Settlement, Urbanization, and Population
ISBN13: 9780199602353ISBN10: 0199602352
Hardback,
384 pages
Jan 2012,
In Stock
Price:
$135.00 (06)See more from the series
Description
This volume presents a collection of studies focussing on population and settlement patterns in the Roman empire in the perspective of the economic development of the Mediterranean world between 100 BC and AD 350. The analyses offered here highlight the issues of regional and temporal variation in Italy, Spain, Britain, Egypt, Crete, and Asia Minor from classical Greece to the early Byzantine period. The chapters fall into two main groups, the first dealing with the evidence for rural settlement, as revealed by archaeological field surveys, and the attendant methodological problems of extrapolating from that evidence a view of population; and the second with city populations and the phenomenon of urbanization. They proceed to consider hierarchies of settlement in the characteristic classical pattern of city plus territory, and the way in which those entities are defined from the highest to the lowest level: the empire as 'city of Rome plus territory', then regional and local hierarchies, and, more precisely, the identity and the nature of the 'instruments' which enables them to function in economic cohesion.Features
- Clear presentation and analysis of new data for ancient economic history.
- Wide geographical range of comparative regional studies of the ancient Mediterranean.
- Focuses on methods of combining documentary and archaeological evidence.
- Citation of recent scholarship on Roman economic history.
About the Author(s)
Alan Bowman is Camden Professor of Ancient History, Director for the Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents, and Fellow of Brasenose College. His research interests focus on papyrology, the Vindolanda Writing-tablets, and the social and economic history of Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt and the Roman Empire.
Andrew Wilson is Professor of the Archaeology of the Roman Empire and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and Chairman of the Society for Libyan Studies. He has directed excavations in Italy, Tunisia, and Libya, and is the author of numerous articles on ancient water supply, ancient technology, economy, and trade.
