The edited volume is the result of the first international ROCT-conference (Roman Crafts and Trade Network) at the Catholic University Leuven on 7 and 8 May, 1999. The collected papers provide an overview of important recent contributions to the study of Italian sigillata and outline some approaches for future research. The contributions define methodological and chronological problems related to the import of Italian sigillata, and, at the same time, place Italian sigillata against a wider background, in order to evaluate its role in the changing early imperial ceramic assemblages, and discuss whether the trade in Italian sigillata could have been part of a wider pattern of exchange of goods, persons and ideas. The volume brings together a variety of archaeological and archaeometrical papers and covers the western regions of the empire, the Italian motherland and the Roman East, in trying to encompass the complex effects of Italian sigillata.

Annual bulletin of classical archaeology.

The term "classical" is used to describe everything from the poems of Homer to entire periods of Greek and Roman antiquity. But just how did the concept evolve? This collection of essays by leading classics scholars from the United States and Europe challenges the limits of the current understanding of the term. The book seeks not to arrive at a final definition, but rather to provide a cultural history of the concept by exploring how the meanings of "classical" have been created, recreated, and rejected over time. The book asks questions that have been nearly absent from the scholarly literature. Does "classical" refer to a specific period of history or to the artistic products of that time? How has its definition changed? Did those who lived in classical times have some understanding of what the term "classical" has meant? How coherent, consistent, or even justified is the term? The book's introduction provides a generous theoretical and historical overview. It is followed by eleven chapters in which the contributors argue for the existence not of a single classical past, but of multiple, competing classical pasts. The essays address a broad range of topics--Homer and early Greek poetry and music, Isocrate, Hellenistic and Roman art, Cicero and Greek philosophy, the history of Latin literature, imperial Greek literature, and more. The most up-to-date and challenging treatment of the topic available, this collection will be of lasting interest to students and scholars of ancient and modern literature, art, and cultural history.

The ideas of circumnavigation suggested by the title of this volume of essays, presented to one of the world's leading Classical archaeologists, conjures up the sense of excitement associated with a voyage of discovery. Over 40 friends and former doctoral students whose work was supervised by John Boardman during his time as Lincoln Professor of Classical Archaeology and Art at Oxford University (1978-1994) have contributed essays on topics close to his heart. Now holding academic posts worldwide, they all recall with pleasure the enthusiasm and encouragement of their former teacher.