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Amheida Ii A Late Romano Egyptian House in The Dakhla Oasis Amheida House B2 1St Edition Anna Lucille Boozer Online Ebook Texxtbook Full Chapter PDF
Amheida Ii A Late Romano Egyptian House in The Dakhla Oasis Amheida House B2 1St Edition Anna Lucille Boozer Online Ebook Texxtbook Full Chapter PDF
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AMHEIDA II
AMHEIDA HOUSE B2
AMHEIDA II
AMHEIDA HOUSE B2
by
Anna Lucille Boozer
Gentium Plus font provided by SIL International under the terms of the Open Font
License.
At the time of publication, the full-text of this work was available at:
http://dlib.nyu.edu/awdl/isaw/amheida-ii-house-b2/.
Amheida
Editorial Committee
Roger S. Bagnall
Paola Davoli
Olaf E. Kaper
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Figures
List of Tables
Contributors
Preface
LIST OF TABLES
Table 5.1: Summary of colored plaster recovered from House B2
Table 5.2: Brick dimensions in oven platform Courtyard C2 F3 (in cm)
Table 5.3: Brick dimensions in oven platform Courtyard C2 F3 (in cm)
Table 5.4: Brick dimensions in bread oven Courtyard C2 F4 (in cm)
Table 5.5: Brick dimensions in floor F15 (in cm)
Table 5.6: Brick dimensions in floor F42 (in cm)
Table 7.1: Summary of personal appearance evidence from House B2
Table 7.2: Summary of weaving equipment from House B2
Table 7.3: Summary of transportation and management evidence
from House B2
Table 7.4: Summary of interior appearance evidence from House B2
Table 7.5: Summary of worship and religion evidence from House B2
Table 7.6: Summary of ethnic affinity evidence from House B2
Table 7.7: Summary of gender and age evidence from House B2
Tableau 8.1: Comptages des céramiques suivant les principaux
groupes fonctionnels
Table 16.1: Faunal remains identified from Area 1 at Amheida
Table 16.2: Summary of the faunal remains recovered from Area 2 at
Amheida
Table 16.3: Species ratios (based on NISP) for Areas 1 and 2 at
Amheida
Table 17.1: Summary table of plant remains from rooms and
courtyard
Table 20.1: Proposed B2 chronology
CONTRIBUTORS
Anna Lucille Boozer: Assistant Professor of Roman Mediterranean
Archaeology, History Department, Baruch College, One Bernard
Baruch Way, New York, NY 10010 USA.
Douglas V. Campana: US Park Service (retired).
Angela Cervi: Scuola di Specializzazione in Beni Archeologici,
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano.
Pam J. Crabtree: Associate Professor, Center for the Study of
Human Origins, Anthropology Department, New York University USA.
Paola Davoli: Associate Professor, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici,
Università del Salento, via M. Stampacchia, 45 73100 Lecce, Italy.
Delphine Dixneuf: Ceramologist (Ingénieur de Recherche) CNRS,
USR 3134 (Centre d’études alexandrines) Soliman Yousri Str. no. 50
– 21131 Alexandria, Arab Republic of Egypt.
David M. Ratzan: Head Librarian, Institute for the Study of the
Ancient World, New York, University, 15 East 84th St., New York, NY
10028 USA.
Giovanni R. Ruffini: Associate Professor of Classical Studies,
Fairfield University History Department, 1073 North Benson Road,
Fairfield CT 06824 USA.
Ursula Thanheiser: VIAS-Archaeobotany, Vienna University,
Althanstrasse 14 - UZA II, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
Johannes Walter: Staff scientist “Global Plants Initiative” project,
Natural History Museum Vienna, Botany Department, Herbarium,
Burgring 7, A-1010 Vienna, Austria and Lecturer at the University of
Vienna, Austria.
PREFACE
The ideas for the present book date back to my graduate years at
Columbia University. I am profoundly indebted to Roger Bagnall,
director of the Amheida Project and my PhD supervisor. His expert
guidance helped me move through each stage of research and has
resulted in the present book. Columbia University and the Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation provided financial support for the excavation of
House B2 through a Distinguished Achievement Award to Roger
Bagnall.
From the start of my doctoral research, I have had the pleasure
to work with members of the Dakhleh Oasis Project. Colin Hope’s
expertise in local Romano-Egyptian housing traditions and ceramics
significantly impacted interpretations in this volume. His critiques of
a draft of this book were insightful and supportive. Gillian Bowen
likewise contributed her expertise in woven goods to help me
understand this category of material.
Each and every member of the Amheida Project missions,
including both past and present members, contributed enormously
to this volume. Olaf Kaper, Associate Director for Egyptology at
Amheida, was an inspirational guide to all things Dakhleh. The
individuals who helped with the day-to-day excavations, recording,
photographing, and data management for House B2 include Andrea
Myers Achi, Eugene Ball, Bruno Bazzani, Roberta Casagrande-Kim,
Angela Cervi, Karen Green, Francesco Meo, Susanna McFadden,
Gillian Pyke, and Elizabeth Warkentin. Our Egyptian colleagues were
an invaluable component of this project. Reis Sauleh helped me to
organize the work in and around House B2. Ashraf Barakat, Assistant
to the Director, kept the project running smoothly at all times. The
house staff at the Ain el Gindi excavation house, under the
management of Gaber Murad, made the difficulties of fieldwork feel
like a luxurious experience.
A portion of this volume was written while I was a Junior
Research Fellow at the Topoi Excellence Cluster (Freie Universität
Berlin and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany). Marianne
Bergmann provided inspiration and insightful discussions both in
Berlin and during the course of writing this volume.
It would be difficult to list all of the people in the Department of
Archaeology at the University of Reading who provided assistance to
me during the period in which I completed this volume. Michael
Fulford, Roger Matthews, and Hella Eckardt read and commented
upon section drafts, significantly improving my interpretations. Other
staff members provided motivation and good humor during trying
times.
The final writing stage took place while I was an associate
research fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Research
and Policy (ISERP) at Columbia University in New York City. William
V. Harris served as a faculty advisor for my research while I was at
ISERP. He was an irreplaceable resource for helping me to view
Romano-Egyptian archeology from the broader perspective of
Roman History.
Conversations with Ari Bryen, Sabina Huebner, Gabor Thomas,
and particularly Giovanni Ruffini, helped me to consider Roman
Egypt from an exciting range of perspectives. Angela Cervi
contributed numerous illustrations used throughout this work and
carefully edited all of the existing photographs and plans used in this
volume. Her friendship, support, and attention to detail are always
appreciated. Sebastian Heath prepared the volume for publication.
And, finally, I had the constant support of friends, family, librarians,
and technologically gifted colleagues who helped me through various
stages. My parents, to whom this volume is dedicated, helped me to
navigate through the turbulence of publication and I am enormously
grateful.
1
DOMESTIC ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE ROMANO-EGYPTIAN HOUSE
An Integrated Research Agenda
Anna Lucille Boozer
Introduction
This archaeological report provides a comprehensive study of the
excavations carried out at Amheida House B2 in Egypt’s Dakhla
Oasis, between 2005 and 2007, followed by three study seasons
between 2008 and 2010 (Figure 1.1, Figure 1.2).1 This report
presents and discusses the architecture, artifacts, and ecofacts
recovered from B2 in a holistic manner, which has never before been
attempted in a full report on the excavation of a Romano-Egyptian
house. The primary aim of this volume is to combine an architectural
and material-based study with an explicitly contextual and
theoretical analysis. In so doing, I hope to develop a methodology
and present a case study of how the rich material remains of
Romano-Egyptian houses may be used to investigate the relationship
between domestic remains and social identity.
Amheida is located in the northwestern part of the Dakhla Oasis,
deep within Egypt’s Western Desert. Amheida has a long
occupational history, and it reached its greatest size under Roman
rule (approximately first through fourth centuries CE) (Figure 1.3).
The occupants left behind a wealth of documentary, pictorial,
architectural, and material data, and the favorable desert conditions
have preserved these remains to a high degree.
Amheida, known as Trimithis during the Roman Period, contains
a diverse range of structure types within different sectors of the
Roman city. The site is dominated by a large hill surmounted by a
temple that was built and rebuilt over many centuries. From the
surface, as well as limited excavations, it appears that elite houses
lie to the south and east of the temple mound. A necropolis, with at
least two pyramid tombs, extends to the southeast and south of the
city. House B2 is located in the northeast sector of the city, which is
composed of domestic and industrial structures. Extensive
agricultural fields, predynastic lithic scatters, and Old Kingdom
ceramics surround the built areas of the city. These remains of
earlier periods attest to long-standing activity at Amheida before the
Roman occupation of Egypt. Currently, it is neither clear what this
pre-Roman settlement looked like nor how it developed over time.
Research Framework
Figure 1.6: Soknopaiou Nesos, plan III, ground plan, late first level,
east side in Boak A. E. R. et al (1935). Soknopaiou Nesos: The
University of Michigan Excavations at Dimê in 1931-32. Kelsey
Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan.
Other sites from Egypt’s Fayum region are even less well
documented. Hawara, located at the entrance to the Fayum, is a
particularly important site for Roman Egypt, although it perhaps is
best-known for the pyramid of Amenemhat III (12th Dynasty).
Uytterhoeven’s recent volume provides an excellent compendium of
Hawara data.15 Sadly, little can be made of the ruinous Romano-
Egyptian domestic remains, except that they seem to have a square
or rectangular footprint averaging less than 100 m2 in area and with
an adjoining exterior courtyard. These houses seem to have been
multistoried, with only two or three rooms on the ground floor.16
Another Fayum site, Tebtynis (modern Tell Umm el-Baragat), also
had Greco-Roman occupation. Tebtynis provides domestic
comparanda for the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods, although there
are significantly fewer published houses from Tebtynis than Karanis
and Soknopaiou Nesos. Most Tebtynis houses date to late Ptolemaic
and early Roman Periods, and the published plans show houses with
a square plan. One house has a peristyle contained within the
house.17 These other Fayum houses also were analyzed
typologically, so it is not possible to connect finds, architectural
features, and the plans of houses in order to reconstruct what each
individual house looked like.18
Moving to other regions in Egypt, we find a different range of
fragmentary data on Romano-Egyptian houses. Oxyrhynchus
(modern el-Bahnasa) is located approximately 160 km south of
modern Cairo. Oxyrhynchus provides us with a wealth of papyri
dating to the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods, revealing remarkable
detail about the community that once resided there. The urban
layout, domestic structures, and material remains also are described,
although the amount of archaeological publication is paltry.19 Other
areas of Upper Egypt, such as Elephantine, have produced houses.
Elephantine is an island in the middle of the Nile as part of modern-
day Aswan in southern Egypt. Unfortunately the results of the urban
excavations are difficult to interpret because only portions of the
domestic structures have been exposed.20
Moving to the north coast of Egypt, we find several examples of
Roman Mediterranean housing. Alexandria, the premier city in
Roman Egypt—and one of the chief cities of the Roman Empire—is
poorly visible to the archaeologist today. Even so, archaeologists
have begun to recover the remains of villas and other elaborate
housing structures that potentially contained workshops and
apartments in a single structure.21 These structures have not been
holistically explored, such that we could understand the architecture,
artifacts, ecofacts, and textual data as a unit. This analytical problem
entails that the way in which these individual structures were used in
antiquity is ambiguous.
Marina el-Alamein (ancient Leukaspis or Antiphrae), a smaller
coastal Graeco-Roman port town west of Alexandria, produced
several sumptuous dwellings. These houses contained a central
court surrounded by two or three portico wings, while the smaller
dwellings had just one wing of a single column. Typologically, these
houses recall portico and peristyle houses.22 To date, these houses
have not been fully published, and the preliminary reports do not
include a holistic analysis of the material.
Egypt’s Western Desert contains a wealth of well-preserved
domestic remains. The Kharga Oasis, east of Dakhla, has produced
partial data on houses. Ancient Kysis (Douch), located at the
extreme southern edge of the oasis, contains a large number of
domestic structures. Architecturally, these houses reflect Roman
Mediterranean influences, as can be seen particularly in the use of
inner peristyles and interior courts.23 Unfortunately, the recovered
domestic data is not always clear, and we do not have a full range of
portable and architectural material to reconstruct life in the
contextual manner that we seek.
Kellis (Ismant el-Kharab) provides an abundance of data on local
Dakhla domestic life.24 The site drew attention from early travelers
in the nineteenth century and archaeologists in the twentieth
century. Kellis has undergone modern excavation since 1986, under
the direction of Colin Hope as part of the Dakhleh Oasis Project
(DOP). The site appears to have been occupied from the first to
fourth centuries CE and occupies an area of 1050 x 650 m. The
project has produced numerous preliminary reports on the excavated
houses, although a final excavation report has not been published
yet; it is intended that this final report will be fully contextual. At this
stage, it is possible to summarize the Kellis houses on the basis of
the preliminary reports.
Roman Kellis domestic architecture usually consisted of a single-
story structure with barrel vaulted roofs. A staircase provided access
to the roof, which was often used as additional work and storage
space. Within the house, there was typically a central courtyard area
surrounded by living and workspaces, although some houses had
rear courtyards in addition to or instead of the central courtyard.
Walls were mud-plastered and often contained strips of whitewash
along rear walls and around doorways and wall niches.25 Presumably
this whitewash illuminated these dark spaces, particularly when
lamps were placed in the niches.
A closer examination of the Kellis houses yields diachronic
information on Dakhla house development.26 Area B, in northern-
central Kellis, primarily consists of extensive complexes. Area B dates
from the first through third centuries CE and shows a continuous
development of buildings, some of which were more formal than
others. A sub-area contained within this zone, Kellis Area B3,
contained lavishly decorated houses with bright geometric motifs.
The B3 sub-area contains a series of large residences that may be
contemporaneous since they all share a north wall.27 Hope suggests
that these Kellis residences contain architectural parallels to Roman
atrium houses at Italian sites such as Pompeii, rather than drawing
upon Egyptian architectural norms.28
House B/3/1, located in the eastern portion of Area B, has finds
largely dating to the late first to early third centuries CE. House
B/3/1 has a more Classical style layout than is commonly associated
with Egypt. House B/3/1 has a clustered plan of access and a central
open area (room 1b).29 The organizing principle for this house was
bifurcated around two rooms rather than around one room, which
may have been an attribute of wealthier Dakhlan houses.30
Area C is located in the far eastern extremity of Kellis and
contains blocks of structures as well as a visible furnace and kiln
debris. The Area C structures date to the second and third centuries
CE. These Area C buildings drew upon Classical models in their
arrangement, as indicated by the placement of living and
workspaces around a central open courtyard. Kellis House C/2/8 has
a square plan, and the rooms were arranged around a central open
courtyard. From the surface, Kellis House C/2/10 shares a similar
square plan and central open courtyard, but it has not been fully
excavated, and reconstructions must be tentative at this time.31
Moving to the western portion of Kellis, known as Area A, we find
churches, a bath house, and domestic structures. This area of the
site is located just east of a cluster of temples, a church, and the
western tombs. Hope’s team excavated a cluster of houses in Area
A. The Kellis Area A houses are single-story elongated structures
dating to the late third to fourth century.32 Houses from this area
contain well-preserved barrel vaulted roofs over the rooms that
surround a central open courtyard. House 3 has a central, open
court (room 6) around which the unroofed stairs (room 7) and main
barrel-vaulted living quarters (rooms 2–5, 8–10) clustered.33
Likewise, House 5 in Area A/9 dates to the fourth century, is
somewhat elongated, has a central room through which other rooms
were accessed, and all of the rooms were barrel vaulted.34 The final
publication of the SE Kellis houses promises to be a groundbreaking
publication. Interested readers should consult Hope’s forthcoming
volume for the definitive results on these structures when it
becomes available.
In sum, we have a considerable amount of information about
houses from the first to fourth centuries from various parts of Egypt.
This information is largely architectural, however, and most previous
publications of Romano-Egyptian house excavations segregated
artifacts and architectural elements from their original contexts, with
the result that only general statements can be made about domestic
assemblages. In other words, the specificity of daily lives within
individual households was lost in the drive to categorize the finds.35
As a result of these methodological and analytical practices, we can
say very little about how individual households functioned over time,
in different socio-economic groups, ethnic groups, regions, and so
on. Moreover, we do not have a sufficient range of plans for
excavated houses, which makes it difficult to determine the
geographic spread, diachronic development, and prevalence of
various house types.
Moving from this fragmented picture to a detailed, nuanced, and
contextual analysis will require the fuller publication of older
excavations as well as fully published new excavations. The final
publications of the Kellis domestic structures and of House B1 at
Amheida will be of great value in this effort. The present work
contributes to this agenda by engaging more deeply with the
intersection of domestic architecture and material culture. This
engagement will enable me to reconstruct in part the life of one
Romano-Egyptian household, which will catalyze new research
questions for domestic archaeology. Prior research on Romano-
Egyptian houses facilitated the present study and offers background
for increasingly refined perspectives in future work. Since
archaeological research entails the creation and study of archives, a
variety of perspectives on Romano-Egyptian domestic life is possible
and even desirable.36 Rather than attempting to supplant previous
work on Romano-Egyptian houses, the current project represents
another layer of engagement with the data and makes use of
previous archaeological scholarship in order to answer new
questions about domestic life.
Archaeological Approaches to Houses
Households are the result of interactions between larger social forms
and individuals.37 In order to capture this relationship, it is necessary
to retain the household as a distinct unit of analysis. Recent cross-
cultural advances in domestic archaeology provide useful avenues
for exploring Romano-Egyptian houses. Most of these developments
rely on contextual approaches to domestic material.38 By gathering
together images, objects, beings, settings, and activities, it is
possible to gain a holistic understanding of daily life. Recent theorists
argue that analyzing artifacts and architecture as isolated entities
places too much emphasis on form and phasing to the detriment of
social questions.39 By contrast, if we recover detailed artifact
assemblages from a small number of houses, we can determine
activity patterns and test our interpretations of artifacts found in
other contexts.40 In Roman Egypt, we do not have a detailed
understanding of domestic artifact assemblages within their physical
environments. This deficiency hinders our ability to reconstruct social
life within houses.
Hendon highlights four facets of social archaeology that should
be explored within houses: (1) the materiality of the domestic
structures; (2) the nature of day-to-day experiences and practices
rather than function alone; (3) the variability of houses; and (4) the
importance of understanding social processes at different social
scales.41 These four proposals give us a useful roadmap for domestic
archaeology and are worth exploring in more detail.
First, the materiality of domestic space requires special attention
in order to understand object meanings. Penelope Allison argued
that contextualized analyses bring architecture, material culture, and
texts to bear upon questions of social life, object meanings, and our
understanding of antiquity.42 Allison’s contextual analyses of material
culture from Pompeii showed that scholars have often mislabeled
objects and misunderstood how they were used in their original
spatio-temporal locus.43 These erroneous attributions were
replicated over more than a century of research upon these houses,
creating multiple levels of misunderstanding. Allison’s work
unmistakably illustrates that contextual analyses are essential for
understanding domestic material culture.
There are additional advantages to contextual archaeology. A
contextual approach enables us to formulate logical conclusions
about the types of objects or objects and architecture that tend to
co-occur.44 A focus on materiality informs archaeologists about the
life histories of objects—their creation, use, reuse, and eventual
discard. Despite some excellent studies from other areas of the
Roman Empire, there exists very little published work on the
contextual usage of Romano-Egyptian domestic material. The
present study addresses this lacuna through contextually exploring
the material data as well as examining the material culture
thematically and typologically.
Second, a room-by-room analysis of houses, exploring the
architecture and artifact assemblages in tandem, approximates how
individuals experienced space within the house. This analytical
approach avoids descriptive shorthand for rooms and recognizes that
houses and the people who live in them are in a “mutually
constituting” relationship.45 In other words, individuals shaped the
space around them to represent their needs and social outlook. In
turn, the architectural space influenced individual life perspectives by
providing the arena for daily activities.
It is well understood that most ancient houses had multi-use
rooms. For example, numerous ancient sources indicate that Romans
moved furniture around their houses with a high frequency. Pliny
refers to rooms serving multiple functions depending on the
arrangement of portable objects and furniture.46 In palatial houses
one may have been able to codify space to a higher degree than
small properties, because large spaces did not require the high
degree of flexibility and malleability that small houses necessitated.
It is more challenging to interpret spatial usage in modest houses,
such as Amheida House B2, than in more sprawling estates.47 One
can imagine that the use of space in small structures would change
throughout the course of the day or the season, depending on who
used the space and other conditions such as light, heat, wind, and
so on.48 In order to interpret household functions appropriately, we
must remain flexible when assigning labels to different spaces.
Rapoport suggests that we view spatial organization in terms of
systems of activities that take place in systems of settings.49 A
setting includes permanent frameworks (architecture), semi-
permanent features (ovens, furniture), and also transient features
(people, objects) and their associated activities.50 Activities may take
place at different times, follow different sequences, and involve
different people. The “label” of a room may change depending upon
who is involved, what they are doing, and when it occurs. Some of
these activities may have been actively considered and performed,
while others may have been routine and unanalyzed by those
involved.51 An avoidance of descriptive shorthand terms, such as
“kitchen,” refocuses our attention on activities, individuals, and
patterns.
Some scholars have argued that it is impossible to fully
understand societies through artifact distributions, because the
modern observer is unable to determine if an object was used or
stored in a given area.52 Although rooms are often multi-use, artifact
distributions are not meaningless. We may not be able to determine
the full range of household activities that took place over time, but
we can capture specific slices of time within this range. Moreover, at
this time, we do not have enough contextual studies to validate the
claim that object locations are not informative. As we accumulate
more contextual studies from reliable contexts, we may be able to
evaluate the security of a context for meaningful contextual analyses
beyond the binary of sealed contexts and open/disturbed contexts.
It is also worth considering the possibility that even disturbed
contexts, though individually difficult to rely on, may collectively
yield more reliable information. At this time, scholars of the Roman
Empire suggest that contextual analyses are relevant for determining
object meanings and spatial significance in a variety of structures,
and it is worthwhile exploring this approach in Roman Egypt.53
Third, household variability can be recognized only when we
analyze houses as distinct units. In order to understand social and
functional domestic differences between houses we must gather
information on which domestic elements co-occur. Contextual
approaches to houses enable us to account for social variations
rather than impose normative perspectives upon past lifestyles. It is
likely that individuals made use of houses and material objects in
diverse ways rather than following a codified practice.54 A contextual
approach to archaeological material will help us to discern patterns
within domestic diversity without smoothing over the disparities.
Fourth, social processes look different depending upon the
analytical scale. By examining a single house in detail, it is possible
to explore the connection between the microscale of the house and
the macroscale of Roman Empire. The household is the social
institution most often invoked when considering social change and
social difference at the microscale. Microscale analyses help to
explain how change occurs, what form it takes, and what its
consequences are in minute detail.55 The way in which individuals
understood imported imperial objects and ideas can change the
meaning and use of these objects and concepts. Through examining
the ways that individuals understood the Roman Empire, we can
understand the extent to which a locality experienced change under
broader social trends.
In sum, this project employs a contextual approach to House B2
in order to retain the household unit. This approach will enable a
better understanding of the material culture, architecture,
occupants, and social niche than studies that isolate specific
categories of material for analysis. The rigorous methodological
processes involved in contextual archaeology ensure that the data
can be re-analyzed and re-interpreted, allowing for malleability in
interpretation after excavation is complete.56 The method of
excavation and documentation is essential to this kind of study. The
lack of rigorous methodologies in many other excavations—old and
recent—is the foundation of incomplete domestic publications. The
accuracy of excavation and of its documentation enables us to study
contexts and objects together and within different perspectives. The
excavation proper contains a method and a theory, not only the
interpretation of what has been found.
The holistic concept is recent, and most Romano-Egyptian
domestic excavations are outdated and were not excavated
stratigraphically. By emphasizing careful practice, I recognize that
archaeological research changes. Future researchers will ask
different questions of our data.57 Naturally, a contextual approach
does not mean setting aside the systematic publication of material
finds; rather, it requires looking at those finds both as members of a
class and as parts of a context.
Choice of Amheida House B2
House B2 is situated in an area of the site (Area 1) that contains
vernacular mud brick architecture alongside industrial structures and
utilitarian ceramics on the surface (Figure 1.7). It is located across
the street from a structure that the DOP had investigated previously.
This other structure appears to have had a similar plan to B2 and
may have been converted from a house into a ceramics workshop at
some stage of its occupational history. The DOP team found large
quantities of clinker as well as unbaked fragments of ceramics, high
densities of sherds, and large numbers of unfired vessels around Kiln
1 within the house.58
Figure 1.7: Plan of Amheida Area 1 showing B2 and surrounding
structures.
This report has two primary goals for House B2. First, it will offer a
comprehensive presentation and evaluation of the architectural and
material evidence recovered from House B2 and its surroundings.
This report pursues a material ethnography of the individuals who
once occupied a single house in Roman Egypt, aiming to illuminate
the settings in which their lives took place along with the objects
that held meaning for them. The second goal of this report is to
relate evidence recovered from B2 to the spectrum of domestic
evidence previously recovered from Roman Egypt. In so doing, this
report builds on previous archaeological scholarship and contributes
a new vantage point on this material.
The specific research objectives are as follows:
1. Establish the chronology of B2
2. Fit B2 within the Romano-Egyptian domestic spectrum
3. Determine socio-spatial contexts, activities, and practices
4. Determine the people who occupied B2
5. Determine relationships to the Roman Empire
These specific objectives will help me achieve the broader research
objectives for this volume.
Volume Structure
My objective for this volume is to return the excavated materials to
the contexts that they came from rather than considering them in
isolation or only as part of specific material categories. The chapter
divisions form the foundation for the ways in which I interpret the
use of objects and the function of spaces in subsequent chapters.
Chapter 2 introduces the Dakhla Oasis and Amheida, including
the cultural history of these areas and the research history upon
them. Chapter 3 provides an overview of the research methodologies
employed in the project. Chapter 4 provides a room-by-room
analysis of the house, discussing the architecture, artifact
assemblages, and stratigraphy holistically. Chapter 5 examines the
construction techniques used to build B2, the street, and exterior
courtyard. Chapter 6 compares the architecture of B2 to that of
other Romano-Egyptian houses and suggests a potential
reconstruction. Chapter 7 provides a thematic overview of the small
finds from House B2 in order to crosscut material divisions between
objects, while chapters 8 through 19 examine individual categories
of material. Chapter 20 of this volume returns to the specific
research objectives enumerated above and considers some of the
social questions raised by in this project in order to explore the
family who once occupied this structure. A more thorough
exploration of the theoretical questions explored here, as well as a
broader comparison of domestic structures and what they can tell us
about social change under imperialism, is reserved for a later
volume.60 A comprehensive chart of the object distributions can be
found in Chapter 20 (Figure 20.1). Additional information about the
stratigraphic units (DSUs, FSUs) can be found by consulting the
open-access database.
1 This report is the first excavation report of the Amheida Project and the second
volume in the Amheida series.
2 Grenfell, Hunt, Hogarth and Milne 1900.
3 Davoli summarizes the work at Karanis as well as some of the issues with the
University of Michigan methodologies and publication practices (1998:73-116).
Wilfong 2012 discusses the significance of the unpublished Karanis archives, and
Boozer (2015a) argues that Karanis houses have become overly-dominant as a
typology in Romano-Egyptian archaeology.
4 Boak 1933, Boak and Peterson 1931.
5 Husselman 1979.
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end and not the end itself. The test for the pupil is to see if he can
put in his own words the vital meaning of the author. It should not be
his purpose to attempt to improve on the writer’s style. It is true that
some of the world’s greatest literary expressions would lose their
highest significance if put in any other than their original form. This
applies especially to verse form, for here the rhythmic movement is
an inseparable element in the full expression of the idea. Some one
has well said: “Style grows to the thought as the sea-shell to its
occupant.” But at this point the aim is not to teach the pupil the
mechanics of literature. He must be taught to think for himself and
use the knowledge he gains so that it will be valuable in his own life.
Is not the aim in both cases for the pupil to get the idea which the
authors wish to impress upon his mind? In other words, the authors
are not simply writing for art’s sake, as so many would have us
believe. The pupil must get the author’s messages, so that they will
help him in life, to be both independent or free from passion, and
reliable or dependable in whatever he undertakes.
Let us advance to the second step: The classification and
organization of facts mean more than the simple process of orderly
arrangement. This has to do with translating what the author
presents to the pupil in terms of his past experience. This is the
process of judging values. Before we pigeon-hole new information,
we pass judgment upon its relative importance. The pupil has
experienced the value of punctuality, courage, optimism, etc. Now,
when any new truth comes under his observation, it is not turned into
knowledge until it has gone through his mental gristmill. What he
hears, or sees, or feels, is not usable until it has been fitted into its
particular niche, and this fitting process is brought about by likening
the unknown to the known.
This brings us to the third step. Frederick Harrison has said:
“Man’s business here is to know for the sake of living, not to live for
the sake of knowing.” There is no better way of expressing the third
step in the development of the student in intelligent reading. After he
has learned to grasp the author’s thought readily, and then so reacts
upon it that it becomes a part of his very being, his next step is to
find an open market for the sale of his knowledge. This does not
mean to sell for money in the narrow sense, but to put his
understanding into actual daily life.
CHAPTER III
INVENTORY OF SPEECH EFFICIENCY
The Knowing
1. Do I realize that I use my voice almost constantly?
2. Do I realize that success in business or society depends largely
upon the convincing power of speech?
3. Do I realize how much of my speech is of no avail?
4. Do I realize the vital importance of inflection and the influence it
has upon those who hear me?
5. Do I realize the great delight that comes through the mastery of
correct vocal usage?
6. Do I realize that it is unnecessary to have a tired throat at the end
of the day?
7. Do I realize that in a very large degree a pleasing personality
depends upon a pleasing voice?
8. Do I realize that by attaining convincing power of speech I am
promoting my efficiency?
The Doing
1. Do I talk more than is necessary?
2. Do I pitch my voice too high?
3. Do I speak with a tense, set jaw and use a hard, metallic tone?
4. Do I talk in my throat instead of in my mouth?
5. Do I continually talk on the same key?
6. Do I talk too fast, or too slow, or too loud, or too low?
7. Do I use my voice as a medium by which I give vent to anger or
displeasure?
8. Do I speak quietly and softly, and thus indicate culture and
refinement?
9. Do I speak loudly in order to be persuasive?
10. Do I attract undue attention to my speech?
11. Do I enunciate with clearness and precision?
12. Do I harmonize tone with mood?
More items could be placed under these two headings, but the
above are sufficient to bring the student face to face with his speech
difficulties. We must know wherein we lack speech efficiency before
we can remedy the lack. The following chapters present adequate
exercises for needed improvement.
CHAPTER IV
ORAL READING
What Is Expression?
What is expression? We are told that all life is expression: The
sudden summer shower, the leap of the wild cataract, the springing
forth of early flowers, and the slow motion of the glacier all represent
Nature expressing herself. The musician over the keyboard, the
painter at his easel, the writer at his desk, represent art expressing
herself. This is all true. But what about mankind as a whole, what
about the vast majority of people who are not endowed with genius?
Have they no universal and common mode of expression?
—Lowell.
Just before Napoleon set out for the court of Belgium, he sent to
the cleverest artisan of his class in Paris, and demanded of him
whether he would engage to make a coat of mail, to be worn under
the ordinary dress, which should be absolutely bullet-proof; and that
if so, he might name his own price for such a work. The man
engaged to make the desired object, if allowed proper time, and he
named eighteen thousand francs as the price of it. The bargain was
concluded, and in due time the work was produced, and its maker
honored with a second audience of the emperor. “Now,” said his
imperial majesty, “put it on.” The man did so. “As I am to stake my
life on its efficacy, you will, I suppose, have no objections to do the
same.” And he took a brace of pistols, and prepared to discharge
one of them at the breast of the astonished artisan. There was no
retreating, however, and half-dead with fear, he stood the fire, and, to
the infinite credit of his work, with perfect impunity. But the emperor
was not content with one trial; he fired the second pistol at the back
of the trembling artisan, and afterwards discharged a fowling-piece
at another part of him, with similar effect. “Well,” said the emperor,
“you have produced a capital work, undoubtedly—what is the price
of it?” “Eighteen thousand francs were named as the agreed sum.”
“There is an order for them,” said the emperor, “and here is another,
for an equal sum, for the fright that I gave you.”
When a deed is done for Freedom, through the broad earth’s aching
breast
Runs a thrill of joy prophetic, trembling on from east to west,
And the slave, where’er he cowers, feels the soul within him climb
To the awful verge of manhood, as the energy sublime
Of a century bursts full-blossomed on the thorny stem of Time.
Through the walls of hut and palace shoots the instantaneous throe,
When the travail of the Ages wrings earth’s systems to and fro;
At the birth of each new Era, with a recognizing start,
Nation wildly looks at nation, standing with mute lips apart,
And glad Truth’s yet mightier man-child leaps beneath the Future’s
heart.
So the Evil’s triumph sendeth, with a terror and a chill,
Under continent to continent, the sense of coming ill,
And the slave, where’er he cowers, feels his sympathies with God
In hot tear-drops ebbing earthward, to be drunk up by the sod,
Till a corpse crawls round unburied, delving in the nobler clod.