The goal of this project is to examine the development of the most innovative vaulting techniques employed in the Roman provinces from the beginning of the Roman Empire under Augustus in the late 1st century BC to the end of the reign of Justinian in the 6th century AD. After Octavian defeated Mark Anthony and Cleopatra at the battle of Actium, he was awarded the title of Augustus and became the first emperor of an empire that would dominate the Mediterranean for centuries. A manifestation of the Augustan peace was the progressive Romanization of the Mediterranean world that eventually extended to northern Europe, Britain, North Africa, Greece, Asia Minor and the Middle East. Trade routes were opened, roads were built, agricultural production increased, manufacturing processes became more systematized, and the Roman army became a dominate presence in many parts of the empire. All of these changes affected the architecture that became a lasting legacy of the Roman Empire. The most impressive of the remains are the public buildings (theaters, amphitheaters, and bath buildings) that employed vaulted construction, which was developed in the capital city, Rome itself, and became a hallmark of Roman architecture. However, the Roman provinces did not always have access to the same natural resources as found around Rome; the provincial builders employed different materials and developed new construction methods to create architectural forms similar to those in the capital city. The resulting architecture developed its own character and was a symbol of both civic pride and imperial allegiance. This project aims to document these new vaulting techniques and to explore the motivating factors behind such innovations in relation to the socio-economic context in which they occur.
Intellectual Merit. The project is a continuation and expansion of the PI's recently published book, "Concrete Vaulted Construction in Imperial Rome: Innovations in Context" (Cambridge University Press 2005). It will focus on a defined set of particularly innovative vaulting techniques and explore why they appear where they do, how they spread, and how they change over time. The study employs a variety of different methodologies including structural analysis for determining the efficacy of certain vaulting techniques, mineralogical analysis for determining the provenance of building materials, and archaeobotanical analysis for reconstructing ancient natural environments. It also looks at factors, such as geology, agricultural production, modes of transport, patterns of funding and patronage, and religious and social events in urban life, all of which affected the choice of building methods and materials in particular areas. The results of the study, therefore, will be grounded in a variety of different types of evidence that illuminate different aspects of the impact of technological development on cultural change.
Broader Impact. The broader impact of the project will be threefold. For scholars outside the fields of Roman architecture and building technology, the book will provide a clear and concise overview of the interrelationship between construction technology and other aspects of Roman culture such as urbanization, social and religious practices, the economy, and the military. It will also serve as a model for the ways in which an interdisciplinary study of technology can be used to understand cultural change. For both scholars and teachers, the book and associated articles will provide a new corpus of explanatory drawings and photographs that can be used in visual presentations. Finally, the project will provide the source material for the PI's lectures at museums, universities, and local archaeology groups, all of which reach the general public and demonstrate the importance of understanding how technology has affected cultural heritage.
