Sources: Artifacts from Ancient Rome

Artifacts from Ancient Rome. By James B. Tschen-Emmons. Daily Life through Artifacts. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2014. 321 p. Acid free $100 (ISBN 978-1-61069-619-7). E-book (978-1-61069-620-3) available, call for pricing.

Greenwood has launched a new series, Daily Life through Artifacts, which acts as companion of sorts to its Daily Life Series. It is intended to teach students to use material culture with primary sources to investigate historical life and societies. Artifacts from Ancient Rome is the first published volume in the series. Its author, Dr. James B. Tschen-Emmons, is a former special collections librarian, now historian and archaeologist, who teaches history at North Idaho College.

The volume itself presents black and white pictures of artifacts from ancient Rome grouped in categories by topics such as communications and record keeping, entertainment, household items, and religion and funerary practices. Dr. Tschen-Emmons has chosen several representative items for each category and gives a brief introduction and description, followed by a section explaining the significance of the item in Roman society. Sidebars give excerpts from Pliny the Elder, Livy, Quintillian, and other Roman historians and commentators translated into English, putting the artifacts into contemporary context and tying material culture to primary resources. There is a brief introduction on the history of Rome and a chapter on “How to evaluate artifacts,” which aids students in interpreting and analyzing artifacts and using them to explain Roman life, culture, and customs.

This volume was intended for high school and undergraduate students, and the format reflects this. Text is large and easy to read, and the vocabulary should be easily understandable for these groups. Each entry also has a further information section at the end, which should aid students in finding more in-depth information if they require it. It is a shame that the photographs of the artifacts themselves are in black and white, as color would be more visually appealing and would give readers a clearer idea of how the artifacts appear.

Teaching students how material culture can inform and shape societies, and vice-versa, is a difficult task. The volumes in these series are an interesting attempt to tie the interpretation of the artifacts of a culture to the primary sources available, helping students learn not only analysis and interpretation techniques, but also how to use the primary record. For this reason, specialists or more advanced researchers will find this book too basic for their needs. There are, of course, many, many volumes on the material culture of Rome, but this volume is unique in its focus on teaching (younger) students to use and interpret these artifacts for research. It is recommended, therefore, for high school and undergraduate institutions and would probably be useful for colleges and universities with Classics or archaeology departments.—Amanda K. Sprochi, Health Sciences Cataloger, University of Missouri Libraries, Columbia, Missouri