Constructing Monuments, Perceiving Monumentality and the Economics of Building: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to the Built Environment

In many societies monuments are associated with dynamic socio-economic and political processes that these societies underwent and/or instrumentalized. Due to the often large human and other resources input involved in their construction and maintenance, such constructions form a useful research target in order to investigate both their associated societies as well as the underlying processes that generated differential construction levels. Monumental constructions may physically remain the same for some time but certainly not forever. The actual meaning, too, that people associate with these may change regularly due to changing contexts in which people perceived, assessed, and interacted with such constructions.

These changes of meaning may occur diachronically, geographically but also socially. Realizing that such shifts may occur forces us to rethink the meaning and the roles that past technologies may play in constructing, consuming and perceiving something monumental. In fact, it is through investigating the processes, the practices of building and crafting, and selecting the specific locales in which these activities took place, that we can argue convincingly that meaning may already become formulated while the form itself is still being created. As such, meaning-making and -giving may also influence the shaping of the monument in each of its facets: spatially, materially, technologically, socially and diachronically.

This volume varies widely in regional and chronological focus and forms a useful manual to studying both the acts of building and the constructions themselves across cultural contexts. A range of theoretical and practical methods are discussed, and papers illustrate that these are applicable to both small or large architectural expressions, making it useful for scholars investigating urban, architectural, landscape and human resources in archaeological and historical contexts. The ultimate goal of this book is to place architectural studies, in which people’s interactions with each other and material resources are key, at the crossing of both landscape studies and material culture studies, where it belongs.

Table of Contents

Editors’ Biographies
List of contributors
Editors’ Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations used in references

Part 1. Theoretical and practical considerations on monumentality

Constructing monuments, perceiving monumentality. Introduction
Ann Brysbaert

Mounds and monumentality in Neolithic Europe
Chris Scarre

Architectural conspicuous consumption and design as social strategy in the Argolid during the Mycenaean period
Kalliopi Efkleidou

Outer Worlds Inside
Lesley McFadyen

Part 2. Methodological approaches to studying architecture

Interpreting architecture from a survey context: recognising monumental structures.
Yannick Boswinkel

Three-dimensional documentation of architecture and archaeology in the field: combining intensive total station drawing and photogrammetry
Jari Pakkanen

Set in stone at the Mycenaean Acropolis of Athens. Documentation with 3D integrated methodologies
Elisavet P. Sioumpara

Labour mobilization and architectural energetics in the North Cemetery at Ayios Vasilios, Laconia, Greece
Sofia Voutsaki, Youp van den Beld, Yannick de Raaff

Part 3. Architectural energetics methods and applications

Comparative labour rates in cross-cultural contexts
Daniel R. Turner

Rethinking monumentality in Teotihuacan, Mexico
Maria Torras Freixa

Economic choice in Roman construction: case studies from Ostia
Janet DeLaine

Large-scale building in early imperial Tarraco (Tarragona, Spain) and the dynamics behind the creation of a Roman provincial capital landscape
Anna Gutiérrez Garcia-M., Maria Serena Vinci

Building materials, construction processes and labour: The Temple of Isis in Pompeii
Cathalin Recko

The construction process of the republican city walls of Aquileia (northeastern Italy): a case study of the quantitative analysis on ancient buildings
Jacopo Bonetto, Caterina Previato

Index

Victor Klinkenberg Received His Phd In Near Eastern Archaeology At Leiden University In 2017. His Research Interests Include Digital Archaeology, Spatial Analysis, And Household Archaeology. Currently A Post-Doc At Leiden University, He Works As Project Manager In The ‘Setinstone’ Project And As Field Director At The Excavations Of A Chalcolithic Settlement At Palloures, Cyprus.

Key Publications: Düring, B.s., V. Klinkenberg, C. Paraskeva & E. Souter (2018) Metal Artefacts In Chalcolithic Cyprus: New Data From Western Cyprus. Mediterranean Archaeology And Archaeometry 18; Klinkenberg V. (2016) Reading Rubbish: Using Object Assemblages To Reconstruct Activities, Modes Of Deposition And Abandonment At The Late Bronze Age Dunnu Of Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut Voor Het Nabije Oosten. Pihans Volume 129; Klinkenberg, V. (2015) Are We There Yet?! 3d Gis In Archaeological Research, The Case Of Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria. In: Kamermans, H., De Neef, W., Piccoli, C., Posluschny, A.g. And Scopigno, R. (Eds.): The Three Dimensions Of Archaeology. Proceedings Of The Xvii World Congress Of Uispp. Archaeopress, Oxford.

Anna Gutiérrez-Garcia M. Received An Ma In Lithic And Ceramic Analysis For Archaeologists (University Of Southampton), And A Phd In Archaeology (Autonomous University Of Barcelona-Uab). She Developed Her Research At The Laboratory For The Study Of Stones In Antiquity (Lemla) At Uab, Before Being Head Of The Archaeometric Studies Unit At The Catalan Institute Of Classical Archaeology (Tarragona, Spain) And Being Chaire Junior Lascarbx At Iramat-Crp2a (Umr 5060 Cnrs-Université De Bordeaux Montaigne, France).

She Has Written And Co-Edited Several Works On The Exploitation, Distribution And Use Of Stones In Antiquity, Such As The Monograph (2009) Roman Quarries In The Northeast Of Hispania (Modern Catalonia); (2012) Interdisciplinary Studies On Ancient Stone. Proceedings Of The 9th Asmosia Conference (Tarragona 2009); And (2018) Lapidum Natura Restat… Carrières Antiques De La Péninsule Ibérique Dans Son Contexte (Chronologie, Téchniques Et Organisation).

Irene Vikatou Is Assisting Prof. Dr. Ann Brysbaert With Her Research On The Setinstone Project At The Faculty Of Archaeology, Leiden University (Nl). She Studied Biology At The University Of Athens And Completed An M.sc. In Osteoarchaeology And Funerary Archaeology At Leiden University In 2013. She Specializes In The Analysis Of Human Skeletal Remains From Archaeological Excavations, Focusing On Pathological Lesions Caused By External Factors, Such As Trauma And Strenuous Physical Activity.

Her Master Thesis, (2013) Are These Clogs Made For Walking: Osteochondritis Dissecans: Evidence Of Strenuous Activity And Trauma In Skeletal Elements Of The Foot From A Post-Medieval Rural Society In The Netherlands, Was Supervised By Dr. Andrea Waters-Rist (Now Western University) And Dr. Menno Hoogland (Leiden University) And Was Published In The International Journal Of Palaeopathology 19 (2017): Osteochondritis Dissecans Of Skeletal Elements Of The Foot In A 19th Century Rural Farming Community From The Netherlands.