The Excavations of San Giovanni Di Ruoti

by Small, Alastair; Reece, R.; Rossiter, J. J.; Simpson, Caroline J.; Buck, Robert J.

• ISBN13: 9780802006318
• ISBN10: 0802006310
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of Toronto Pr

Summary

Between 1977 and 1984 the excavations of a Canadian archaeological team at San Giovanni di Ruoti in southern Italy uncovered a series of three Roman villas dating from the first to the sixth centuries AD. The multi-volume report on the excavation will provide the first comprehensive overview of the social and economic life of a Roman villa in southern Italy. Volume II constitutes a catalogue raisonTe of the small finds, covering all categories of non-ceramic personal, domestic, and industrial artifacts recovered from the site. C.J. Simpson has been a member of the Canadian excavation team since 1979. He provides detailed descriptions of the individual artifacts, their dates of manufacture, and their use, and discusses the evidence they yield for domestic and daily life. The artifacts range from hairpins and brooches to iron knives used for slicing and chopping. Coins and lamps found at the site are evaluated in separate contributions by R. Reece and J.J. Rossiter. The book includes several useful appendices, notably one by Vito Volterra on the analysis of millstones.The 400 items listed in the catalogue are illustrated by drawings or photographs. This volume presents one of very few accounts of the household artifacts found at an estate centre remote from urban Rome. It provides an important resource for specialists seeking to date similar objects, and adds much interesting detail to our picture of the rural economy of Italy in late antiquity.

Author Biography

C.J. SIMPSON is Associate Professor of Classics at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Table of Contents

LIST OF TABLES	x	(1)
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS	xi	(2)
PREFACE	xiii	(4)
ABBREVIATIONS	xvii
Introduction	3	(18)
Phases and dates of occupation	4	(1)
The organization of the Catalogue	5	(1)
The current disposition of the minor objects	5	(1)
Format of Catalogue entries	5	(1)
The minor objects as dating evidence	6	(1)
The minor objects as evidence for daily life	7	(14)
Constraints	7	(1)
The tables	8	(1)
The middens	9	(12)
Catalogue	21	(39)
I. Articles of adornment, dress, or toilet	21	(13)
Hairpins	21	(4)
Combs	25	(1)
Brooches	26	(2)
Finger rings	28	(1)
Earrings	29	(1)
Bracelets/armlets	29	(1)
Beads	30	(1)
Buckles and other articles of dress	30	(3)
Ligulae	33	(1)
Tweezers	33	(1)
Mirror	33	(1)
II. Articles associated with textiles	34	(4)
Sewing needles	34	(1)
Loom weights	35	(2)
Spindle whorls	37	(1)
Circular or irregularly shaped weights	37	(1)
III. Articles associated with the processing of food	38	(3)
Querns	38	(1)
Stone mortars	39	(2)
Large stone basins	41	(1)
Metal bowl	41	(1)
IV. Articles associated with writing	41	(2)
Styli	41	(1)
Stylus cases	42	(1)
Seal box	43	(1)
V. Articles associated with weighing	43	(1)
Weights	43	(1)
Steelyard	44	(1)
VI. Tools (knife blades and other implements)	44	(5)
Stone objects	44	(1)
Bone objects	44	(1)
Metal blades	45	(2)
Implements used in woodworking	47	(1)
Implements possibly associated with leatherworking	48	(1)
Implements associated with agriculture	48	(1)
Other implements	48	(1)
Tools and implements of unknown use	49	(1)
VII. Furnishings, fastenings, and fixtures	49	(5)
Furniture attachments	49	(2)
Objects of bone	49	(1)
Objects of copper alloy	50	(1)
Keys and lock fittings	51	(1)
Hinges	51	(1)
Staples and similar objects	52	(1)
Loop-headed spikes	52	(1)
Split pin/ring staples	52	(1)
Miscellaneous fixtures and fittings	53	(1)
VIII. Articles associated with leisure, religious, and other activities	54	(3)
Gaming pieces	54	(1)
Flute fragment	54	(1)
Metal sculpture	55	(1)
Terracotta objects	56	(1)
Amulet	56	(1)
IX. Articles associated with equitation	57	(1)
Cheekpiece	57	(1)
Strap fittings	57	(1)
Spurs	57	(1)
X. Weaponry	58	(1)
Projectile head	58	(1)
XI. Objects currently unidentifiable	58	(2)
Copper alloy objects	58	(1)
Iron objects	59	(1)
Other objects	59	(1)
Bibliography	60	(5)
Concordances	65	(5)
Small Find numbers: Volumes II/I	65	(2)
Small Find numbers in ascending order	67	(3)
Appendix 1 Conservation of the amulet	70	(3)
O. Colacicchi Alessandri
Appendix 2 The inheritance of Stephen and the non-ceramic artifacts at San Giovanni di Ruoti	73	(2)
Appendix 3 Provenancing of ancient Roman millstones	75	(8)
V. Volterra
COINS	83	(6)
R. Reece
Coins and the economy in the later phases of San Giovanni	83	(3)
Catalogue	86	(1)
Bibliography	87	(2)
LAMPS	89	(11)
J. J. Rossiter
Introduction	89	(1)
Catalogue	90	(10)
Group 1: Italian lamps of Bailey Types A to G	90	(2)
Group 2: Italian lamps of Bailey Types O and P	92	(1)
Group 3: Italian lamps - miscellaneous fragments (first to second centuries AD)	93	(1)
Group 4: Italian globule lamps (Bailey Type K)	93	(1)
Group 5: African lamps of Atlante Form VIII/Hayes Type I	94	(1)
Group 6: African lamps of Atlante Form X/Hayes Type II	95	(2)
Group 7: Campanian Red Ware lamps of Bailey Type Siii	97	(1)
Group 8: Lucanian Buffware lamps of Bailey Type Siii	98	(1)
Group 9: Miscellaneous Late Roman lamps	99	(1)
Bibliography	100	(3)
ILLUSTRATIONS	103