Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-279) and index.
Contents:
7. The shape of empire Storage: (in)variable and (extra)ordinary? -- The stuff of storage -- This book -- 2. Needs/wants (matter): villas in central Italy -- The topos of the good farmer: global, Mediterranean, Roman -- Architectural strategies between ratio and display -- Material mediations -- The good farmer diffracted -- 3. Future (practice): silos and granaries in Gaul and Iberia -- Imperialism, time, and memory -- Storage on shifting ground -- Mnemonics of the past -- Redefining the future -- The matter of practice -- 4. Knowledge (assemblage): houses in Pompeii and Herculaneum -- The dynamics of Roman house(hold)s -- A nested storage pattern -- How things were made to forget -- A fragmented knowledge landscape -- 5. Control (flow): warehouses in the ports of Ostia and Portus -- Free trade versus the state? -- Standardization (resisted) -- Inside and outside -- Bending space and time -- 6. Reproduction (scale): family, state, and accumulation -- Storage as family business -- A kaleidoscopic empire -- Accumulation and its limits -- 7. Epilogue -- The stuff of socio-economics -- Storage between actuality and potentiality -- The shape of empire
Summary:
"In a pre-industrial world, storage could make or break farmers and empires alike. How did it shape the Roman empire? The Socio- Economics of Roman Storage cuts across the scales of farmer and state to trace the practical and moral reverberations of storage from villas in Italy to silos in Gaul, and from houses in Pompeii to warehouses in Ostia. Following on from the material turn, an abstract notion of 'surplus' makes way for an emphasis on storage's material transformations (e.g. wine fermenting; grain degrading; assemblages forming), which actively shuffle social relations and economic possibilities, and are a sensitive indicator of changing mentalities. This archaeological study tackles key topics, including the moral resonance of agricultural storage; storage as both a shared and a contested concern during and after conquest; the geography of knowledge in domestic settings; the supply of the metropolis of Rome; and the question of how empires scale up. It will be of interest to scholars and students of Roman archaeology and history, as well as anthropologists who study the links between the scales of farmer and state"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.