Page 35 - UD Research Magazine Vol5-No2

The reddish clay is inscribed with the slaves’ names in Oscan and Latin, two languages of the period. But that’s not all. The tile also carries their footprints.
Virtually no footprints from the in- habitants of ancient Rome survive, and
to have those of slaves—the lowest rung of Roman society—is particularly intrigu- ing, says Lauren Hackworth Petersen, professor of art history at the University of Delaware.
“It’s a wonderful, subversive act,” says Petersen. “It also tells us some slaves could write, and that they weren’t fixed to one location, such as in the kitchen. They were mobile, moving through their daily landscapes. This is largely unrecognized in ancient and modern accounts of Roman cities and streets.”
Slaves were present nearly everywhere in ancient Roman society. Some estimates place the Roman Empire’s population at
60 million in its heyday (A.D. 98–117), with at least a quarter of that total slaves (15 million). Yet, Petersen says, these men, women and children remain largely invisible in both guidebooks and scholarly works.
In 2007, Petersen and colleague Sandra Joshel, a history professor at the University of Washington, joined forces to make the invisible visible—by seeing slaves where Roman law, literature and art say they were present and reconstructing their lives from the archaeological ruins of the houses, workshops, streets and country villas that slaves inhabited.
The Material Life of Roman Slaves,
published in 2014 by Cambridge Univer- sity Press, showcases the duo’s pioneering approach. It has been recognized with two 2015 PROSE Awards, for best scholarly book in the humanities and best scholarly book in the classics and ancient history.
“The presence of Roman slaves should be visible in the material world that they lived in,” Petersen says. “Yet scholarly practices unwittingly ‘unsee’ slaves by focusing solely on the archaeological remains from the slaveholder’s point
of view. We’ve tried to weave together historic texts and archaeology to begin to see their lives.”
A new vision for recreating the past
Petersen and Joshel took their first trip together to Pompeii in 2008, challenging themselves to re-envision the city from a slave’s perspective as they walked through the excavated remains of Mt. Vesuvius’ wrath. When the volcano spewed deadly gas and buried the ancient coastal resort and its people in a sea of ash in A.D. 79, Pompeii became a time capsule of ancient Roman life.
In the massive House of the Menander, which occupies nearly a city block at Pom- peii’s center, Petersen stood in the main dining room where the slave owner would be positioned during a banquet, and Joshel played the role of the slave bringing refresh- ments into the dining room or planning the best route to slip out to the fountain in the square or the bar a few blocks away.
“It was eye-opening,” Petersen says. “Slaves were all over the house, so what
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IMAGINE THIS STREET SCENE IN
ANCIENT POMPEII: “There is a crowd of people, including free men, women and children, slaves and their owners. A rich guy wearing a toga rides in a litter carried by slaves. The people move
to the sides, as the litter comes through. People are carrying water home from the fountains, taking clothing to the fullery for laundering. They are do- ing their marketing—getting bread at the bakery; fruit and vegetables such as figs, grapes and apples, olives, peas and beans; and perhaps some garum, a popular fish sauce. Others may be shopping for jew- elry, new plates for the banquet next week, flower garlands for the coming festival. Wealthy people have their entourage around them, including their slave attendants. A procession is on its way to the forum. Slaves are bringing fresh donkeys to the bakeries to keep the grindstones turning, and pigs and sheep are being brought to market. The street is filled with the strong odors of bread baking and wine making, urine from the collection pots along the street, animal dung and household garbage. The Romans relied on the rain to wash the filth and garbage away.”— Lauren Petersen, professor of art history
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LAUREN PETERSEN