Abstract
In 2006 a conference was held in Leicester, UK, presenting new research into the latest phases of occupation of Roman towns that failed in, or soon after, late antiquity. This volume collects papers from that conference to examine the phenomenon of urban loss and abandonment from Roman to medieval times across the former Roman Empire. Eleven core essays (there are also introductory and concluding summaries) present specific examples and case studies of ‘lost’ classical cities from across the many Roman provinces. The volume therefore joins the extensive body of literature on the archaeology of late and post-Roman urbanism in Europe and the Mediterranean region. However, the focus of the collected papers is not so much on the larger economic and political causes of the failure (or transformation) of urbanism at the end of Roman antiquity, as on the site histories of each these individual ‘extinct cities’. The focus is on their demise and subsequent histories rather than on their origins, growth and maturation and, further, on the most effective methods of tracing and understanding processes of urban decay in the archaeological record that such cites represent. The methods to study such sites are assessed from the earliest discovery, excavation and exploitation of such sites to current technological advances in archaeology (especially the use of aerial photography and geophysical remote sensing techniques).
The bulk of the papers focus on the archaeologies of individual cities in their later stages of occupation. Each of these sites has not only its own unique story of development and demise, but also an often equally fascinating history of study and interpretation. The long-standing meta-narrative of late antique moral decadence and decline and resulting collapse of classical civilisation has led some of these sites to be viewed as prime examples of former imperial glory and the devastating effects of misplaced values. This narrative is challenged, however, by the research presented here which reveals that many urban centres continued to be occupied and function in some form following the traditional dates of their supposed abandonment. In many respects, the sites discussed were never actually abandoned or lost, but were instead subject to changing uses. These case studies highlight the widely variable chronology and character of post-Roman occupation and exploration of urban sites, and the authors present a variety of approaches to the material record of each site.
In his introductory essay, Neil Christie, the lead editor of the volume, outlines the challenges and potential value of examining lost cities. While the best known Roman towns, Ostia, Pompeii, Leptis Magna, Palmyra, Jerash, etc. are frequently viewed as classic examples of Roman urbanism, they cannot necessarily be taken as typical. Warfare, natural events, economic marginalisation and the decay of the Roman state are cited as among the leading reasons for the loss of as many as half of the urban centres in Italy’s post-Roman landscape. However, he argues, recent research applying multiple field methods such as geophysical survey and surface collection to more systematically examine urban sites indicate that some previously considered vrbes extinctae were not completely so, supporting continued occupation, although often on a less than urban level of intensity, far beyond antiquity.
The first three case studies focus on urban sites in Italy. Andrea Augenti discusses the ongoing multi-national research project at Classe, the ‘lost’ port city of the late imperial capital of Ravenna. Work at that site has been combining carefully targeted excavation with geophysical survey to successfully distinguish late and post-antique phases of settlement in the area of the port and around religious complexes. Frank Vermeulen then summaries recent research at a substantially older city, the Republican colony of Potentia on the central Adriatic coast. Topographical research from aerial photography, surface artifact collection, geophysical survey, limited new excavation and re-analysis of previous excavation results has permitted the recreation of a detailed urban plan, as well as new information on the town’s development from the second century
The next six case studies examine a wide range of Late Roman and/or Byzantine urban centres within the Mediterranean core. Miguel Ángel Cau discusses research on the late antique cityscapes of the Balearics where extensive excavation has only been done at one Roman urban centre, Pollentia. On the Iberian mainland, Isabel Velázquez and Gisela Ripoll summarise work at a site believed to be Recopolis, a late-6th century Visigothic royal centre. Gareth Sears and five co-authors outline the results of investigations at the long-lived city of Cyrene in eastern Libya, in which they emphasise the value (and practical necessity) of using non-invasive geophysical techniques such as magnetometry, to the study of the extent and nature of urban structures while attempting to see beyond the more ‘monumental’ periods of occupation to understand later developments. In contrast, William Bowden and Richard Hodges argue for the continuing role of large-scale excavation over a decade-long field campaign which they believe was critical to documenting changes in settlement at Butrint, Albania, in the 7th through 10th centuries. Rebecca Sweetman examines the often-overlooked late antique histories of the well-known ancient cities of Knossos and Sparta, arguing that previous interpretations were misleadingly negative owing to the biases of excavators and the challenges imposed by the modern topography of the sites. Finally, Paul Arthur summarises the evidence for the extensive post-Roman life of Phrygian Hierapolis, a site subject to systematic excavation for much of the past half-century.
Two additional papers, representing the geographical extremes of the Roman world, round-out the case studies. JA Baird reports on the drawn-out abandonment and limited intermittent reoccupations of Dura-Europos on the Syrian steppe after the Sassanian conquest of
Andrea Augenti offers concluding, and all too brief, summary remarks. He correctly notes that the urban centres of antiquity have long been magnets for research and that the questions raised by the ‘demise’ of such sites are at the very core of the rise of archaeology as a discipline. He goes on to challenge the serious and continuing problem of established interpretations and attitudes, recognising the value of the volume’s papers as presenting evidence of human continuity and greater complexity than previously recognised. He convincingly argues that archaeologists of the classical and late antique periods need to engage more widely with their colleagues who study medieval and post-medieval eras to gain deeper understandings of sites beyond their days of ancient glory. Of course, this reviewer, as a post-medieval specialist, applauds this particular admonition.
It is never possible in a review of reasonable length to give each paper in such a volume its full due. All are well-written and are suitably illustrated. Collectively, the papers offer wide geographical coverage, and serve as a useful summary of recent archaeological research on the urban landscapes of Late Antiquity. Archaeological data is always specific to a place and most powerful its ability to tell the story of that place. The papers reflect this, and they also vary widely in their scope and the extent to which they present new methods and theoretical frameworks for understanding urban environments and changes in them over time. It is archaeology’s privilege to be the discipline best equipped to address the temporal dimension of changing urban forms in the deep past. These papers illustrate the complexity of that change and in doing so challenge ‘traditional’ meta-narratives of decline and fall. Any scholar interested in classical urbanism, the late Roman Empire, and/or the study of the transition from late antique to medieval periods will want to spend time with this volume.