Between Words and Walls: Housing in the Graeco-Roman
World
Dr Jennifer Baird
Dr April Pudsey
Households and families were fundamental social, economic and cultural units
across populations of the ancient world. Using archaeological remains in tandem
with textual evidence, this module explores how ancient houses functioned in various
contexts and from a range of perspectives: domestic and religious activities, familial
obligations and relationships, social and political structures, and the house as
microcosm of wider societies. Topics discussed will include both rural and urban
houses and households, gender and the house, and socio-economic structures and
the house. Methodological themes addressed include the uses of anthropological
approaches to ancient housing, and the relationships between archaeological and
textual evidence.
Introductory bibliography:
Allison, Penelope M., ed. 1999. The Archaeology of Household Activities. London: Routledge.
Bagnall, Roger S., and Bruce W. Frier. 1994. The Demography of Roman Egypt. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Cahill, Nicholas. 2002. Household and City Organization at Olynthos. New Haven: Yale University
Press.
Joyce, Rosemary A., and Susan D. Gillespie. 2000. Beyond Kinship. Social and Material
Reproduction in House Societies. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Laurence, Ray, and Andrew Wallace-Hadrill., eds. 1997. Domestic space in the Roman world:
Pompeii and beyond. Portsmouth: JRA.
Nevett, Lisa. 1999. House and Society in the Ancient Greek World. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Nevett, Lisa C. 2010. Domestic Space in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew. 1994. Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum. Princeton:
Princeton University Press.