Page 34 - UD Research Magazine Vol5-No2

Slaves’ lives emerge from ancient ruins
A groundbreaking new approach
brings the forgotten into focus |by Tracey Bryant
An unexpected find on a rooftop in Italy proclaimed their exis- tence, a tantalizing secret kept by the gods and the birds.
“Detfri slave of Herennius Sattius” and “Amica slave of Herennius” reads the terra-cotta tile. It was discovered atop the ancient temple in
Pietrabbondante, a town tucked into the bare rock and evergreen- covered mountains more than 100 miles east of Rome.
The Material Life of Roman Slaves (Cambridge University Press, 2014) by Lauren Hackworth Petersen, professor of art history at the University of Delaware, and Sandra R. Joshel, the Jon M. Bridgman Endowed Professor
of History at the University of Washington, has won two 2015 PROSE Awards—the American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence—in the humanities and in the classics and ancient
history. Currently, Petersen is working on a new book about the religious rituals of ancient Rome.
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