Shops, Workshops and Urban Economic History in the Roman World

The material remains of Roman urban shops and workshops long played a marginalrole in classical archaeology, but in recent years, they have enjoyed a markedincrease of scholarly attention. Influenced by debates about the nature of ancienturban economies, scholars began to study the archaeological evidence for urbanretail and manufacturing with an unprecedented vigour from the late 1990s onwards.Since the turn of the millennium, scholars have increasingly begun to study shop-and workshop design in relation to profit-oriented investment strategies, and toexplore the economic history of urban commercial landscapes. This volume discussesthe ways in which the study of urban shops and workshops has challenged ourconceptualization of urban economic history in the Roman world, and it explorespossible avenues to further deepen our understanding of the changing nature of Romanurban commerce, and to bridge spatial and chronological distances between local setsof evidence.