A Mid-Republican House From Gabii

Optiz, Rachel; Mogetta, Marcello; Terrenato, Nicola

A Mid-Republican House From Gabii

Rachel Opitz, Marcello Mogetta, and Nicola Terrenato (editors), written and crafted with Tyler Duane Johnson, Antonio F. Ferrandes, Laura Banducci, Francesca Alhaique, Laura Motta, Shannon Ness, Jason Farr, Samantha Lash, and Matthew Naglak 2016

Since 2009 the Gabii Project, an international archaeological initiative led by Nicola Terrenato and the University of Michigan, has been investigating the ancient Latin town of Gabii, which was both a neighbor of, and a rival to, Rome in the first millennium BCE. The trajectory of Gabii, from an Iron Age settlement to a flourishing mid-Republican town to an Imperial agglomeration widely thought to be in decline, provides a new perspective on the dynamics of settlement in central Italy. This publication focuses on the construction, inhabitation, and repurposing of a private home at Gabii, built in the mid-Republican period. The remains of the house provide new information on the architecture and organization of domestic space in this period, adding to a limited corpus of well-dated examples. Importantly, the house's micro-history sheds light on the tensions between private and public development at Gabii as the town grew and reorganized itself in the mid- to late-Republican period transition. Published in digital form as a website backed up by a detailed database, the publication provides a synthesis of the excavation results linked to the relevant spatial, descriptive, and quantitative data.

Series

Gabii Project Reports

ISBN(s)

978-0-472-99900-2 (e-book)

Subject

Classical Studies
Archaeology

Citable Link

Cover

Title

Copyright

Introduction

Dear Reader

Why Gabii? Why this town?

Project History in Brief

Methods

Theory: The 3D models of the stratigraphy and material culture-centrism

Bibliography

The story of the house

Details

Apologia

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

List Gallery

Activities icons used in the Gabii publications: abandonment, construction, dumping, living, reconstruction, transformation, and water management.

Symbols representing activities

From Introduction

Activities icons used in the Gabii publications: abandonment, construction, dumping, living, reconstruction, transformation, and water management.

Icons representing the types of evidence present at Gabii: fauna, ceramics, coins and other small objects, human remains, and flora.

Symbols representing types of data present

From Introduction

Icons representing the types of evidence present at Gabii: fauna, ceramics, coins and other small objects, human remains, and flora.

Gabii, located east of Rome, seen here in the context of key regional Italic centers (after Becker, Mogetta, and Terrenato 2009, fig. 1).

Regional Map for Gabii

From Introduction

Gabii, located east of Rome, seen here in the context of key regional Italic centers (after Becker, Mogetta, and Terrenato 2009, fig. 1).

Map of magnetometry results

From Introduction

Map of magnetometry results.

New excavation areas are indicated by diamonds relative to key structures at Gabii (after Becker, Mogetta, and Terrenato 2009, fig. 2).

Local area around Gabii

From Introduction

New excavation areas are indicated by diamonds relative to key structures at Gabii (after Becker, Mogetta, and Terrenato 2009, fig. 2).

Elements pre-dating the construction of the house

From More

Elements pre-dating the construction of the house are visible here, preserved under the floors of Room B6.

Overview of the excavated area at Gabii

From More

Overview of the excavated area at Gabii, with excavation areas labeled.

Area A of the Gabii Project's excavations

From More

Area A of the Gabii Project's excavations. Likely drains surrounding the hypothesized house are highlighted.

New entrance to the courtyard

From More

The new entrance to the courtyard, associated with Phase B-2 of the structure. Note the basalt paving stones—a material not employed in the initial construction of the house—and some reused blocks (lower segment of the image).

Elements of the reconfigured courtyard

From More

Elements of the reconfigured courtyard, including new walls added to enclose a smaller space and a cut, from which a basin may have been removed.

Tincu house, charred archaeobotanical remains from floated samples

From Details

Charcoal is divided in potentially identifiable (>2mm) and not identifiable remains. X <10 fragments; XX 10-20 fragments; XXX 20-50 fragments; XXXX >50 fragments. Cereals include mostly distorted and fragmented remains of cultivated grasses that cannot be identified at the genus level.

Quantity of zooarchaeological remains per phase

From Details

The quantity of zooarchaeological remains per phase. Clearly, the distribution is quite uneven and skewed toward the abandonment phases.

Percentage of SUs from each phase containing zooarchaeological remains

From Details

The percentage of SUs from each phase containing zooarchaeological remains is correlated with the overall amount of zooarchaeological remains in each phase.

In Phase B-1, the distribution of faunal remains is decidedly uneven.

Phase B-1, distribution of faunal remains

From Details

In Phase B-1, the distribution of faunal remains is decidedly uneven.

Faunal remains in Phase B-1 SUs

From Details

The uneven distribution of faunal remains in Phase B-1 SUs.

Taxa present in Phase B-1

From Details

Proportions of all taxa present in Phase B-1.

The relative proportions of the taxa present in the Phase B-1 assemblage.

Phase B-1, relative proportions of the taxa present

From Details

The relative proportions of the taxa present in the Phase B-1 assemblage.

Proportions of individuals of the taxa present in Phase B-1 assemblage

From Details

Proportions of individuals, as encapsulated by MNI counts, of the taxa present in the Phase B-1 assemblage.

Phase B-1, proportions of individuals of the taxa present

From Details

Proportions of individuals, as encapsulated by MNI counts, of the taxa present in the Phase B-1 assemblage.

Proportions of meat yield in Phase B-1, suggesting that beef played the largest role in the local diet, followed by pork.

Phase B-1, proportions of meat yield

From Details

Proportions of meat yield in Phase B-1, suggesting that beef played the largest role in the local diet, followed by pork.

Help

Technology, Accessibility, and Browser Compatibility

The Unity 3D platform used to host the 3D content for this volume is built on WebGL and is not compatible with some browsers and mobile devices. To access the 3D model, we recommend using a desktop or laptop computer and a modern web browser (Chrome 54+, Firefox 45+, Safari 10+, Edge 15, Opera 43+, more details). Unity’s documentation maintains a list of compatible browsers and graphics cards. To access database records linked in the 3D model, your browser must allow pop-ups (Chrome | Firefox | Safari | Opera).

If you do not wish to interact with the 3D model, or cannot use it, you may interact with the publication in Accessibility Mode. To enter Accessibility Mode, click the gear icon in the right corner of the e-reader, set Accessibility Mode to "on", and save your changes.

3D Model

The interactive content found in the 3D model serves as a visual reference for the narrative text. It contains 3D models of the site’s individual stratigraphic units, schematic reconstructions of key features, descriptive data, and direct links to entries from the project’s online database. Interaction with this content is essential to the way this publication communicates our interpretation of the Tincu House. Reconstructions and phase groupings, the toggles for which are accessed by undocking the menu at the left of the 3D interface, illustrate our understanding of the structure’s evolution. Links in the main text of the volume will guide you through a structured exploration of the house’s stratigraphy and the reconstructions developed by our team. Readers are encouraged both to follow the narrative laid out in the text and to explore the 3D content freely. Investigation into the data behind the interpretations and reconstructions is supported by access to the project’s database.

Within the 3D model viewer, you may move your mouse cursor over any icon to reveal its function. There are two viewing modes, “orbit view” and “explore on foot.” In “orbit view,” you may zoom in and out using the zoom bar on the right-hand side of the viewer. Clicking and dragging the left mouse button and dragging will move the camera. In “explore on foot” mode, the arrow keys or WASD keys control movement, and holding down the middle mouse button allows you to zoom in for a closer view of features.

Within the 3D model viewer, trowel icons are associated with each stratigraphic unit. Hovering over the trowel icon will cause the outline of that stratigraphic unit to glow red, providing a visual association between the trowel icon and the stratigraphic unit for which it contains information. Clicking on any trowel icon will pull up basic information on the stratigraphic unit associated with the icon. The basic information presentation here uses the system of symbols described in the introduction to this volume. The “go to ark” button provides a link to the database entry for the relevant stratigraphic unit. The trowel icons for any given stratigraphic unit appear as you move closer to it, and disappear again as you move away. If no trowel icon appears for a stratigraphic unit, and you wish to access information about it, move closer until the trowel icon appears.

The 3D content for this volume is designed for a laptop or desktop device. Using smaller mobile devices may result in unexpected behavior and changes in layout.

Feedback

While the content for A Mid-Republican House From Gabii is finalized, the platform University of Michigan Press has developed to host this online publication will continue to be developed. In order to improve the user experience around this publication and others like it, we would appreciate your feedback, comments, or identified software bugs. Please fill out this form or send an e-mail to umpress-gabii@umich.edu. If you are experiencing issues with access to this publication, please e-mail mpub-access@umich.edu.

A Mid-Republican House From Gabii

Table of Contents