TAG Paper and Book Chapter

'Tis the season for the biannual Doors of Pompeii and Herculaneum Project blog update! Just a couple of developments worth quickly mentioning here:

1. I will be giving a paper addressing some of the DPHP's results in the session Space: The Final (Archaeological) Frontier? at TAG Bradford next week. The session is set for Monday, December 14 at 1 PM; the full TAG schedule can be found here.

2. I have written a chapter for the forthcoming BABESCH Supplement Housing and Habitat in the Ancient Mediterranean, which will be available from Peeters within the next few weeks. Entitled "Ter Limen Tetigi: exploring the role of thresholds in the houses of Pompeii and beyond," this piece presents some of the data from the DPHP's final phase, with particular emphasis on the aesthetic and functional characteristics of domestic thresholds.

That's all for now, although there are further interesting events on the horizon (this is, I believe, what's described as a "tease" in the entertainment industry)...

TL

Oxford Roman Discussion Forum

This is an (admittedly last-minute) entry regarding a talk that I will be giving at the Oxford Roman Discussion Forum tomorrow afternoon. The title is "A Foot in the Door: Laterality and Movement in Roman Houses," and the talk starts at 1 PM at the Institute of Archaeology. Full details as follows:

Taylor Lauritsen, Cardiff University

A Foot in the Door: Laterality and Movement in Roman Houses 

June 3, 2015, 1-2 PM

Lecture Room, Institute of Archaeology

36 Beaumont St

Oxford OX1 2PG

Greetings from Reading

At present, I am holed up in a hotel near the main campus of the University of Reading, the host institution for RAC/TRAC 2014. This year's conference looks to be the best attended in RAC history, and considering the slate of speakers that will be taking the stage over the next few days (plus there are three sessions dedicated to Pompeii!) it is easy to see why this is the case.

Given these circumstances, I thought that I might take the opportunity to plug a couple of DPHP-related goings-on. The first is of particular relevance to RAC: I have contributed a poster ("Doors and the Use of Space in Pompeian Cubicula") to the poster session Framing Interactions: Approaches to Coexistence in the Houses of Pompeii, organized by LMU Munich's Distant Worlds Graduate School. The session opens tomorrow afternoon (28/3) at 12:30 in the Palmer Building Foyer. For those not in attendance who might be interested in viewing my offering, I have made it available for download here.

I will also be giving a paper at the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology Conference (commonly referred to as the CAA) in Paris at the end of next month. Entitled "Modeling Permeable Boundaries: Reconstructing Doors and Partitions in the Casa del Menandro at Pompeii," the paper is situated in the day-long session Virtual Reconstruction in Archaeology, which takes place on Thursday, April 24th in the Pantheon Amphitheatre 2A. The abstract can be viewed here.

University of Edinburgh Lunchtime Seminars

On November 19 at 1 PM, I will be giving a short lecture discussing the relationship between permeable boundaries and levels of access in Pompeian houses. The talk is part of the Roman and Late Antique Archaeology Seminar Series, a collection of monthly seminars intended to promote and enhance dialogue between University of Edinburgh scholars that have an interest in the archaeology of the Roman and Late Antique world. The 2013-2014 schedule is as follows:

15 October | Prof. Jim Crow

New cities in late antiquity: an antidote to decline and fall

19 November | Dr. Taylor Lauritsen

An "open door" policy? Reassessing access to the Pompeian house

21 January | Dr. Fraser Hunter

Late Roman silver and the barbarian world - ongoing work on the Traprain Treasure 

25 February | Dr. Candace Rice

Coastal Cilicia between Rome and Constantinople 

25 March | Dr. Ben Russell

The Roman art market from Republic to Empire: texts and shipwreck evidence

29 April | Dr. Ine Jacobs

A time for prayer and a time for pleasure: Christianity's struggle with the secular world 

All seminars are held at 1 PM in the Meadows Lecture Theatre, Doorway 4, Teviot Place. 

Upcoming Talks

Just a quick note for interested parties: I will be giving a pair of talks summarizing the results of the Doors of Pompeii and Herculaneum Project over the course of next month. The first, entitled "Crossing the Threshold: Patterns of Movement in Roman Houses," will be delivered at the Public and Private in the Roman House Conference, which is being held in Helsinki at the end of next week. Full conference details (including a schedule of papers) are available here. 

The second paper will be given on May 7th at the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne as part of the School of History, Classics and Archaeology's seminar series. It is called "Rebuilding Boundaries in the Pompeian House: Towards a Functional Interpretation of Domestic Space." Full details, including time and location will be forthcoming on the school website.