Materialising Roman Histories by Astrid Van Oyen Martin Pitts

Author:Astrid Van Oyen,Martin Pitts
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: eBook ISBN: 9781785706776
Publisher: Casemate Publishers & Book Distributors, LLC
Published: 2017-03-02T16:00:00+00:00

* Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge.

Part 3

Matter

Chapter 10

Finding the material in ‘material culture’. Form and matter in Roman concrete

Astrid Van Oyen*

The relation between form and matter is a fraught issue in archaeological analysis, expressed most vigorously in the style/function debate. Traditionally, formal change has been the empirical identifier for historical trends – including the development of a ‘Roman cultural revolution’ – leaving matter as its mute twin. But even after the ‘material turn’ in archaeological thought, matter continues to be ‘socialised’ or written out of historical narratives altogether. This chapter explores different models for writing truly ‘material’ histories. It does so through the case study of Roman concrete or opus caementicium, one of the few materials recognised to have been developed in the Roman period, and to have been granted its own formal revolution in architecture.

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