Michael Heinzelmann and Cathalin Recko (Eds.)
Quantifying Ancient Building Economy
Panel 3.24
Archaeology and Economy in the Ancient World – Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Classical Archaeology, Cologne/Bonn 2018In recent years, the study of ancient construction has focused increasingly on putting the different aspects of the process of building into an economic framework. This entailed examining the various steps of construction and the organization of a building site in detail. It also meant that attempts were made to quantify the use of both the materials and the labour necessary for the building project, as these illustrate the scale of a building project and its impact on the overall economy.
The goal of this volume is to bring together different approaches of the study of the economy of building. With the help of methods of quantification and intensive architectural studies, the case studies of city walls, baths, temples and timber buildings in this volume not only shed light on the various constructional characteristics of these buildings, but also on a wide range of economic implications. The collection of papers ranges from Messene in the 4th century BC to Imperial Rome and are completed by practical insights from 19th century building manuals.
Professor and chair of Classical Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology at the University of Cologne; previous positions: researcher at the German Archaeological Institute at Rome; director of the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology at Jerusalem; professor for Mediterranean Archeology at the University of Berne.
Cathalin Recko, Postdoc at the Archaeological Institute at the University of Cologne. Recently finished PhD project about the quantification of labour requirements for the public buildings around the forum of Pompeii.