This beautifully produced Festschrift in honour of Lothar Haselberger collects thirteen papers authored by former graduate students of his as well as colleagues whose work has been informed by Haselberger's championing of Bauforschung, a distinctive scholarly approach to architectural and historical analysis of ancient construction that is rooted in German academia (with which nine of the fourteen contributors are or were previously associated). The project stems from a conference titled ‘Against Gravity: Building Practices in the Pre-Industrial World’, co-organised in 2015 by the editors together with the late R. Ousterhout, whose programme originally also encompassed the Byzantine, medieval and pre-modern Islamic worlds (see https://www.sas.upenn.edu/ancient/publications.html, last accessed on 6 November 2023). Although the resulting volume has a narrower focus on Greek and Roman architecture, the collected papers still strive to showcase the breadth of research questions and insights characterising the ‘scientific, analytical, often archaeological study of historic buildings’ (p. 1) through inductive methods based on ‘measurement and graphic representation of precise physical details’ (pp. 11–12). The topics are diverse and range from the close-up analysis of specific architectonic forms or building sites to wider considerations of the built environment, and chronologically from short-term local and regional trends to cultural interaction and change over the longue durée.
The volume opens with an introduction in which Borbonus and Dumser retrace the evolution of the study of monumental architecture from its colonial origins in the eighteenth century to the present. They chronicle the development of standards for architectural documentation, including photography and drafting on site, noting the important role that centres of architectural research founded by the European imperialist powers around the Mediterranean, a pursuit in which Germany was a latecomer (p. 7), played for professional training. Over the decades, however, the academic field of Bauforschung grew isolated from art history and architectural history institutionally, methodologically as well as ideologically, given its exclusive association with classical architecture – a bias that the volume admittedly runs the risk of perpetuating (p. 10) –, leading to the current state of ‘disciplinary crisis’ (p. 3). To bring it back in dialogue with cognate disciplines, the editors advocate for the adoption of holistic approaches that move from empirical observation of the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the architectural process to consideration of the spatial and functional relationship of monuments to their surroundings, regardless of cultural traditions. The common goal should be that of producing narratives centred on the practical and symbolic significance as well as subsequent reception of monumental projects, ultimately tying structural evidence to historical trends (p. 11).
Many of the contributions combine two or more of what the editors identify as the four fundamental dimensions of contemporary Bauforschung – ‘construction processes’, ‘design theory and practice’, ‘building traditions’ and ‘historical contexts’. This is best exemplified by authors who engage with their materials using multiple scales of analysis. In Chapter 1, for instance, M. Andrews reconstructs the microhistory of a small shrine to Mercury that was personally restored by Augustus in the context of the broader building programme within the upper Subura, one of Rome's more socially diverse residential regions. Careful structural observations of the remains allow Andrews to propose a new functional interpretation for the monument (New Year's gift instead of compital altar). The discovery of its unfinished state has significant implications for our understanding of the shrine's integration into both the physical and the social fabric of the neighbourhood, highlighting the local nature of imperially sponsored urban improvement projects as well as the range of informal activities, including boardgames, that could become associated with them.
Another notable example of a multiscalar approach is provided in Chapter 8, in which L. Lancaster examines the diffusion of two Roman vaulting systems based on purposely made ceramic building materials: the use of interlocking hollow vessels (tubes) glued together with fast-setting gypsum mortar, and of terracotta bars that formed arched ribs supporting curved tiles between them, eventually leading to the introduction of armchair voussoirs. Both originated in the Hellenistic period as methods of providing waterproof ceilings in bath buildings. Through close typological analysis of a large dataset spanning half a millennium Lancaster is able to show that their diffusion from the core regions of the Roman empire to the Western provinces followed distinct evolutionary trajectories, both chronologically and geographically. However, in both cases the archaeological pattern betrays the local builders’ ability to adapt prototypes for mass production by taking advantage of increased infrastructure for terracotta manufacture initially developed for agricultural purposes in order to sustain the expansion of urban construction.
One of the overarching themes of the volume deals with the ways in which socio-economic change influenced innovative design choices, with a focus on the city of Rome. In Chapter 3 Borbonus analyses columbaria tombs, subterranean structures that housed the remains of enslaved and manumitted professional members of the largest household who operated close to the centre of power, linking the introduction of the type in the Augustan period to the sudden challenge of generating burial capacity (known examples range from about 100 to well over 1,000 burial spots, thus greatly exceeding the requirements of extended families). In Chapter 12 U. Wulf-Rheidt contextualises the development of artificial terraces and sunken gardens within the imperial palaces with the practice of ‘architectural heightening of nature’ (p. 223), evoking associations between the landscaping of the Palatine and literary representations, if not direct knowledge, of Assyrian royal gardens. By contrast, in Chapter 4, Dumser looks at the role of spolia and reuse in the building programme sponsored by Maxentius to explore how the lack of custom-quarried architectural orders prompted changes in both design and workflow. A case in point is the Basilica Nova, whose novel interior arrangement incorporated eight 50-foot Proconnesian columns that were made available after the interior of the nearby Temple of Venus and Rome was redesigned (p. 79).
Other chapters concentrate on individual, often uniquely designed buildings that lend themselves as ideal case studies to reverse engineer the chaîne opératoire followed by the builders. Thus, H. Bankel (Chapter 2) sets out to discern the rationale behind the presence of horizontal bricks inserted into the piers of the aqueduct of Minturnae in Southern Latium, interpreting it as evidence that a second team was responsible for erecting the arches and channel, as well as of concerns about the slope of the final stretch. H. Kienast (Chapter 6) reconstructs the methods of assembly of the individually carved stone roofing elements of the Tower of the Winds in Athens, a one-of-its-kind building whose function challenged designers to combine an eight-sided exterior with a hemispherical interior ceiling. A. von Kienlin (Chapter 7) examines the iron fittings found in the collapse of the roofing of the Odeion of Kibyra in southwest Turkey, which he identifies as reinforcements for framed lattice trusses laid horizontally and not radially, thus providing a Roman precedent for an invention that was thought to have occurred only in the nineteenth century. K. Piesker (Chapter 9) reconstructs the original aspect of the oldest known pseudoperipteros on a podium documented in the eastern Mediterranean, the so-called Temple of Dionysus at Side (second half of the first century bce), retracing the process of partial deconstruction and reorientation of the cult building, which Piesker takes as an example of ‘restauro creativo’ in antiquity (pp. 164–5). K. Rheidt (Chapter 10) analyses the construction sequence of the Sanctuary of Jupiter Optimus Maximus Heliopolitanus, showing how the transport and placement of huge monolithic stone building elements using low-tech implements was a major factor in the design of the temple, as evidenced from the traces preserved at both the building site and the quarries, which were located at a short range and roughly the same elevation.
A group of papers that explicitly addresses the critical role of visualisation methods in the study of ancient architecture stands out in terms of broader impact. In Chapter 5 S. Holzman experiments with digital 3D-modeling to appreciate through wide-angle panoramas and stretched perspectives how viewers could have sensed the space of the colonnade encircling the cella of the Temple of Artemis at Magnesia by Hermogenes, which Vitruvius praised for its expanded interior, giving us an impression of the ‘surprising experience of entering the temple’ (p. 102). This could be further explored using immersive virtualisation. M. Wilson Jones and G. Herdt (Chapter 11), on the other hand, critique the much-reproduced versions of two of the hallmarks of early Greek architecture, the Toumba site near Lefkandi and the Temple of Artemis at Kerkyra, proposing alternative reconstructions that would better account for the structural load requirements. The former should be restored as a much simpler structure, without a veranda, and lower than previously posited, thus resembling the more widespread ‘long house’ type (p. 197, fig. 11.6). As for the latter monument, the authors point out issues of stability that would have affected the much-reproduced version of the earliest Doric temple front, proposing instead a narrower seven-column façade (p. 206, fig. 11.15c) characterised by a slight misalignment in the scheme of metopes and triglyphs. Departing from the specific case studies, this paper offers some generalisations on the genesis of Greek peristyles, questioning evolutionary paradigms based on the idea that the Greek orders derived from the ‘petrification’ of timber structures. S. Zink (Chapter 13) sketches a historiographical account of the study of Roman architectural polychromy to contextualise the use of colour (or lack thereof) in visual reconstructions, highlighting especially the ideological underpinnings that characterised the early debate, which was dominated by neo-classical monochromists who rejected the ‘degenerate’ or ‘primitive’ style documented by Etrusco-Italic temples or Pompeian interiors (p. 249). This chapter is also notable because it discusses previous attempts to apply scientific methods of analysis to identify pigments on Roman monuments.
Taken together, the chapters fulfil the promise of providing ‘a representative cross-section of the interdisciplinary methodologies that are used in Bauforschung’ (p. 1). Important research areas, however, are left out. Whereas some of the contributions refer to the energetics of construction (e.g. Dumser; Rheidt), for example, the authors shy away from any systematic quantification of time and effort (for which one could see the recently published studies in honour of Janet DeLaine). Moreover, archaeometry is largely absent from the discussion, despite the common realisation that empirical knowledge of the physical properties of building materials greatly influenced structural design. By integrating these scientific approaches, the value and potential of Bauforschung for interdisciplinary collaboration and relevance would only be enhanced. Nevertheless, the volume will be a valuable tool for teachers and students of Greek and Roman architecture. Readers will gain a clear understanding of how the world of architects, designers and builders was not separated from that of the patrons who sponsored the projects and of the users who experienced the buildings, and that all of these were the product of historical and cultural circumstances.
