The Material Life of Roman Slaves is a major contribution to scholarly debates on the archaeology of Roman slavery. Rather than regarding slaves as irretrievable in archaeological remains, the book takes the archaeological record as a key form of evidence for reconstructing slaves' lives and experiences. Interweaving literature, law, and material evidence, the book searches for ways to see slaves in the various contexts - to make them visible where evidence tells us they were in fact present. Part of this project involves understanding how slaves seem irretrievable in the archaeological record and how they are often actively, if unwittingly, left out of guidebooks and scholarly literature. Individual chapters explore the dichotomy between visibility and invisibility and between appearance and disappearance in four physical and social locations - urban houses, city streets and neighborhoods, workshops, and villas.

The Material Life of Roman Slaves

Arts & Photography

Petersen, Lauren Hackworth

Joshel, Sandra R.

History & Criticism

Cambridge University Press

Slavery in the Roman World (Cambridge Introduction to Roman Civilization)

Rome was a slave society. Beyond the thousands of slaves who worked and lived in the heartland of the Roman Empire, slavery fundamentally shaped Roman society and culture. In this book, Sandra Joshel offers a comprehensive overview of Roman slavery. Using a variety of sources, including literature, law, and material culture, she examines the legal condition of Roman slaves, traces the stages of the sale of slaves, analyzes the relations between slaves and slaveholders, and details the social and family lives of slaves. Richly illustrated with images of slaves, captives, and the material conditions of slaves, this book also considers food, clothing, and housing of slaves, thereby locating slaves in their physical surroundings - the cook in the kitchen, the maid in her owner's bedroom, the smith in a workshop, and the farm laborer in a vineyard. Based on rigorous scholarship, Slavery in the Roman World serves as a lively, accessible account to introductory-level students of the ancient Mediterranean world.

History

Americas

In Work, Identity, and Legal Status at Rome, Sandra R. Joshel examines Roman commemorative inscriptions from the first and second centuries A.D. to determine ways in which slaves, freed slaves, and unprivileged freeborn citizens used work to frame their identities. The inscriptions indicate the significance of work-as a source of community, a way to reframe the conditions of legal status, an assertion of activity against upper-class passivity, and a standard of assessment based on economic achievement rather than birth. 
Drawing on sociology, anthropology, ethnography, and women’s history, this thoroughly documented volume illuminates the dynamics of work and slavery at Rome.

Work, Identity, and Legal Status at Rome: A Study of the Occupational Inscriptions (Volume 11) (Oklahoma Series in Classical Culture)

Business & Money

Economics

University of Oklahoma Press

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Books by Joshel, Sandra R.