Classicists have long wondered what everyday life was like in ancient Greece and Rome. How, for example, did the slaves, visitors, inhabitants or owners experience the same home differently? And how did owners manipulate the spaces of their homes to demonstrate control or social hierarchy?
To answer these questions, Hannah Platts draws on a diverse range of evidence and an innovative amalgamation of methodological approaches to explore multisensory experience – auditory, olfactory, tactile, gustatory and visual – in domestic environments in Rome, Pompeii and Herculaneum for the first time, from the first century BCE to the second century CE. Moving between social registers and locations, from non-elite urban dwellings to lavish country villas, each chapter takes the reader through a different type of room and offers insights into the reasons, emotions and cultural factors behind perception, recording and control of bodily senses in the home, as well as their sociological implications. Multisensory Living in Ancient Rome will appeal to all students and researchers interested in Roman daily life and domestic architecture.
Author(s): Hannah Platts
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 360
City: London
Cover page
Halftitle page
Series page
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
Contents
Figures
Tables
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
1 Smelling, Touching, Hearing, Tasting and Seeing the Roman Home
Introduction
The embodied experience of the home
Approaches to the past: The problems of the pre-eminence of sight in the western sensorium
Seeing and ‘reading’ houses
Developing a multisensory approach to archaeology: Problems
Current research into sensory experience
Key terms, structure and methodological approach
Conclusion
2 Sensing Status? Multisensory Awarenessand Power Display in the Roman Domestic Realm
Introduction
Power and the Roman home
Bringing the home to life: The Letters of Pliny the Younger
3 The Impact of Streetscapes on the Domestic Realm
Introduction
Sensory streetscapes in Rome and Pompeii
A changing multisensory streetscape
Controlling domestic sensory experiences around Pompeii
Conclusion
4 Initial Perceptions: Controlling Access and Multisensory Experience in the Atrium-Tablinum
Introduction
Ideal vs Reality? The ‘openness’ of the atrium-tablinum
Leaky’ houses?: Reconsidering ‘public’ access into the atrium
‘Public’ and ‘Private’ activities in and around the Atrium
Conclusion
5 ‘Public’ and ‘Private’: Multisensory Perception and the Roman Cubiculum
Introduction
Identifying and labelling the cubiculum in the Roman house: Just a room for sleeping?
The physical relationship between cubicula, atria and peristylia
The transmission of multisensory experiences between atrium and cubiculum , and between cubicula
The impact of multisensory experience on ‘public’ or ‘private’ relationships between the atrium and cubiculum
Conclusion
6 Beyond Taste: The Multisensory Experience of Roman Dining in the Domestic Sphere
Introduction: Dinner with Domitian
Defining and identifying domestic dining areas
Enargeia and the convivium : The multisensory dinner in text and archaeology
Dining in or near the garden
Conclusion
7 Housing the Foul: Kitchens and Toilets in the Roman Home
Introduction: Identifying the kitchen and the toilet in literature and archaeology
The sensory experiences of the kitchen
Controlling the transmission of multisensory experiences from kitchens to dining rooms
Conclusion
8 Conclusion: Sensing Status – Approaching a Lived Experience of the Roman House
Notes
Bibliography
Index
