The Connective Evidence for Early Roman Urbanism

doi:10.1017/9781108955232.004

4 - The Connective Evidence for Early Roman Urbanism

Terracottas and Architectural Accretion

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 March 2022

John Hopkins

Edited by

Charlotte R. Potts

Show author details

Charlotte R. Potts: Affiliation:
University of Oxford

Book contents

Get access

Summary

This chapter analyses architectural terracottas as proxies for buildings and thus as valuable signs of construction in the city of Rome during the fifth and fourth centuries BC. In doing so, it challenges the neglect of these centuries in many histories of Roman architecture and argues that this was far from a period of architectural stagnation. Here terracottas function as temporal connectors, linking buildings across centuries in the eyes of their builders and users, and as evidence that Rome remained in touch with wider trends in building and decoration in a time that has too often been read as a rupture between a highly networked archaic world and one increasingly in thrall to Greece. Promoting the study of this era supports the view of Etrusco-Italic and Roman architecture as closely related fields of study and encourages broader recognition of terracottas as evidence not just for roofs but for buildings now lost from the archaeological record.

Keywords

Roman architecture central Italic architecture architectural terracottas building proxies Archaic networks Roman republic republican architecture

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: Architecture in Ancient Central Italy
Connections in Etruscan and Early Roman Building
, pp. 95 - 124

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108955232.004 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Amici, C. M., 2005. ‘Evoluzione architettonica del Comizio a Roma’. Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia. Rendiconti 77: 351–79.Google Scholar

Andrén, A., 1940. Architectural Terracottas from Etrusco-Italic Temples. Lund: Gleerup.Google Scholar

Arizza, M., and Serlorenzi, M. (eds.), 2015. La scoperta di una struttura templare sul Quirinale presso l’ex Regio Ufficio Geologico. Rome: Edizioni Iuno.Google Scholar

Battaglini, S., 2009. Il complesso del Niger lapis nella storia della prima Roma: Note sull’iscrizione e i monumenti. Rome: Battaglini Editore.Google Scholar

Bernard, S., 2018. Building Mid-Republican Rome: Labor, Architecture, and the Urban Economy. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Boëthius, A., 1978. Etruscan and Early Roman Architecture. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar

Briguet, M. F., 1974. ‘Petite tête féminine étrusque’. La revue du Louvre 24: 247–52.Google Scholar

Bullettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma, 1896: 190.Google Scholar

Carafa, P., 1996. ‘La “Grande Roma dei Tarquini” e la città romulea-numana’. Bullettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma 97: 7–34.Google Scholar

Carandini, A., and Carafa, P. (eds.), 1995. Palatium e Sacra Via, Vol. 1: Prima delle mura, l’età delle mura e l’età case arcaiche (Bollettino di archeologia 31–4). Rome: Instituto Poligrafico e Zecco dello Stato.Google Scholar

Carlucci, C., 2004. ‘Il tempio dello Scasato a Falerii: restituzione del sistema decorative’. In Scavo nello scavo. Gli Etruschi non visti, edited by Moretti Sgubini, A. M., pp. 29–44. Rome: Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali.Google Scholar

Cerchiai, L., Jannelli, L., and Longo, F., 2004. The Greek Cities of Magna Graecia and Sicily. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.Google Scholar

Ciancio Rossetto, P., 1997–8. ‘Tempio di Apollo: nuove indagini sulla fase repubblicana’. Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia. Rendiconti 70: 177–95.Google Scholar

Cifani, G., 2008. Architettura romana arcaica: edilizia e società tra monarchia e repubblica Rome: L’Erma Di Bretschneider.Google Scholar

Coarelli, F., 1977. ‘Il comizio dalle origini alla fine della repubblica’. La Parola del Passato 32: 166–238.Google Scholar

Coarelli, F., 1981. ‘Il foro in età arcaica: Regia, via Sacra, comizio’. In Archeologia laziale IV: Quarto incontro di studio del Comitato per l’archeologia laziale 4, edited by Quilici Gigli, S., pp. 241–8. Rome: Consiglio nazionale delle ricerche.Google Scholar

Coarelli, F., 1982. ‘Lo sviluppo urbanistico della città nel primo periodo repubblicano’. In Roma repubblicana fra il 509 e il 270 a.C, edited by Dondero, I. and Pensabene, P., pp. 19–27. Rome: Quasar.Google Scholar

Coarelli, F., 1983. Il Foro Romano. Rome: Quasar.Google Scholar

Coarelli, F., 1995. ‘Le mura regie e repubblicane’. In Mura e porte de Roma antica, edited by Brizzi, B., pp. 9–38. Rome: Editore Colombo.Google Scholar

Coarelli, F., 2011. Le origini di Roma. La cultura artistica dalle origini al III sec. a.C. Milan: Jaca Book.Google Scholar

Colonna, G., 2006. ‘Sacred Architecture and the Religion of the Etruscans’. In The Religion of the Etruscans, edited by de Grummond, N. and Simon, E., pp. 132–68. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar

Cornell, T. J., 1990. ‘Rome and Latium to 390’. In The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 7, Part 2: The Rise of Rome to 220 bc, edited by Walbank, F. W., Astin, A. E, Frederiksen, M. W, and Ogilvie, R. M, pp. 243–308. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef Google Scholar

Cristofani, M., 1990. La Grande Roma dei Tarquini. Rome: L’Erma Di Bretschneider.Google Scholar

Damgaard Andersen, H., 1993. ‘Archaic Architectural Terracottas and Their Relation to Building Identification’. In Deliciae Fictiles: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Central Italic Architectural Terracottas at the Swedish Institute in Rome, 10–12 December 1990, edited by Rystedt, E., Wikander, C., and Wikander, Ö, pp. 71–86. Stockholm: Paul Aströms Förlag.Google Scholar

Damgaard Andersen, H., 1998. Etruscan Architecture from the Late Orientalizing to the Archaic Period (c. 640–480 b.c.), 5 vols. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen.Google Scholar

Danner, P., 1989. Griechische Akrotere der Archaischen und Klassischen Zeit. Rome: G. Bretschneider.Google Scholar

Davies, P. J. E., 2017. Architecture and Politics in Republican Rome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

De Grummond, N. T., and Pieraccini, L. C. (eds.), 2016. Caere. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar

Delfino, Z., 2014. Forum Iulium: L’area del Foro di Cesare alla luce delle campagne di scavo 2005–2008. Le fasi arcaica, repubblicana e cesariano-augustea. Oxford: BAR Publishing.Google Scholar

Derrida, J., 1987. ‘Restitutions of the Truth in Pointing [Pointure]’. In The Truth in Painting, pp. 293–329. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar

Di Mino, M. R., 1982. ‘Note sulla decorazione coroplastica a Roma dal VI al IV secolo a.C.’. In Roma repubblicana fra il 509 e il 270 a.C, edited by Dondero, I. and Pensabene, P., pp. 65–76, tavv. 12–19. Rome: Quasar.Google Scholar

Di Mino, M. R. S., and Pensabene, P., 1983. Terrecotte del Museo Nazionale Romano III, Antefisse. Rome: De Luca.Google Scholar

Downey, S. B., 1995. Architectural Terracottas from the Regia. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar

Edwards, C., 1996. Writing Rome: Textual Approaches to the City. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Farr, J. M., 2014. Lapis Gabinus: Tufo and the Economy of Urban Construction in Ancient Rome. PhD thesis, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar

Farr, J. M., Marra, F., and Terrenato, N., 2015. ‘Geochemical Identification Criteria for “Peperino” Stones Employed in Ancient Roman Buildings: A Lapis Gabinus Case Study’. Journal of Archaeological Science 3: 41–51.Google Scholar

Fortini, P., 2009. ‘L’area sacra del niger Lapis. Nuove prospettive di ricerca’. In Ceramica attica da santuari della Grecia, della Ionia e dell’Italia (Atti Convegno Perugia 14–17 Marzo 2007), edited by Fortunelli, S. and Masseria, C., pp. 163–87. Venosa: Osanna Edizioni.Google Scholar

Galuccio, F., 2016. ‘Il mito torna realtà. Le decorazioni fittili del tempio di Giove Capitolino dalla fondazione all’età medio repubblicana’. In Campidoglio: mito, memoria, archeologia. Catalogo della mostra 2016 Musei Capitolini, edited by Parisi Presicce, C. and Danti, A., pp. 237–91. Rome: Campisano Editore.Google Scholar

Gell, A., 1998. Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar

Giddens, A., 1984. The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Oxford: Polity.Google Scholar

Giuliani, F. C., 1982. ‘Architettura e tecnica edilizia’. In Roma repubblicana fra il 509 e il 270 a.C, edited by Dondero, I. and Pensabene, P., pp. 29–36. Rome: Quasar.Google Scholar

Gjerstad, E., 1941. ‘Il comizio romano dell’età repubblicana’. Opuscula archeologica 2.2: 97–158.Google Scholar

Goldberg, M. Y., 1982. ‘Archaic Greek Akroteria’. American Journal of Archaeology 86.2: 193–217.Google Scholar

Gros, P., 1996. L’Architecture romaine: du début du IIIe siècle av. J.-C. à la fin du Haut-Empire, 2 vols. Paris: Picard.Google Scholar

Gruen, E., 1992. Culture and National Identity in Republican Rome. New York: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar

Heidegger, M., 1971. ‘The Origin of the Work of Art’. In Poetry, Language, Thought, pp. 17–87. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar

Hölkeskamp, K.-J., 2005. ‘Images of Power: Memory, Myth and Monuments in the Roman Republic’. Scripta Classica Israelica 24: 249–71.Google Scholar

Hölkeskamp, K.-J., 2006. ‘History and Collective Memory in the Middle Republic.’ In A Companion to the Roman Republic, edited by Rosenstein, N. S. and Morstein-Marx, R, pp. 478–95. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar

Holloway, R. R., 1994. The Archaeology of Early Rome and Latium. London: Routledge.Google Scholar

Hölscher, T., 2001. ‘Die Alten vor Augen. Politische Denkmäler und öffentliches Gedächtnis im republikanischen Rom’. In Institutionalität und Symbolisierung, edited by Melville, G., pp. 183–211. Cologne: Böhlau.Google Scholar

Hölscher, T., 2006. ‘The Transformation of Victory into Power: From Event to Structure’. In Representations of War in Ancient Rome, edited by Dillon, S. and Welch, K. E., pp. 27–48. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Hopkins, J. N., 2016. The Genesis of Roman Architecture. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar

Ingold, T., 1993. ‘The Temporality of the Landscape’. World Archaeology 25.2,Conceptions of Time and Ancient Society: 152–74.CrossRef Google Scholar

Kästner, C., 1990. ‘Scheibenförmige Akrotere in Griechenland und Italien’. Hesperia 59.1: 251–64.CrossRef Google Scholar

Kilmer, M. F., 1977. The Shoulder Busts of Sicily and South and Central Italy: A Catalogue and Materials for Dating. Gothenburg: Paul Aströms Förlag.Google Scholar

Knoop, R., 1993. ‘Toward a Reappraisal of Della Seta’s Three-phase System’. In Deliciae Fictiles: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Central Italic Architectural Terracottas at the Swedish Institute in Rome, 10–12 December 1990, edited by Rystedt, E., Wikander, C., and Wikander, Ö, pp. 61–5. Stockholm: Paul Aströms Förlag.Google Scholar

Koch, B., 1912. Dachterrakotten aus Campanien mit Ausschluss von Pompei. Berlin: G. Reimer.Google Scholar

Kopytoff, I., 1986. ‘The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process’. In The Social Lives of Things, edited by Appadurai, A., pp. 64–91. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Koselleck, R., 1979. Ergangene Zukunft. Zur Semantik geschichtlicher Zeiten. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar

Krause, C., 1976. ‘Zum Baulichen Gestalt der republikanischen Comitiums’. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Römische Abteilung 83: 31–60.Google Scholar

Kuttner, A., 2004. ‘Roman Art during the Republic’. In The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic, edited by Flower, H. I., pp. 294–321. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

La Rocca, E., 1990. ‘Linguaggio artistico e ideologia politica a Roma in età repubblicana’. In Rome e l’Italia: radices imperii, edited by Pugliese Carratelli, G., pp. 389–498. Milan: Libri Scheiwiller.Google Scholar

Lefebvre, H., 1974. La production de l’espace. Paris: Éditions Anthropos.Google Scholar

Low, S. M., and Lawrence-Zúñiga, D. (eds.), 2003. The Anthropology of Space and Place. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar

Lulof, P., 2000. ‘Archaic Terracotta Acroteria Representing Athena and Heracles: Manifestations of Power in Central Italy’. Journal of Roman Archaeology 13: 207–19.Google Scholar

Lulof, P., 2007. ‘L’Amazzone dell’Esquilino. Una nuova ricostruzione’. Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 108: 1–25.Google Scholar

Lulof, P., 2010. ‘The Late Archaic Miracle’. In Deliciae Fictiles IV: Architectural Terracottas in Ancient Italy. Images of Gods, Monsters and Heroes. Proceedings of the International Conference held in Rome (Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, Royal Netherlands Institute) and Syracuse (Museo Archeologico Regionale ‘Paolo Orsi’), October 21–25, 2009, edited by Lulof, P. and Rescigno, C., pp. 23–31. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar

Lulof, P., 2013. ‘The Art of Reconstruction and the Image of Power’. In Scritti in onore di Maria Bonghi Jovino, edited by Treré, C., Bagnasco Gianni, G., and Chiesa, F., pp. 111–30. Milan: ACME.Google Scholar

Lulof, P., 2014. ‘Reconstructing a Golden Age in Temple Construction’. In Papers on Italian Urbanism in the First Century b.c., edited by Robinson, E. C. and Attema, P. A., pp. 113–25. Portsmouth, RI: Journal of Roman Archaeology.Google Scholar

Lulof, P., 2016. ‘New Perspectives on the Acroteria of Caeretan Temples’. In Caere – An Etruscan City. In Honor of Mario A. Del Chiaro. Cities of the Etruscans, Vol. 1, edited by de Grummond, N. and Pieraccini, L. C., pp. 131–40. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar

Lulof, P., and Smith, C. (eds.), 2017. The Age of Tarquinius Superbus. Leuven: Peeters.Google Scholar

Marconi, C., 2007. Temple Decoration and Cultural Identity in the Archaic Greek World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Marshall, Y., and Gosden, C., 1999. ‘The Cultural Biographies of Objects’. World Archaeology 31.2: 169–78.Google Scholar

Massa-Pairault, F.-H. (ed.), 1990. Crise et transformation des sociétés archaïques. Rome: École française de Rome.Google Scholar

Moser, C., 2019. The Altars of Republican Rome and Latium: Sacrifice and the Materiality of Roman Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Moxey, K., 2013. Visual Time: The Image in History. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar

Mura Sommella, A., 2000. ‘La grande Roma dei Tarquini. Alterne vicende di una felice intuizione’. Bullettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma 101: 7–26.Google Scholar

Nagy, H. 2016. ‘The Terracotta Votives: Aspects of Cult, Artistic Exchange, and Workshop Practices’. In Caere – An Etruscan City. In Honor of Mario A. Del Chiaro. Cities of the Etruscans, Vol. 1, edited by de Grummond, N. and Pieraccini, L. C., pp. 215–29. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar

Notizie degli Scavi d’Antichità 1896.Google Scholar

Notizie degli Scavi d’Antichità 1900.Google Scholar

Panella, C. (ed.), 2013. Scavare nel Centro di Roma. Rome: Quasar.Google Scholar

Pasquali, G., 1936. ‘La grande Roma dei Tarquini’. La Nuova Antologia 16: 405–16.Google Scholar

Popkin, M., 2016. The Architecture of the Roman Triumph. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Potts, C. R., 2015. Religious Architecture in Latium and Etruria c. 900–500 bc. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Rancière, J., 2011. The Emancipated Spectator, 2nd ed. New York: Verso.Google Scholar

Roselaar, S. T., 2010. Public Land in the Roman Republic: A Social and Economic History of Ager Publicus in Italy, 396–89 bc. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Russell, A., 2016. The Politics of Public Space. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Rutledge, S., 2012. Ancient Rome as a Museum. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Santalucia, B., 1994. Studi di diritto penale romano. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider.Google Scholar

Scott, R. T., 2005. ‘The Contribution of Archaeology to Early Roman History’. In Social Struggles in Archaic Rome: New Perspectives on the Conflict of the Orders, edited by Rauflaab, K. A., pp. 98–106. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar

Smith, C. J., 1996. Early Rome and Latium: Economy and Society, c. 1000 to 500 bc. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar

Smith, C. J., 2007. The Roman Clan: The Gens from Ancient Ideology to Modern Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Spivey, N., and Harari, M., 2017. ‘Archaic and Late Archaic Art’. In Etruscology, edited by Naso, A., pp. 943–70. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar

Stopponi, S., 1991. ‘Un acroterio dal Santuario di Cannicella ad Orvieto’. Archeologia Classica 43: 1103–61.Google Scholar

Stopponi, S., 2011. ‘Ancora sull’acroterio dal Santuario di Cannicella ad Orvieto: La Ricomposizione’. In Deliciae Fictiles IV: Architectural Terracottas in Ancient Italy. Images of Gods, Monsters and Heroes. Proceedings of the International Conference held in Rome (Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, Royal Netherlands Institute) and Syracuse (Museo Archeologico Regionale ‘Paolo Orsi’), October 21–25, 2009, edited by Lulof, P. S. and Rescigno, C., pp. 164–76. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar

Tanner, J., 2009. The Invention of Art History in Ancient Greece: Religion, Society and Artistic Rationalisation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Terrenato, N., 2019. The Early Roman Expansion into Italy: Elite Negotiation and Family Agendas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Torelli, M., 2007. ‘L’Urbanistica di Roma regia e repubblicana’. In Storia dell’urbanistica. Il mondo romano, edited by Gros, P. and Torelli, M., pp. 81–157. Rome: Laterza.Google Scholar

Torelli, M., 2016. ‘History’. In Caere – An Etruscan City. In Honor of Mario A. Del Chiaro. Cities of the Etruscans, Vol. 1, edited by de Grummond, N. and Pieraccini, L. C., pp. 5–13. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar

Trachtenberg, M., 2010. Building-in-Time: From Giotto to Alberti and Modern Oblivion. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar

Van Buren, E. D., 1921. Figurative Terra-cotta Revetments in Etruria and Latium in the VI and V Centuries b.c. London: J. Murray.Google Scholar

Van Buren, E. D., 1926. Greek Fictile Revetments in the Archaic Period. London: J. Murray.Google Scholar

Vasaly, A., 1993. Representations: Images of the World in Ciceronian Oratory. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar

Welch, K., 2010. ‘Art and Architecture in the Roman Republic’. In A Companion to the Roman Republic, edited by Rosenstein, N. S. and Morstein-Marx, R, pp. 496–542. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar

Wikander, C., and Wikander, Ö, 2006. ‘Architectural Terracottas in Theory and in Practice: Reflections on Thirty Years of Experience’. In Deliciae Fictiles III: Architectural Terracottas in Ancient Italy. New Discoveries and Interpretations: Proceedings of the International Conference Held at the American Academy in Rome, November 7–8, 2002, edited by Edlund-Berry, I. and Kenfield, J., pp. 42–4. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar

Wilson Jones, M., 2003. Principles of Roman Architecture. New Haven/London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar

Wilson Jones, M., 2014. Origins of Classical Architecture. New Haven/London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar

Winter, N., 1993. Greek Architectural Terracottas. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar

Winter, N., 2014. Symbols of Wealth and Power: Architectural Terracotta Decoration in Etruria and Central Italy, 640–510 b.c. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar

Wood, C., and Nagel, A., 2012. Anachronic Renaissance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/Zone Books.Google Scholar

Zeggio, Z., 1996. ‘Il Deposito Votivo’. In Meta Sudans I, edited by Panella, C., pp. 95–113. Rome: Istituto poligrafico e zecca dello Stato, Libreria dello Stato.Google Scholar

Zeggio, S., and Panella, C., 2017. ‘Roma, Valle del Colosseo e Palatino nord-orientale. Due santuari tra età regia e prima repubblica’. In La città etrusca e il sacro, edited by Govi, E., pp. 345–72. Bologna: Bononia University Press.Google Scholar

Zerubavel, E., 2003. Time Maps: Collective Memory and the Social Shape of the Past. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Why this information is here

This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

Accessibility Information

Accessibility compliance for the HTML of this chapter is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.