Domestic Space in Classical Antiquity

Housing is shaped by culturally-specific expectations about the kinds of architecture and furnishings 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 sources of information about broader social-historical issues has yet to be fully realised; and second, that greater weight and independence should be given to material culture as a source for studying ancient history. The book will be invaluable for upper-level undergraduates, graduate students and scholars.

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.

Explores the archaeological remains of housing in the Greek and Roman worlds, using written evidence and artistic representations to set them in a wider cultural framework. Together, this material is used to address wider questions about social structure, change through time and patterns of cultural interaction.

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).