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Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Print Price: $210.00

Format:
Hardback
368 pp.
103 in-text illustrations, 156 mm x 234 mm

ISBN-13:
9780199665723

Publication date:
June 2013

Imprint: OUP UK


The Roman Agricultural Economy

Organisation, Investment, and Production

Edited by Alan Bowman and Andrew Wilson

Series : Oxford Studies on the Roman Economy

This volume is a collection of studies which presents new analyses of the nature and scale of Roman agriculture in the Mediterranean world from c. 100 BC to AD 350. It provides a clear understanding of the fundamental features of Roman agricultural production through studying the documentary and archaeological evidence for the modes of land exploitation and the organisation, development of, and investment in this sector of the Roman economy.

Moving substantially beyond the simple assumption that agriculture was the dominant sector of the ancient economy, the volume explores what was special and distinctive about it, especially with a view of its development and integration during a period of expansion and prosperity across the empire. The papers exemplify a range of possible approaches to studying and, within limits, quantifying aspects of Roman agricultural production, marshalling a large quantity of evidence, chiefly archaeological and papyrological, to address important questions of the organisation and performance of this sector in the Roman world.

Readership : Suitable for students and scholars of Classical studies, Roman history, economic history, and archaeology.

List of Contributors
List of Figures
List of Tables
1. Alan Bowman and Andrew Wilson: Introduction: Quantifying Roman Agriculture
2. Dennis Kehoe: The State and Production in the Roman Agrarian Economy
3. Helen Goodchild: GIS Models of Roman Agricultural Production
4. Annalisa Marzano: Agricultural Production in the Hinterland of Rome: Wine and Olive Oil
5. Annalisa Marzano: Capital Investment and Agriculture: Multi-Press Facilities from Gaul, the Iberian Peninsula and the Black Sea region
6. Mariette de Vos: The Rural Landscape of Thugga: Farms, Presses, Mills and Transport
7. Alan Bowman: Agricultural Productivity in Roman Egypt
8. Katherine Blouin: The Agricultural Economy of the Mendesian Nome during the Roman Period
9. Myrto Malouta and Andrew Wilson: Mechanical irrigation: water-lifting devices in the archaeological evidence and in the Egyptian papyri
10. Hannah Friedman: Agriculture in the Faynan: Food Supply for Industry
Index

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Alan Bowman is Principal of Brasenose College and Emeritus Camden Professor of Ancient History at Oxford University. His research interests focus on papyrology, the Vindolanda Writing-Tablets, and the social and economic history of Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt and the Roman Empire. Andrew Wilson is Professor of the Archaeology of the Roman Empire and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and Chairman of the Society for Libyan Studies. He has directed excavations in Italy, Tunisia, and Libya, and is the author of numerous articles on ancient water supply, ancient technology, economy, and trade.

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Special Features

  • Offers a clear presentation and analysis of new data for ancient economic history.
  • Wide geographical range of comparative regional studies of the ancient Mediterranean.
  • Focuses on methods of combining documentary and archaeological evidence.
  • Illustrated throughout with photographs, maps, and graphs.