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Reductions in the cost of transporting manufactured goods have been an important element in economic development in the recent past, and previous research suggests that the Roman period in Britain also saw substantial reductions in such costs. The authors investigate how far it is possible to measure changes in transport costs by considering the spatial distributions of pottery from known Roman production locations over time. Their analysis of an extensive database of pottery assemblages is designed to evaluate a series of expectations concerning how reductions in transport costs may have affected such assemblages and their distribution. Results suggest that costs were reduced by a factor of about two, leading to related changes in pottery production, distribution, and consumption over time. The ability to quantify changes in transport costs opens new perspectives for investigating the general determinants of economic development using archaeological data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies investigating changes in domestic architecture from the Iron Age to the Roman period in the northwestern provinces of the Roman empire have often suggested an important degree of continuity in domestic social relations, although the province of Mediterranean Gaul, Gallia Narbonensis, has been underrepresented in these studies. This article employs access analysis to compare domestic space in Mediterranean Gaul at three preconquest Iron Age settlements (ca. 500–50 BCE) and five Roman-period houses from the first–second centuries CE. This analysis suggests that many Roman houses in Gallia Narbonensis helped structure quite different forms of daily social interactions and encounters through important changes in the physical organization of domestic space. In particular, the communitarian organization of domestic space for the Iron Age settlements seems to have encouraged daily encounters within and between domestic groups through shared, communal spaces, rather than separating social units into coherent sets of rooms that in a modern setting we would consider “houses.” By contrast, in the Roman period internally organized domestic spaces emphasized specialization and internal divisions, structuring socioeconomic distinctions, and in doing so, signaled an important social rupture that contrasts with other provinces of Gaul. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During excavations at the Hellenistic-Roman port of Berenike (on the Red Sea coast of Egypt) in the winter of 2019, work in the so-called Northern Complex documented a religious space from the Late Roman period. The excavation of a portion of this space recorded material that, together with the architecture, suggests a ritual function associated with a falcon cult. This study examines the features of this edifice and the interpretation of the religious materials found in it and proposes a possible relationship with the Blemmyan population who lived in Berenike between the fourth and sixth centuries CE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article is to assess the significance of a solitary find of a Roman bronze barrel-shaped bucket and a handle from another bronze vessel. Besides a necessary artefactual analysis, the authors also pay attention to palynological findings and mainly to the interpretation of the find, whose location on a spur above the river Dyje is unusual, without any confirmed relations to the surrounding barbarian settlement from the Roman Period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An unexcavated ancient building in the ruins of the Arab village of Sejara is tentatively identified as a synagogue from the Roman or Late Roman period. This suggestion is based on architectural fragments found on the site, in the modern village Ilaniya and at a nearby moshav, as well as an inscription in secondary use photographed in the 1920s. The surviving portion of the dedicatory text seems to mention two women with Latin names, Lucilla and Sacerdotilla, the second being quite rare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Late Roman and the Early Migration Periods, i.e. the 4th and the early 5th centuries AD, in the Polish Western Carpathians, especially in the Sącz Basin, the adjacent Sącz Beskid Mts and Wyspowy Beskid Mts as well as in the Krosno-Jasło Basin, a significant intensification of settlement is observed. The area has been investigated through archaeological surface surveys and excavations; in the Sącz region, five sites have been excavated with the results published to date. This text presents the results of test excavation at yet another site, Podegrodzie 7, Nowy Sącz district. In the feature investigated there a rare jug ornamented with glossed triangles, several storage vessels of the Krausengefäße type, as well as some organic remains were discovered. Palaeobotanical analysis has shown that common barley (Hordeum vulgare) was the predominant species cultivated by the inhabitants of this territory. The radiocarbon date obtained from a charcoal sample corresponds to the chronology of the site determined by the ceramics typology. The results of the excavation at Podegrodzie 7 site are complemented with a map presenting the location of settlement in that area in the Late Roman and the Early Migration Periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the stadium-gymnasium complex at Messene, built in the third century BCE, as an architectural unity and as a vehicle for the assertion of civic identity among Messenians, both young and old. Through the published archaeological and epigraphical evidence, the discussion examines the complex's situation in the landscape, the east and west stoas, and the propylon in light of this aspect of the gymnasium's function. Special attention is paid to the monumental Hellenistic tombs on the west and to the extensive changes made to the west stoa in the Roman period. The results show how the remains of the gymnasium reflect dynamic processes of remembering and forgetting, and illustrate attempts by various elite families in the Hellenistic and Early Roman periods to position themselves at the center of official civic memory through changes to the building's fabric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current advances in spatial simulation bring unprecedented possibilities for spatiotemporal modeling. In this paper, we focus on modeling the impact of settlement on land use in the Roman period in the Dutch river area, on the northern frontier of the Roman Empire. During this period, the area witnessed a strong population increase that put more demands on the available land to produce food, not only for the local population, but also for the soldiers stationed on the frontier and the citizens of the newly founded towns. We compare an agent-based model (ABM) of agricultural production in the region (ROMFARMS), and a model using the Past Land Use Scanner (PLUS. Both were used to estimate the effects of increased agricultural demand through simulations of food production, taking into account the available workforce and the productivity and availability of suitable land. However, how should we evaluate the model outcomes? What are the advantages and limitations of each? We discuss issues of scale, temporal resolution and model inputs, together with questions of technical implementation and validation. In this way, we aim to point the way to future researchers to implement these approaches effectively in other contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2023, a rescue archaeological excavation was conducted in Mayerova and Střední streets in the cadastral area of Modřice (Brno-Country District), uncovering a part of a Roman period Germanic settlement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]