the two Roman doctors. After centuries of scientific inaction in the XIX century, there was an exponential increase in dermatological studies and the medical-scientific works produced in this period laid the foundations of modern dermatology. The nineteenth-century texts of Robert Willan and Thomas Bateman, Jean-Louis Alibert, Ferdinand von Hebra, and Moriz Kaposi proved fundamental for the study of skin pathologies, including vitiligo. The nineteenth-century medical-scientific vision and approach to vitiligo is shown in this work through the presentation of direct quotes extrapolated from the most important works of the authors mentioned above, this served to historically contextualize the gradual progress of medical study regarding this skin pathology.

A multi‐analytical investigation of Imperial (I‐II century AD) Roman cooking ware from ‘Villa della Piscina’ and the so called ‘Minerva Medica Temple’ (Rome, Italy)

A multi‐analytical investigation of Imperial (I‐II century AD) Roman cooking ware from ‘Villa della Piscina’ and the so called ‘Minerva Medica Temple’ (Rome, Italy)

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.

Historiography and Political Discourse The history of Roman imperialism in the thought of Theodor Mommsen and Tenney Frank

This article explores the nexus between power and historiography, particularly ancient Roman imperialism, in the German and American historical writings from the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Scholars have intensively explored the use of the roman imperialism in supporting the British imperialism. However, the relations between Roman imperialism and its usage in German and American historiography remain critically unexplored. Through the of Michel Foucault’s power-knowledge and discourse analysis, this paper aims to delves into the relationships between power of those traditions and historical productions. The central questions are: How does the narrative surrounding Roman imperialism shape discussions on the nation-state building and expansion beyond state borders? And how does the discourse on Roman imperialism incorporates racial theories? particularly in the works of German scholar Theodor Mommsen and American scholar Tenney Frank. Despite their different approaches, both scholars drew from Roman history to achieve similar political aims. This paper contends that history, as exemplified by Roman imperialism, serves as a powerful tool in justifying political actions.

Virgil's Feminist Counterforce: Juno's Furor as Matter of Imperium's Unjust Forms

Abstract In this article, I offer a new philosophical interpretation of Virgil's Aeneid, dually centered on the queens of Olympus and Carthage. More specifically, I show how the philosopher-poet Virgil deploys Dido's Junonian furor as the Aristotelian matter of the unjust Roman imperium, the feminist counterforce to the patriarchal force disguised as peaceful order. The first section explores Virgil's political and biographical background for the raw materials of a feminist, anti-imperial political philosophy. The second section, following Marilynn Desmond, situates the continuing misogynist condemnation of Virgil's two goddess-queens in the context of their honored centrality in Roman and Carthaginian culture. The third section reinterprets Virgil's goddess-queens as agents of furor as (apparently mad) feminist counterforce to the (actually mad) unjust force of the Roman empire via its agents Jupiter and Aeneas. The fourth section translates these poetic-philosophical interpretations into prose, arguing that Dido's Junonian furor is the Aristotelian matter constituting the unjust forms of Roman imperium. And the conclusion applies the latter analysis to Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's Empire, suggesting Dido as a model for the “multitude” in the fight against the imperial injustice of today's globalized empire.

Metal finds from the stone crypt in the northern part of the Pantikapaean necropolis (“Glinishche” district): a comprehensive analysis

The article is focused on the study of the alloy composition and the peculiarities of the manufacturing technique of metal objects uncovered during the excavation in the crypt in the northern part of the Panticapaeum necropolis. Based on the results of research on the details of funeral wreaths with natural science methods, it was established that they were made of gold of a fairly high standard. The use of such an alloy in the Roman period was recorded for items from the excavations at the Panticapaeum and Phanagoria necropolises. Bosporan jewellers made parts of funeral wreaths by mechanical processing: in the beginning, a metal sheet was forged, after that they cut out items of the required shape from it and applied an embossed ornament. Bronze objects found in the crypt, which were used by their owner during his lifetime, are mostly cast. They are made of pure copper, brass, tin-lead and lead-tin bronzes.

On some ancient Greek and Latin medical recipes in verse. Their position in the world. Part A

In Part A of our article, we examine medical recipes in verse within Greek literature, spanning from the Hellenistic period to the Roman Imperial era. We also briefly touch upon analogous recipes in Classical and Late Latin, as these two literary forms were intertwined for centuries. A comprehensive analysis of Latin literature in this domain remains a necessity. We explore the motivations behind these didactic poems and the metrical patterns employed in their composition. The article presents fragments of these recipes, all translated into English and several retained in their original language as well, arranged chronologically alongside succinct biographical details of their authors. These include Homer, considered their distant forebear, followed by Ovid, Aglaias of Byzantium, Andromachus the Elder, Philo of Tarsus, Damocrates, Nicander, Rufus of Ephesus, Eudemus of Pergamum, Galen, Serenus Sammonicus, The Carmen graecum de herbis, and Marcellus Empiricus. In Part B, we will continue to explore similar recipes from the Middle and Late Byzantine periods. This section will also feature examples from Medieval Latin and Islamic medical literature, illustrating the intercultural context in which these Greek verses stood. A General Discussion and Conclusions will be provided at the end of Part B.

South African Allegories in Richard Jefferies’s After London; or Wild England (1885)

This paper argues that Richard Jefferies’s After London (1885), often praised as a pioneering work of speculative fiction, has not been sufficiently understood within the context of late-Victorian imperial expansion. While After London is frequently read in tandem with Jefferies’s nature essays and speculative fiction like H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine (1895), I locate the novel within the generic conventions of lost world fiction, a subgenre of the imperial romance associated with masculine adventure tales. Analysing After London’s parallels with, and potential influences on, H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines (1885), published later that same year, I argue that Jefferies’s unflattering portrayal of English ‘Bushmen’, coupled with the geography of Wild England, gesture emphatically to South Africa. In turn, the motif of a ‘relapse into barbarism’ serves to rationalise the fantasies of terra nullius [‘nobody’s land’] and extractive treasure hunting that Felix Aquila, the quixotic hero, enacts. By connecting After London to Haggard’s highly influential fiction and drawing on Jefferies’s writings about British colonialism in South Africa and the conventions of travel literature, cartography, and ethnography, this paper provides a more complete understanding of Jefferies’s contributions to the canon of lost world fiction.