Colloquium: Production and supply in the Roman world

This colloquium, organized by Candace Rice and Miko Flohr, focuses on the world of production and supply in the Roman Empire. Rather than focusing on one subset of questions, this colloquium casts the net wide and addresses a variety of approaches, datasets and regions to confront widely diverging perspectives on similar or comparable questions. This will foster debate between the participants on a methodological and theoretical level.

Programme

The day will start with two papers on the economics of manufacturing and distribution in the northern provinces, with a paper by Tyler Franconi (Oxford) on glassmaking in Germania, and a paper by Meike Weber (Reading) on the supply of Samian wares to Roman Britain and the Germanies.

A subsequent pair of papers centers more on Roman Italy and the issue of work. Miriam Groen-Valinga (Leiden, The Netherlands) will discuss female participation in the Roman urban labour market, while Lindsay Vandevoorde (Ghent, Belgium) will focus on occupational differentiation and its relation with economic and social positioning.

A third set of papers will zoom in on Roman Africa. Matthew Hobson (Leicester) will discuss olive oil and wine production in Africa Proconsularis, and Victoria Leitch (British School, Rome) will focus on the production and distribution of African cookwares. This links well with the subsequent paper, in which Elizabeth Murphy (Brown University, USA) will present a comparative Study of Red Slip Ceramic Industries of Sagalassos.

Keynote Lecture: Jean-Pierre Brun

The day will conclude with a keynote lecture by Prof. Jean-Pierre Brun (CNRS, Centre Jean Bérard, Naples), on the hotly debated issue of the role of the water mill in the ancient economy. Jean-Pierre Brun is currently Director of research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and, since 2000, director of the Centre Jean-Bérard in Naples. He has been recently elected professeur at Collège de France in Paris. Brun has worked in several regions of the Mediterranean, in urban as well as rural contexts, including Roman villas in Provence, workshops in Delos, Pompeii and Saepinum and Roman forts in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. He has focused on a wide variety of aspects of the technology and economy of urban and rural production. Key publications include his monographs on wine and olive cultivation and processing in Roman Gaul and the ancient Mediterranean.

 

Details

The colloquium will take place in the Wharton Room at All Souls College and starts at 11am. Access is free, but in order for us to plan numbers, please register with Miko Flohr (miko.flohr@classics.ox.ac.uk).

 

A PDF of the programme can be downloaded here.