Sabbatical Jeroen Poblome: Ancient Sagalassos. Archaeological understandings of its society, culture and ways of life

The intention is to write a monograph concerning the Roman Imperial Sagalassos and its territory. Naturally, based on the cumulative interdisciplinary insights generated by the Sagalassos Project, the applicant above all wishes to roll out a strong archaeological agenda. In a series of crucial debates in classical and Roman archaeology, deep case studies are needed. Sagalassos offers unique opportunities here. With the enormously rich evidence after more than a generation of fieldwork in Sagalassos and the surrounding area and a great personal familiarity with what this evidence can and cannot do, the applicant wishes to demonstrate in depth how archaeological data, cast in an efficient methodological framework , lie at the basis of an innovative narrative on rather traditional debates in classical archaeology. The applicant wishes to use the Sagalassos case study to provide new insights into the themes of culture change, ie romanization/imperialism, of urbanization and its limited capacity in the Old World, of how eating habits characterize communities and of what economic concepts desired. nuance the supposedly successful urban growth model of Sagalassos. The aim is to give a voice mainly to the ancient community of Sagalassos, through their archaeological record. The systematic approach to the study of this community, rather than, for example, the monumental building stock, has strongly characterized the applicant's research in the past period. The planned monograph will enable the applicant to bring together many elements in a well-organized whole. The logic of the division of the sabbatical year would be to write specific chapters to a different research institution, which in terms of research tradition best fits the relevant sub-studies and themes.