(Not) All Roads Lead to Rome: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Mobility in the Ancient World

(Not) All Roads Lead to Rome is the result of the highly engaging debate within the "Annual Meeting of Postgraduates in Ancient History", a yearly congress of young graduates and researchers held in April 2022 in the University of Barcelona. In this volume, the issue of mobility in Antiquity in its broadest sense is approached from a multidisciplinary perspective. One of the main objectives is, also, to give promising young scholars (postgraduates and PHD students) the opportunity to publish their early research on mobility and build a cohesive but thematically broad work. Although mobility is always present in studies of exchange and cultural diffusion, in this case it becomes the main subject of this collective research effort. We aim to encourage academic discussion around mobility as a key feature of societies, inherent to their functioning and where cultural, social and economic processes meet. The Mediterranean, and the Roman Empire by extension, is a dynamic area, and thus, it allows us to study mobility from many perspectives. In this volume, the movement of ideas, be they ideological or religious, is explored as it relates to underlying social and economic patterns. Likewise, the physical mobility of people across empires or within settlements is treated as a consequence of and a way to ease social relations. Social mobility too is discussed in the broader framework of socioeconomic dynamics, with case studies ranging from Egypt to Rome. Finally, the movement of goods (trade) is also part of this volume, as it was essential at bolstering interconnectivity in the Mediterranean. In that regard, archaeology holds the largest potential to provide new data regarding mobility of products, and thus long-distance contact and exchange.

Arnau Lario Devesa has a BA in Archaeology and another one in History, by the University of Barcelona, and a MA in Classical Archaeology in the University of La Sapienza-Universita di Roma. He is currently a predoctoral researcher in the University of Barcelona. He is an active member of the "Centro para el Estudio de la Interdependencia Provincial en la Antiguedad Clasica" (CEIPAC). Joan Campmany Jimenez has a BA in Archaeology by the Autonomous University of Barcelona, specialising in Ancient History and Classical Archaeology. He has a MSt in Classical Archaeology from Oxford University, specialising in Landscape Archaeology and Archaeology of the Roman Economy. Currently, he is employed as a Research Assistant in the "Circular Economy and Urban Sustainability" Project, UrbNet, from Aarhus University. Marc Marzo Pallas is an independent researcher and professional archaeologist (freelancer) that works in contract archaeology. His area of interest is the Archeology of Modern Warfare, particularly the Spanish Civil War (1936- 1939). Oriol Morillas Samaniego holds a BA in History (2020) at the University of Barcelona and a MA in Cultures and Languages of Antiquity. Member of the "Centro para el Estudio de la Interdependencia Provincial en la Antiguedad Clasica" (CEIPAC). Currently, he is a Assistant Researcher at the University of Barcelona, where he develops research on the study of Greek amphorae epigraphy from the Eastern Mediterranean.