Housing and Habitat in the Ancient Mediterranean: Cultural and Environmental Responses (Babesch: Annual Papers on Mediterranean Archaeology: Supplement)

Book Synopsis: This volume presents the outcome of the international conference 'Housing and Habitat in the Mediterranean World: responses to different environments' that celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Monash University Centre in Prato in 2011. It incorporates comparative and recent research on the housing in the Mediterranean world investigating social, cultural and environmental aspects. The topics of the contributions deal with the development and internationalisation of domestic architecture in the Mediterranean, the transformation and diffusion of different housing typologies, the implications for social interaction, and the adaptation to varying regional environments of Classical models of housing. The contributors present new archaeological data and fresh interpretations, various theories, methods and evidence to investigate the characteristics of and change in social space and dynamics in both the urban and rural environment. Rather than dealing with one discrete region or time frame, the aim of the conference and these papers is diachronic, incorporating data from around the entire region and ranging broadly across the 1st millennium BCE to Late Antiquity. In so doing, regional characteristics can be highlighted but also compared with contemporary developments throughout the region and long-term trends, both local and again regional, can be identified. The volume illustrates different priorities in the study of housing and habitat that hopefully will prove stimulating to all researchers concerned with the lived-in environment.