Domestic Space in Classical Antiquity

by Lisa C. Nevett

Overview

Housing is shaped by culturally-specific expectations about the kinds of architecture and decoration that are appropriate; about how and where different activities should be carried out; and by and with whom. It is those expectations, and the wider social and cultural systems of which they are a part, that are explored in this volume. At the same time, the book as a whole argues two larger points: first, that while houses, households and families have in recent years become increasingly important as objects of inquiry in Greek and Roman contexts, their potential as objects of inquiry has yet to be fully realised; second, that greater weight and independence should be given to material culture as a source for studying ancient history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521789455
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/05/2010
Series:	Key Themes in Ancient History
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	196
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Lisa C. Nevett is Associate Professor of Greek Archaeology at the University of Michigan. She has contributed articles and chapters to a wide variety of journals and edited volumes, and her own books include House and Society in the Ancient Greek World (Cambridge University Press, 1999) and Ancient Greek Houses and Households (edited with Bradley A. Ault, 2005).

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Domestic space and social organisation; 2. House form and social complexity: the transformation of early Iron Age Greece; 3. A space for 'hurling the furniture'?: the andron and the development of Greek domestic symposia; 4. Housing and cultural identity: Delos, between Greece and Rome; 5. Seeing the domus behind the dominus in Roman Pompeii: artefact distributions as evidence for the whole household; 6. Housing as symbol: elite self-presentation in North Africa under Roman rule; Epilogue. Domestic space and social organisation in classical antiquity; Glossary; Period names and dates referred to in this book.

Editorial Reviews

"This is a welcome interpretation of the chiefly material (archaeological) evidence for households from eighth century BCE Greece through fourth century CE Roman times. The author provides an insightful view of the ordinary activities of daily life in the classical world through its material evidence and clearly shows how much detail is learned from this cultural, sociological, and historical approach." —Choice

From the Publisher