Architecture in Ancient Central Italy: Connections in Etruscan and Early Roman Building (British School at Rome Studies)

Architecture in Ancient Central Italy takes studies of individual elements and sites as a starting point to reconstruct a much larger picture of architecture in western central Italy as an industry, and to position the result in space (in the Mediterranean world and beyond) and time (from the second millennium BC to Late Antiquity). This volume demonstrates that buildings in pre-Roman Italy have close connections with Bronze Age and Roman architecture, with practices in local and distant societies, and with the natural world and the cosmos. It also argues that buildings serve as windows into the minds and lives of those who made and used them, revealing the concerns and character of communities in early Etruria, Rome, and Latium. Architecture consequently emerges as a valuable historical source, and moreover a part of life that shaped society as much as reflected it.ISBN : 9781108845281 "Exploring central Italic architecture as part of a connected world brings together one of the most prominent themes in the study of the ancient Mediterranean in recent decades, namely connectivity, and a body of evidence that has often been overlooked in many studies of ancient construction, technology, society, economy, and even the archaeology of early Italy, to wit architecture in Etruria and Latium. Such a partnership is an invitation to move beyond the study of individual elements of structures or sites, for example mouldings or terracottas, and instead use such studies to reconstruct a larger picture of architecture in this region as a discipline and to position it more broadly in space and time"-- Provided by publisher Cover Half-title page Series page Title page Copyright page Contents List of Figures List of Maps List of Charts and Tables Notes on the Contributors Acknowledgements 1 Introduction: Building Connections 2 The Silent Roofing Revolution 3 Architectural Terracottas of Central Italy within Their Wider Mediterranean Context 4 The Connective Evidence for Early Roman Urbanism: Terracottas and Architectural Accretion 5 Connecting Foundations and Roofs: The Satricum Sacellum and the Sant’Omobono Sanctuary 6 Architectural Choices in Etruscan Sacred Areas: Tarquinia in Its Mediterranean Setting 7 Connections in Death: Etruscan Tomb Architecture, c. 800–400 bc Index Argues that buildings in early Italy serve as windows into the minds and lives of those who made and used them, and demonstrates that architecture was closely connected to communities, to the natural world, and to the cosmos, and had the power to shape society as much as reflect it.