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The Knowledge Networks of Workshop Construction in the Roman World

Motz, Christopher F
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6836-6699
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1617107290345316

Abstract Details

2021, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: Classics.
In the Augustan period, a group of workers built a series of fish-salting vats in Tuscany using virtually identical techniques as the team that installed a set of vats in southwest Spain a few generations earlier. How did this happen? The builders surely never met, so the resemblance between their constructions is remarkable. But even more striking is how common this phenomenon was among the countless ordinary, mundane structures found throughout the Roman world. The basic explanation for these similarities is simple: the knowledge that underpinned their design and construction spread from person to person and place to place. This, however, leaves many questions about the intricacies of the process unanswered. In this dissertation I examine how the movement of knowledge among sub-elite communities shaped the construction of ancient industrial buildings. I introduce a “knowledge network analysis” framework—an analytical approach that I developed to focus attention on how knowledge moves through communities, setting people and the social ties that bind them at the forefront of my investigation. I critically examine ancient literary, epigraphic, iconographic, and archaeological evidence, complemented by comparative anthropological and sociological studies, to reconstruct who designed and built Roman workshops, how the requisite knowledge moved among them, and what socio-cultural factors shaped the links between them. I then apply this model to the archaeological remains of two Roman industries—fish-salting (food production) and fulling (cloth treatment)—which together encompass 405 workshops containing 2,829 pieces of equipment. I analyze patterns in their design and construction to deduce the contours of the “toolkits” of knowledge that were used to create them, and to deduce who used these toolkits and how they spread. I determine that in each industry, both workshop managers and specialized builders contributed crucial know-how. As a result of the industries’ distributions and geospatial positions, however, their knowledge networks had distinct shapes. The workshops of the geographically concentrated fish-salting industry were similar and highly specialized; workshops in the scattered fulling industry were largely generic, but some specialized practices spread within social clusters. Finally, I show how the positions of these industries in their wider natural, social, cultural, and economic contexts further shaped the development of their knowledge networks. I explore aspects of the impact an industry’s processes and business model had on its distribution; the role of urbanism and the market economy in promoting knowledge transmission; the impact of intensive building activity on knowledge creation and movement; the reasons why specialized knowledge emerged; the limits of knowledge networks and the causes of regionalism; and the evolution of knowledge during periods of social, political, and economic upheaval. By investigating systems of knowledge that were essential to the creation and use of spaces and objects, this study reveals part of the intellectual infrastructure of the Roman world. In doing so, it presents a new framework for reconstructing the spread of craft knowledge—one not restricted to the ancient Mediterranean—while speaking to the study of the sub-elite, architecture and construction, crafts and industrial spaces, the economy, and the provinces.
Steven Ellis, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Barbara Burrell, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Sarah Jackson, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Eric Poehler, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
1215 p.
Classical Studies
Roman archaeology; Knowledge transfer; Industry; Fish salting; Fulling; Architecture

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Motz, C. F. (2021). The Knowledge Networks of Workshop Construction in the Roman World [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1617107290345316

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Motz, Christopher. The Knowledge Networks of Workshop Construction in the Roman World. 2021. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1617107290345316.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Motz, Christopher. "The Knowledge Networks of Workshop Construction in the Roman World." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1617107290345316

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1617107290345316
101
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This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.