Overview

This book investigates the nature of 'public space' in Mediterranean cities, A.D. 284-650, meaning places where it was impossible to avoid meeting people from all parts of society, whether different religious confessions or social groups. The first volume considers the architectural form and everyday functions of streets, fora / agorai, market buildings, and shops, including a study of processions and everyday street life. The second volume analyses archaeological evidence for the construction, repair, use, and abandonment of these urban spaces, based on standardised principles of phasing and dating. The conclusions provide insights into the urban environment of Constantinople, an assessment of urban institutions and citizenship, and a consideration of the impact of Christianity on civic life at this time.

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9789004413726

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'Luke Lavan's Public Space in the Late Antique City represents a magnificent summation to almost twenty years of research, encompassing fieldwork - survey and excavation, innumerable city visits to check the evidence on the ground, and exhaustive library research. The catalogue listing the urban amenities of the Late Antique City is in itself an extraordinary resource for all future studies of the Roman urban fabric. Here we finally have the data, literally from the ground up, to evaluate the competing theories on the decline, continuity or flourishing of public life in the towns of the final centuries of Roman imperial power.' - John Bintliff, University of Edinburgh 'Luke Lavan's Public Space in the Late Antique City is a pathbreaking achievement as a synthesis, which makes much previous work on the subject unnecessary to read. It is firmly based in a uniquely detailed account of how the monumental life of late Roman cities worked in material terms, grounded in a remarkable knowledge of the archaeology, as set out in an invaluable volume of appendices, which every late Antique scholar will also need to have by them. In many ways, this book is a new starting-point for late antique archaeology and material culture. I wish I had had it by me when I wrote on this topic, more superficially, twenty years ago.' - Chris Wickham, Chichele Professor of Medieval History emeritus, University of Oxford

'Luke Lavan's Public Space in the Late Antique City represents a magnificent summation to almost twenty years of research, encompassing fieldwork - survey and excavation, innumerable city visits to check the evidence on the ground, and exhaustive library research. The catalogue listing the urban amenities of the Late Antique City is in itself an extraordinary resource for all future studies of the Roman urban fabric. Here we finally have the data, literally from the ground up, to evaluate the competing theories on the decline, continuity or flourishing of public life in the towns of the final centuries of Roman imperial power.' John Bintliff, University of Edinburgh Public Space in the Late Antique City is a pathbreaking achievement as a synthesis, which makes much previous work on the subject unnecessary to read. It is firmly based in a uniquely detailed account of how the monumental life of late Roman cities worked in material terms, grounded in a remarkable knowledge of the archaeology, as set out in an invaluable volume of appendices, which every late Antique scholar will also need to have by them. In many ways, this book is a new starting-point for late antique archaeology and material culture. I wish I had had it by me when I wrote on this topic, more superficially, twenty years ago.' Chris Wickham, Chichele Professor of Medieval History emeritus, University of Oxford

Author Information

Luke Lavan is Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Kent, Canterbury, where he co-ordinates the Centre for Late Antique Archaeology. His doctorate (2001) considered Provincial Capitals in Late Antiquity. He is series editor of Late Antique Archaeology. He was a post-doctoral research fellow of the Sagalassos Archaeological Project 2005-2007 and directed the Kent section of the Kent-Berlin Late Antique Ostia Project 2008-2012.

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