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Topography of Rome

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Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

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Introduction

Since the topography of Rome is concerned with a range of evidentiary material, any approach must involve a detailed consideration both of landscape and cultural-historical material. It is also notable that while the textual and epigraphic corpora are static (by virtue of being ancient), archaeological material continues to emerge that has direct bearing on the study of the city’s topography, as clearly demonstrated by the excavations undertaken for the construction of Rome’s newest metro-train line (Egidi et al. 2010). Such new discoveries always carry with them the possibility of rewriting in substantial ways the topography of the city.

Definition

Derived from Greek, topography literally means “place writing” and has, since the Renaissance, constituted a major branch of Roman studies. The topography of the city of Rome has come to be defined as its own subdiscipline within the field of Roman archaeology. As such, this area, by necessity, combines the study of the ancient...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ancient World Mapping Center, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB 8110; 5010 Davis Library, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-8110, USA

    Jeffrey A. Becker

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  1. Jeffrey A. Becker
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Correspondence to Jeffrey A. Becker .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Claire Smith

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Becker, J.A. (2014). Topography of Rome. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_926

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_926

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