The Material Life of Roman Slaves

The Material Life of Roman Slaves retrieves and represents the physical environment and lives of Roman slaves.

Sandra R. Joshel (Author), Lauren Hackworth Petersen (Author)

9780521139571, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 1 October 2015

317 pages, 170 b/w illus. 16 colour illus.
25.5 x 17.8 x 1.4 cm, 0.64 kg

'The great merit of this study is to restore to us, at least in part, the eyes of a manager of slaves, to give us a sense of the uneasy relationship between the citizens of Campania and their workforce … The book is magnificently produced: there are copious plans and photographs, many taken by the authors, closely married to the text.' Christopher Tanfield, Classics for All

The Material Life of Roman Slaves is a major contribution to scholarly debates on the archaeology of Roman slavery. Rather than regarding slaves as irretrievable in archaeological remains, the book takes the archaeological record as a key form of evidence for reconstructing slaves' lives and experiences. Interweaving literature, law, and material evidence, the book searches for ways to see slaves in the various contexts - to make them visible where evidence tells us they were in fact present. Part of this project involves understanding how slaves seem irretrievable in the archaeological record and how they are often actively, if unwittingly, left out of guidebooks and scholarly literature. Individual chapters explore the dichotomy between visibility and invisibility and between appearance and disappearance in four physical and social locations - urban houses, city streets and neighborhoods, workshops, and villas.

1. Introduction
2. Slaves in the house
3. Slaves in the city/streets
4. Slaves in the workshop
5. Slaves in the villa
6. Conclusion: the material remains of Roman slaves.

Subject Areas: Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], History of art: ancient & classical art,BCE to c 500 CE [ACG]