A one-day workshop designed to offer a new, wider perspective on the rapidly expanding field of Etrusco-Italic architecture. Authoritative scholars will present seven case studies of buildings, sites, and construction techniques that signal the extent to which cross-cultural contact and adaptation can be recognised in the built environment in early central Italy. Prior to the expansion of Roman power in the latter part of the first millennium BC and the changes in building that went with it, Etrusco-Italic architecture was characterised by extensive use of local materials in designs that met local needs, which could be particular to a settlement, a social class, or a set of activities. It also, however, co-opted forms, technology, and meaning from other places and cultures with which its communities had contact. Integration of these elements relied upon sensitivity to context but above all on a cultural environment in which ideas and expertise could travel and thrive, and thus these buildings can be studied both as technical achievements and as products of certain social and cultural conditions. The workshop accordingly will analyse architectural connectivity in a broad sense: firstly, as a phenomenon that positions Etrusco-Italic buildings in relation to their counterparts in other parts of the Mediterranean; secondly, as a prompt to consider buildings as sources of information about those who built and used them; and lastly, through the lens of mobility, as a quality that links pre-Roman and Roman architecture and places both in a wider continuum of practice.
The schedule for the day is as follows (talks of 30 minutes, each followed by 15 minutes for questions and discussion):
• 9.00am: Charlotte Potts (University of Oxford): Grand Designs: Introducing Etrusco-Italic Architecture in its Mediterranean Setting
• 9.30am-10.15am: Jean MacIntosh Turfa (University of Pennsylvania Museum): ‘The Silent Roofing Revolution: The Etruscan Tie-beam Truss’
• 10.15am-11.00am: Giovanna Bagnasco Gianni (University of Milan): ‘Architectural choices in Etruscan sacred areas: Tarquinia in its Mediterranean setting.’
• 11.00am-11.30am: Morning tea
• 11.30am-12.15pm: Patricia S. Lulof (University of Amsterdam): ‘Archaic Architecture Revisited. The Satricum Sacellum and the Sant’Omobono Sanctuary.’
• 12.15pm-1.00pm: John North Hopkins (Rice University): ‘Escaping Winkelmann’s Rut: Multiple Temporalities, Early Roman Architecture and the History of Art in the Classical Mediterranean.’
• 1.00pm-2.00pm : Lunch
• 2.00pm-2.45pm: Stephan Steingräber (Roma Tre University): ‘Etruscan Tomb Architecture from 800 to 400 BC: Typology, Chronology, Connections, and Influences.’
• 2.45pm-3.30pm: Mark Wilson Jones (University of Bath): Title TBC
• 3.30pm-4.00pm: Afternoon tea
• 4.00pm-4.45pm: Nancy Winter (University of California at Santa Barbara): ‘The Icing on the Cake. An Overview of Ancient Terracotta Roofs in the Mediterranean World: Shared vs. Regional Practices.’
• 4.45-5.30pm: Discussion
This event is kindly sponsored by the British School at Rome, The John Fell Fund (University of Oxford), The Craven Committee (Faculty of Classics, Oxford), and Somerville College.
Attendance is free for members of the University of Oxford; for non-members there is a fee of £20, and refreshments and a sandwich lunch will be provided.
Please register to attend at: http://www.oxforduniversitysto
For enquiries please contact [email protected]
Dr Charlotte Potts
Sybille Haynes Lecturer in Etruscan and Italic Archaeology and Art
Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies
66 St Giles’
Oxford OX1 3LU