Publications by Matthew Naglak
Etruscan Studies, 2019
This paper presents the results of the 2012-2015 seasons of excavation in an area of the site kno... more This paper presents the results of the 2012-2015 seasons of excavation in an area of the site known as Area D. This area preserves the remains of the earliest phases of the settlement, which date to the Iron Age and Archaic periods. The main feature that dominates the area is a residential compound, made up of a central habitation unit along with hearths and productive spaces. The compound has a long history of occupation dating from the eighth to sixth centuries B. C. E.,
during which time the overall appearance and layout gradually changed from a collection of small huts and bounded features to a sizeable stone-built complex.
Fasti Online Documents & Research, 2019
In dieci anni di scavi e ricerche all'interno del Parco Archeologico di Gabii (2009-2018) il Gabi... more In dieci anni di scavi e ricerche all'interno del Parco Archeologico di Gabii (2009-2018) il Gabii Project ha raccolto un in-sieme di dati fondamentali per la datazione dell'impianto regolare della città, rivelato da prospezioni geofisiche condotte in precedenza (2007-2008) su larga parte dell'area all'interno delle mura, lungo le pendici meridionali del cratere di Castiglio-ne. L'impianto è caratterizzato da una serie di isolati di forma stretta ed allungata disposti a ventaglio su un asse stradale principale che si adatta alla morfologia del cratere. Da questa arteria, che nella sua fase più antica corrisponde probabil-mente alla Via Gabina citata dale fonti letterarie, si dipartono strade laterali ad intervalli regolari, ad eccezione di un diverti-colo che esce dalle mura a SE in direzione di Praeneste, messo in luce negli anni '90 dalla SSABAP di Roma, ed interpre-tabile come tratto urbano della Via Prenestina. Le indagini stratigrafiche hanno dimostrato che, nella loro configurazione originaria, inquadrabile alla fine del V secolo a.C., le strade erano costituite da semplici tagliate ricavate nel banco tufaceo, al di sopra delle quali sono documentati continui rifacimenti databili tra il III ed il I secolo a.C. La tipologia più frequente è quella delle viae glareatae, superfici stradali formate da livelli compatti di ghiaia, ciottoli e frammenti ceramici. In alcuni casi sono attestati tratti lastricati in basoli di lava (affioramenti del materiale sono noti in prossimità della città), la cui costruzione può forse essere messa in relazione con le responsabilità di manutenzione assegnate ai proprietari di case che si affaccia-vano sulle strade. Tre delle quattro strade laterali indagate dal Gabii Project vennero definitivamente abbandonate già alla fine del I secolo a.C., come risultato della contrazione dell'abitato, mentre Via Gabina e Via Prenestina, di cui si conserva-no i lastricati di età imperiale, furono mantenute fino ad almeno il V secolo d.C. (periodo in cui si possono datare i battuti più recenti rinvenuti al di sopra del basolato della Via Gabina). Nel complesso, i dati ottenuti consentono di arricchire note-volmente il quadro delle conoscenze sulle dinamiche insediative di Gabii in età repubblicana. In particolare, la sequenza stratigrafica relativa alla fondazione dell'impianto urbanistico ortogonale, che sostituì un abitato organizzato in precedenza per nuclei distinti, invita a riflettere sulla relazione tra la forma della città e l'espansione romana nel Latium Vetus nel V se-colo a.C.
LA GENS NELLA CULTURA MATERIALE, 2019
Studies and reports regarding the water resources of Afghanistan often rely on old and unconfirma... more Studies and reports regarding the water resources of Afghanistan often rely on old and unconfirmable surveys in referring to the decline of the traditional water supply method known as karez. This study utilizes remote sensing data to offer a new, large-scale assessment of active and inactive " long-type " karezes in central and southern Af-ghanistan, providing a major and much needed revision of karez data that has not been updated in print for half a century. The results demonstrate a trend in widespread disuse of the karez, with the notable exception of the Hel-mand and Kandahar provinces. The project also makes a specific contribution to the international dialogue about water and environmental security in Afghanistan. The analytical methods used in this study show considerable promise for application in other international arenas that share Afghanistan's semi-arid and arid landscapes. The team members of this project would like this work to be understood and appreciated in the broader context of the ongoing efforts to document and protect Afghanistan's rich cultural heritage.
Leisure and Luxury in the Age of Nero: The Villas of Oplontis Near Pompeii
Conference Presentations by Matthew Naglak
Mapping Notion: Noninvasive Survey Using Aerial Photogrammetry, Personal Autopsy, Thermal Sensing, and Geophysical Prospection
This paper presents a spatial and functional analysis of textile-making tools from an Early Iron ... more This paper presents a spatial and functional analysis of textile-making tools from an Early Iron age (700-500 B.C.E.) complex at ancient Gabii, using this data to argue for the importance of textiles and the textile producers themselves in reifying elite identity during this formative urban period in Latium. Based on a contemporaneous series of rich infant burials surrounding this complex, it is suggested that habitation in this area represents an elite occupation, one of the building blocks of the later Republican town. Outside of these burials, we argue that a second significant marker of status can be seen in the dense concentration of textile-making tools. These tools and the lost textiles themselves served a dialectical function, both reinforcing and indicative of the inhabitantsÕ elevated status in the pre-urban region. This assemblage can be used to reconstruct the formative role played by textile production in perpetuating elite status at early Gabii. The Gabines, long known for their distinctive style of toga, were already using clothes to maintain social hierarchies in the earliest phases of habitation at the site. Since 2009, the University of Michigan has been excavating at the site of ancient Gabii, a Latin city just east of Rome. These excavations have recovered one of the largest collections of textile-making tools from first millennium B.C.E. settlement contexts in central Italy. Over the past seven seasons of excavation, over three hundred textile-making artifacts have come to light. The vast majority of these objects were recovered from a sequence of structures occupied from the Early Iron age through the Archaic period. Two classes of objects comprise the bulk of this assemblage: spindle whorls and ÒspoolsÓ (Italian
rocchetti).
Several important studies on textile production and textile tools have been published in recent years, allowing for a better contextualization of the function of these tools in their Italic setting. The Gabii material adds a detailed examination of the production and use of textiles and textile-making tools in early Latium. These finds make significant contributions to our understanding of urban development in the Gabii-Castiglione region and supplement the contemporary funerary assemblages of textile-making tools found at the nearby necropolis of Osteria dellÕOsa. The role of these as elite markers suggests that the continued exploitation of pastoral resources (namely sheep and their wool) continued to function as an important marker of social differentiation during this transitional phase of sedentary habitation.
The eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE buried not only urban sites such as Pompeii and Herculaneum but... more The eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE buried not only urban sites such as Pompeii and Herculaneum but also countless rural estates owned by Roman elites. One such site is the socalled "Villa of Poppaea" located in ancient Oplontis. Excavations over the past 50 years, led first by the Soprintendenza of Naples and Pompeii and then by the University of Texas, have
Pinguntur enim portus: The Spatio-Temporal Context of Harbor Landscapes in Roman Wall Painting
Harbors and ports are prominent in descriptions of Roman wall painting both by Vitruvius, in De A... more Harbors and ports are prominent in descriptions of Roman wall painting both by Vitruvius, in De Architectura, and by Pliny, in Naturalis Historia. They are described as common in corridors and in open terraces, but there is little information provided in either text as to their spatial surroundings or the social significance of this imagery. Much like the well-studied subject of maritime villas, harbors in Roman wall painting depict the interaction of constructed, organized space and wild, untamed nature. Vitruvius specifically lists “harbors” first when describing
the many subjects found in landscape painting from the mid to late first century B.C.E., indicating the conceptual overlap between natural and anthropogenic space. The focus of the texts and the surviving evidence both indicate that these images were commonly found in domestic spaces; however, we wish to further evaluate the significance of where these images can be found within these spaces. Considering how and where the Romans positioned these images and whether there are changes to these patterns over time gives us insight with which to draw better conclusions as to how people thought about the places they inhabited, how they perceived their world.
In this paper, we examine harbor imagery from Roman-era domestic space around the Bay of Naples—a wide range of images from the villas at Oplontis and Stabiae and the houses of Pompeii and Herculaneum provide a contextual frame-
work with which we can begin to derive patterns in the style of depiction and location of harbor scenes. We analyze changes in the space and place of these images over the traditional four periods of Pompeian wall painting while at the same time applying the methods of space syntax and visibility analysis to better understand how these images were presented, viewed, and experienced in combination with the rest of the domestic interiors. Placing these images back on the walls and into the spaces where they were experienced, as well as within the dynamic economic and political context of the Roman empire at the time, allows us to explore changing perceptions of the functional space of harbors and domestic decoration using
an integrated approach.
Tracing the Traditional Water Systems known as Karez in Southern Afghanistan
Paper presented at: Space2Place: The 5th International Conference on Remote Sensing in Archaeolog... more Paper presented at: Space2Place: The 5th International Conference on Remote Sensing in Archaeology. Duke University, Durham, NC. Oct. 13-15, 2014.
Don't Rock the Krater: Moderation and Images of Physical Balance in the Ancient Greek Symposium
You've Got a Friend in Me: The Principles of De Amicitia in the First Philippic
The concept of "urban armatures," referring to any set of main streets, plazas, and major public ... more The concept of "urban armatures," referring to any set of main streets, plazas, and major public buildings linked by means of arches and fountains that connect one end of the city with the other, has been chiefly analyzed in central and western Roman contexts (MacDonald 1982). There is rich potential, however, in the study of its application in the Greek-speaking provinces of the Roman world. Beginning in the Augustan period, the ideas put forth by city developers in this region interact with local cultural factors in a unique way. Focusing on the sites of Aphrodisias and Magnesia on the Maeander in western Asia Minor, I shall reconsider the idea of urban armatures in this new framework using three-dimensional computer models to enhance the way questions of urbanization have been examined in the past.
Papers by Matthew Naglak
JASR, 2016
Studies and reports regarding the water resources of Afghanistan often rely on old and unconfirma... more Studies and reports regarding the water resources of Afghanistan often rely on old and unconfirmable surveys in referring to the decline of the traditional water supply method known as karez. This study utilizes remote sensing data to offer a new, large-scale assessment of active and inactive "long-type" karezes in central and southern Af-ghanistan, providing a major and much needed revision of karez data that has not been updated in print for half a century. The results demonstrate a trend in widespread disuse of the karez, with the notable exception of the Hel-mand and Kandahar provinces. The project also makes a specific contribution to the international dialogue about water and environmental security in Afghanistan. The analytical methods used in this study show considerable promise for application in other international arenas that share Afghanistan's semi-arid and arid landscapes. The team members of this project would like this work to be understood and appreciated in the broader context of the ongoing efforts to document and protect Afghanistan's rich cultural heritage.
FOLD&R Fasti On Line Documents & Research, 438, 2019
In dieci anni di scavi e ricerche all’interno del Parco Archeologico di Gabii (2009–2018) il Gabi... more In dieci anni di scavi e ricerche all’interno del Parco Archeologico di Gabii (2009–2018) il Gabii Project ha raccolto un insieme di dati fondamentali per la datazione dell’impianto regolare della città, rivelato da prospezioni geofisiche condotte in precedenza (2007–2008) su larga parte dell’area all’interno delle mura, lungo le pendici meridionali del cratere di Castiglione. L’impianto è caratterizzato da una serie di isolati di forma stretta ed allungata disposti a ventaglio su un asse stradale principale che si adatta alla morfologia del cratere. Da questa arteria, che nella sua fase più antica corrisponde probabilmente alla Via Gabina citata dale fonti letterarie, si dipartono strade laterali ad intervalli regolari, ad eccezione di un diverticolo che esce dalle mura a SE in direzione di Praeneste, messo in luce negli anni ’90 dalla SSABAP di Roma, ed interpretabile come tratto urbano della Via Prenestina. Le indagini stratigrafiche hanno dimostrato che, nella loro configurazione originaria, inquadrabile alla fine del V secolo a.C., le strade erano costituite da semplici tagliate ricavate nel banco tufaceo, al di sopra delle quali sono documentati continui rifacimenti databili tra il III ed il I secolo a.C. La tipologia più frequente è quella delle viae glareatae, superfici stradali formate da livelli compatti di ghiaia, ciottoli e frammenti ceramici. In alcuni casi sono attestati tratti lastricati in basoli di lava (affioramenti del materiale sono noti in prossimità della città), la cui costruzione può forse essere messa in relazione con le responsabilità di manutenzione assegnate ai proprietari di case che si affacciavano sulle strade. Tre delle quattro strade laterali indagate dal Gabii Project vennero definitivamente abbandonate già alla fine del I secolo a.C., come risultato della contrazione dell’abitato, mentre Via Gabina e Via Prenestina, di cui si conservano i lastricati di età imperiale, furono mantenute fino ad almeno il V secolo d.C. (periodo in cui si possono datare i battuti più recenti rinvenuti al di sopra del basolato della Via Gabina). Nel complesso, i dati ottenuti consentono di arricchire notevolmente il quadro delle conoscenze sulle dinamiche insediative di Gabii in età repubblicana. In particolare, la sequenza stratigrafica relativa alla fondazione dell’impianto urbanistico ortogonale, che sostituì un abitato organizzato in precedenza per nuclei distinti, invita a riflettere sulla relazione tra la forma della città e l’espansione romana nel Latium Vetus nel V secolo a.C.
Fasti Online Documents & Research, 2019
il Gabii Project ha raccolto un insieme di dati fondamentali per la datazione dell'impianto regol... more il Gabii Project ha raccolto un insieme di dati fondamentali per la datazione dell'impianto regolare della città, rivelato da prospezioni geofisiche condotte in precedenza (2007)(2008) su larga parte dell'area all'interno delle mura, lungo le pendici meridionali del cratere di Castiglione. L'impianto è caratterizzato da una serie di isolati di forma stretta ed allungata disposti a ventaglio su un asse stradale principale che si adatta alla morfologia del cratere. Da questa arteria, che nella sua fase più antica corrisponde probabilmente alla Via Gabina citata dale fonti letterarie, si dipartono strade laterali ad intervalli regolari, ad eccezione di un diverticolo che esce dalle mura a SE in direzione di Praeneste, messo in luce negli anni '90 dalla SSABAP di Roma, ed interpretabile come tratto urbano della Via Prenestina. Le indagini stratigrafiche hanno dimostrato che, nella loro configurazione originaria, inquadrabile alla fine del V secolo a.C., le strade erano costituite da semplici tagliate ricavate nel banco tufaceo, al di sopra delle quali sono documentati continui rifacimenti databili tra il III ed il I secolo a.C. La tipologia più frequente è quella delle viae glareatae, superfici stradali formate da livelli compatti di ghiaia, ciottoli e frammenti ceramici. In alcuni casi sono attestati tratti lastricati in basoli di lava (affioramenti del materiale sono noti in prossimità della città), la cui costruzione può forse essere messa in relazione con le responsabilità di manutenzione assegnate ai proprietari di case che si affacciavano sulle strade. Tre delle quattro strade laterali indagate dal Gabii Project vennero definitivamente abbandonate già alla fine del I secolo a.C., come risultato della contrazione dell'abitato, mentre Via Gabina e Via Prenestina, di cui si conservano i lastricati di età imperiale, furono mantenute fino ad almeno il V secolo d.C. (periodo in cui si possono datare i battuti più recenti rinvenuti al di sopra del basolato della Via Gabina). Nel complesso, i dati ottenuti consentono di arricchire notevolmente il quadro delle conoscenze sulle dinamiche insediative di Gabii in età repubblicana. In particolare, la sequenza stratigrafica relativa alla fondazione dell'impianto urbanistico ortogonale, che sostituì un abitato organizzato in precedenza per nuclei distinti, invita a riflettere sulla relazione tra la forma della città e l'espansione romana nel Latium Vetus nel V secolo a.C. 21
Books by Matthew Naglak
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Publications by Matthew Naglak
during which time the overall appearance and layout gradually changed from a collection of small huts and bounded features to a sizeable stone-built complex.
Conference Presentations by Matthew Naglak
rocchetti).
Several important studies on textile production and textile tools have been published in recent years, allowing for a better contextualization of the function of these tools in their Italic setting. The Gabii material adds a detailed examination of the production and use of textiles and textile-making tools in early Latium. These finds make significant contributions to our understanding of urban development in the Gabii-Castiglione region and supplement the contemporary funerary assemblages of textile-making tools found at the nearby necropolis of Osteria dellÕOsa. The role of these as elite markers suggests that the continued exploitation of pastoral resources (namely sheep and their wool) continued to function as an important marker of social differentiation during this transitional phase of sedentary habitation.
the many subjects found in landscape painting from the mid to late first century B.C.E., indicating the conceptual overlap between natural and anthropogenic space. The focus of the texts and the surviving evidence both indicate that these images were commonly found in domestic spaces; however, we wish to further evaluate the significance of where these images can be found within these spaces. Considering how and where the Romans positioned these images and whether there are changes to these patterns over time gives us insight with which to draw better conclusions as to how people thought about the places they inhabited, how they perceived their world.
In this paper, we examine harbor imagery from Roman-era domestic space around the Bay of Naples—a wide range of images from the villas at Oplontis and Stabiae and the houses of Pompeii and Herculaneum provide a contextual frame-
work with which we can begin to derive patterns in the style of depiction and location of harbor scenes. We analyze changes in the space and place of these images over the traditional four periods of Pompeian wall painting while at the same time applying the methods of space syntax and visibility analysis to better understand how these images were presented, viewed, and experienced in combination with the rest of the domestic interiors. Placing these images back on the walls and into the spaces where they were experienced, as well as within the dynamic economic and political context of the Roman empire at the time, allows us to explore changing perceptions of the functional space of harbors and domestic decoration using
an integrated approach.
Papers by Matthew Naglak
Books by Matthew Naglak