News and Outputs

The Peopling Roman Palaces Project will be taking part in the Experiencing the Landscape in Antiquity 4 Conference in Málaga, 4–6 June 2026.

Our paper, “Hydraulic Landscapes, Elite Display, and Labour: Experiencing Hadrian’s Villa from Antiquity to the Post-Roman Period,” explores Hadrian’s Villa as a lived and worked landscape, shaped not only by imperial ambition and display, but also by water management, infrastructure, and the labour that sustained it across time.

Paper authors:

S. Pietrobono, Ministero Beni Culturali, IT

M. Placidi, Sotterranei di Roma, IT

T. Ravasi, Newcastle University, UK

Corresponding author: thea.ravasi@ncl.ac.uk

The Peopling Roman Palaces Project is organising a session at the 32nd EAA Annual Meeting in Athens (26-29 August 2026). 

The session #5 Housing the Court – Infrastructures, Communities, and Power in Palatial Environments investigates the residential and infrastructural dimensions of imperial residences, redirecting attention from ceremonial spaces to the largely overlooked architecture of housing and service infrastructure. 

Session organisers:
T. Ravasi, Newcastle University, UK
S. Vagnuzzi, University of Caen, FR
L. Bottiglieri, Sovrintendenza Capitolina, Roma, IT

Corresponding organiser: thea.ravasi@ncl.ac.uk

Ravasi, T. (in press). “Peopling Palaces: The Archaeology of the Imperial Court at Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli.” Paper submitted to Proceedings of the XXe Congrès International d'Archéologie Classique. Archéologie des Espaces Vécus, Paris, France, 3–9 June 2024. External link

Ravasi, T., Bottiglieri, L., Colli, D. & Vagnuzzi, S. (2026) ‘Rethinking an Imperial Palace. Housing the Court at Santa Croce’. In: Haynes, I., Liverani, P., Ravasi, T. & Foschi, G. (eds) Rome Transformed: The Eastern Caelian from the Principate of Augustus to the Pontificate of Leo III. Oxford: Archaeopress. http://doi.org/10.32028/9781805830320 External link