LIVING WITH ART. Domestic decorative sculpture in Western Roman Empire: reconstructing display, sociocultural dynamics, and addressing productive and economic processes

LIVART is a multidisciplinary, innovative project that will investigate decorative sculptures in domestic contexts during the Roman period.

They offer insights into sociocultural practices of private Roman spaces, revealing aspects of daily life not recorded in written sources and reflecting personal preferences of their owners and inhabitants.

The project examines function, aesthetic significance, and societal, economic, and cultural roles of these sculptures within Roman families.

It aims to understand how they reflect and influence domestic practices, social relationships, gender and diversity roles, and economic dynamics in the Roman Empire. The research integrates archaeology, art history, archaeometry, and 3D/VR technologies to achieve its objectives.

Geographically, it focuses on the Western Roman provinces, within a chronological framework extending from the Republican era to the end of the Empire.

The project, developed at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitt Bonn (Germany), is planned to last 24 months and includes an eight-month secondment phase in three renowned laboratories: Laboratory for Analysing Materials of Ancient origin (LAMA) at the Universit Iuav di Venezia (Italy), the Stable Isotope Laboratory at the Institute of Environmental Geology and Geoengineering (IGAG) of the National Research Council in Rome, and the Department of Geology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB).

These secondments ensure the proper integration of various hard science methods and techniques for stone analysis, which are crucial to the projects research objectives, particularly those productive and economic dynamics derived from the identification of raw materials used to carve the sculptures.

Therefore, LIVART addresses significant knowledge gaps and employ advanced methods to preserve and disseminate European cultural heritage, potentially transforming our understanding of Roman domestic life and decorative sculpture.