Eastern Upper Galilee in the Roman period evidently housed two ethnic groups in an often hostile relationship (cf. Jos., BJ 3.35-40): in the north, a pagan population belonging to the chora of Tyre, which would have included Qedesh, and in the south a Jewish population. The two ethnic-based territories, which exhibit clear differences in their material culture, were separated by the deep ravine of Naḥal Dishon (wadi Hindaj). Other than urban temples, pagan temples, usually dated to the 2nd and 3rd c. A.D., are limited to the area north of Naḥal Dishon, while synagogues, which continued to be erected into the late-antique period, lie to its south. Qedesh lies 35 km southeast of the large metropolis of Tyre (fig. 1) across a rough mountainous area which made communication somewhat difficult.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the production and the use of “standardized” architectural elements by shifting the perspective from the economics of the interregional marble trade to the logistics of the marble construction industry during the 1st-3rd c. A.D. This chronological period coincides with the phenomenon of the “marmorization” of urban spaces in the Mediterranean; characterized by adorning public areas with marble architecture, it was responsible for an increasing demand for this material. The paper focuses on the interregional distribution of marble and coloured stones for construction. For methodological reasons, aspects related to the Roman “stone trade”, such as the supply of local construction material and the distribution of sarcophagi and statuary, will not be considered. The emphasis will be on voluminous and solid construction material, used predominantly for freestanding architectural components.

In 1972, an inscribed mensa mosaic was found in a late 4th-c. burial ground (‘Matarès necropolis’) outside the Algerian town of Tipasa. The text mentions the convivium, a meal celebrated here in pax et concordia (see no. 49 in the Appendix, where all the inscriptions are listed; fig. 1 in colour on p. 483). What makes this inscription so valuable is the fact that its archaeological context was still intact. A water basin southwest of the mensa and a channel linking both structures were quickly interpreted by scholars as proof of the well-attested refrigerium, a commemorative meal that was practiced periodically at tombs. The inscription from Tipasa is the only example which names this rite in situ, and the vivid marine mosaic — especially when flooded or ‘refreshed’ — supports the notion of a rich meal in an allusive manner. A similar example from the same cemetery (no. 51) shows the direct integration of an epitaph into such rites. There is no doubt that these installations reflect the rite of dining with the dead.

V. Kockel has discussed the model as one of the few surviving examples of a form of three-dimensional archaeological recording that was developed by the Padiglione family and other model-makers for the King of the Two Sicilies. Here I provide comparisons with the extant remains of the house, to illustrate how much more we can learn from the model of specific details of the structure and decoration that have been lost since 1840, when the building was still in a remarkably better state of preservation. Aside from the inevitable gradual deterioration of wall-paintings and pavements, which remained almost completely open to the elements after the original excavation was completed in 1809, a direct hit by a bomb on September 23, 1943, left the SE corner a mound of overgrown ruins. In 1970-72, when the Soprintendenza completely roofed the main house block, cleared the bomb rubble, and added low modern walls along the lines of the destroyed rooms to give tourists some idea of the original plan, I directed 37 soundings below the level of A.D. 79. Then between 2005 and 2007, as part of the Progetto Regio VI under F. Coarelli and F. Pesando, M. Stella and I added 17 more soundings, mainly in the area of the peristyle and on the S side of the house. Our final study of the house provided a detailed analysis of its original excavation during the Napoleonic Wars, a full description of the extant rooms and building history, and reports on our excavations.

The long history of excavation of the theatre at Stobi has yielded much information about the chronology, construction and usage of the building, as well as about post-theatre occupation of the area. Archaeological investigations in the 1970s and new excavations which began in 2009 have shown that construction of the theatre was initiated at the end of the 1st c. A.D. on the model of a western Roman theatre, as a building with a semicircular cavea and a scene building with an indented scaenae frons similar to the Augusta Emerita (Mérida) type. Construction was then interrupted for a certain period for unknown reasons. In the first half of the 2nd c. A.D. it was finished according to a different concept, one that resembled the Roman theatres of Asia Minor. In its final appearance the building included a cavea that exceeds a semicircle, a high podium around the orchestra, open parodoi, and a rectilinear scaenae frons (figs. 1-2); in its final form it incorporated the cavea from the first phase, whereas the scene building was completely remodeled.

The debate on the relationships between Rome, Italy, and the Mediterranean world in the Archaic and mid-Republican periods remains very lively. Complementing the most recent discoveries and interpretations, I present two unknown mid-Republican documents from the Arx, the N summit of the Capitoline hill (fig. 1). Excavations for the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II brought to light after 1887 many walls and artifacts, which have been studied almost exclusively to produce archaeological maps or catalogues of objects, but the structures sealed beneath the basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli toward the end of the 13th c., rediscovered in the 1980s and surveyed by the present author since 2001, shed new light on a number of religious, historical, topographical, architectural and art-historical issues.

The new archaeological evidence may be summarized as follows. In the 1st c. B.C., an aristocratic domus set on three levels occupied the NW sector of the Arx; it was remodeled in the Flavian and Severan periods (figs. 2-3). Apparently a location of the temple of Juno Moneta on the site of the Aracoeli must be ruled out. Among the structures still preserved beneath the basilica, which include an Imperial-era wall with huge curvilinear spurs that can be associated with the Iseum Capitolinum, we may mention an ashlar wall in blocks of Grotta Oscura tuff (a stone available after the defeat of Veii in 397 B.C.) that constituted the façade of a monument with a false arch dating from the 4th c. B.C. (fig. 2).