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David Smith:

There’s No Place Like Domus: A Panel Discussion on the Roman House

California Classical Association (Northern Section) Spring Conference April 5 2008

Held at the Stanford Archaeology Center

Featuring:

Michael Anderson (San Francisco State University): "The Casa di Trebius Valens: A Micro-Topological Analysis."

Gary Devore (Stanford University): "Digging the Non-Elite House: New Evidence from Pompeii"

Francesca Tronchin (Ohio State University) "Understanding Eclecticism in the Homes of the Vesuvian Region"

Gill McIntosh (San Francisco State University): "No Place Not Like Home: Domus as Metaphor in Latin Literature"

Salve!

Although I am a Hellenist by training, there are two things I am pretty sure are true about the Romans: every single one of them spoke Latin, and every single one of them lived in a house. Now, we have all spent plenty of time thinking about the Latin they spoke. But, perhaps with the exception of our four panelists, how many of us have developed an equal appreciation for the houses in which those Latin-speakers lived? Well, perhaps we should, and not only because of the fact that (as Gill McIntosh notes in her presentation) the Romans themselves conceived of houses and language as metaphors of each other.

This being the CCA’s first venture into the panel/discussion format, I wanted to comment briefly on it. This is a wonderful group to have assembled together because it turns out that – mostly unbeknownst to me – they have a great deal of history with one another. So, for example:

• Michael and Gill work together at San Francisco State University.

• Michael knows Gary from Pompeii.

• Gill knows Francesca from an NEH seminar on computer models of ancient Rome

• Computer modelling of ancient sites is Michael’s specialty

• Francesca and Michael are both contributors to a volume of collected essays on Pompeii

What this brief foray into anecdote suggests to me is that what we will get here today are not four opinions developed in isolation, with balkanized assumptions and different methodologies, but a group of young scholars who – while working from different perspectives and backgrounds and even in different places, nevertheless have been working together by advancing their individual ideas within a community created by common interest. It’s in honor of your interest in supporting that community, and in honor of the idea that collaborative discussion is of the highest importance to individual creativity, that we have assembled this panel.

Many thanks to our Vice-President, Michael Shanks of Stanford University, for setting up this wiki-record of our meeting. Please enjoy the site, and feel free to leave your comments as well.

Sincerely,

David G. Smith San Francisco State University CCA-N President 2007-2009

The Domus - talks and discussion - Spring 2008 - a link to the talks

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