MATERIAL SPATIALITY IN LATE ANTIQUITY: SOURCES, APPROACHES AND FIELD METHODS

Whilst architecture is limited in its ability to provide a basis for past spatial functions, it can still have an important role to play. Visual reconstruction is certainly the most obvious goal of material spatiality, but objects themselves are also freshly illuminated though contextual analysis, as is evident from recent work on Roman artefacts. One of the most widely documented transformations of Late Antiquity is the change in use often found in elite domestic space, in both urban and rural contexts. Field archaeology plays an important role in the reconstruction of the spatial configurations of artefacts. In the eastern Mediterranean the focus of research in most urban excavations is directed to the political heart of the town and its major public buildings, the remains of which are frequently still visible on the surface. Keywords: archaeology; architecture; domestic space; eastern Mediterranean; Late Antiquity; material spatiality; Roman; visual reconstruction