Illumination matters. Revisiting the Roman house in a new light

Interpreting the social complexity of the Roman house requires a careful evaluation of the existing evidence. With this in mind, recent work in the field has proposed an alternation of approaches, focusing, from time to time, on a specific type of source (architecture and décor, ancient texts, material evidence from excavated houses), each in turn recursively deemed more adequate for the purpose or more fruitful and less biased. This confrontation of positions and critiques between scholars has left a remarkably rich picture that, nevertheless, leaves some of the social dynamics of domestic space out of our reach.
The proposed research, centered on the case study of the House of the Greek Epigrams in the northern part of Insula V1 in Pompeii, suggests a further level of understanding that combines the aforementioned classes of sources with simulations and digital analyses to support archaeological interpretation. Based on the assumption of light as a powerful social agent, the study investigates, through historically based and physically accurate lighting simulations and analyses, the intertwining patterns of spatial and social circulation in order to derive new insights into the social dynamics in the Roman house.