Style and Assemblage in Roman Archaeology

Style and Assemblage in Roman Archaeology proposes a rethinking of the way in which objects, styles, concepts, and people relate in archaeological interpretation, using Egyptian and Egyptian-styled objects from the houses of Roman Pompeii as a case study. Integrating anthropological theories, Mol has developed a critical new method termed relational perception to show how we can better incorporate the messy and intuitive processes of style perception and classification in the Roman past, as well as more generally in archaeological research. The houses of Pompeii yielded many objects that scholars nowadays would label as Egyptian or Egyptianized. They consist of imported and locally produced objects such as figurines, sculptures, furniture, jewellery, mosaics, or wall paintings. The interpretations regarding their presence and meaning have traditionally mostly been drawn without proper contextual analysis or theoretical underpinnings, and even more problematic: the collection and interpretation of artefacts were based on modern scholarly perceptions of what Egypt entails. Mol shows how this particular Western (and colonial) perception and art historical categorization has influenced our idea of Egypt in the Roman world, and how it still affects the interpretation of foreign objects in general. This book examines in detail how 'foreign' objects and styles were integrated in, and shaped, the Roman world and senses of personhood, and serves as an excellent example to illustrate the complexity that should be integral to the processes of archaeological classification and interpretation.