How Things Make History

Download or read book How Things Make History written by Astrid van Oyen and published by Amsterdam University Press. This book was released on 2020-11-06 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bright red terra sigillata pots dating to the first three centuries CE can be found throughout the Western Roman provinces. The pots' widespread distribution and recognisability make them key evidence in the effort to reconstruct the Roman Empire's economy and society. Drawing on recent ideas in material culture, this book asks a radically new question: what was it about the pots themselves that allowed them to travel so widely and be integrated so quickly into a range of contexts and practices? To answer this question, Van Oyen offers a fresh analysis in which objects are no longer passive props, but rather they actively shape historical trajectories.