Via Labicana (Italy) -- Antiquities

Scope and Contents From the Collection: Marion E. Blake collected miscellaneous materials during her research on Roman buildings (Republic and early Empire) and Roman mosaics (second century, Republic, early and late Empire). Both she and Esther Van Deman took many notes during their archaeological surveys and study trips in Italy, Europe and North Africa. The Blake material, always included in the Van Deman Collection, has recently been discovered and re-evaluated as a unique nucleus. The collection is now an accurate survey,...

Abstract Esther Van Deman's work focuses on building materials, working to establish a chronology of construction for the ancient sites. In 1907, while attending a lecture in the Atrium Vestae in Rome, Van Deman noticed that the bricks blocking up a doorway differed from those of the structure itself. Such differences in building materials provided a key to discovering the chronology of ancient structures. Van Deman's basic methodology, with few modifications, became the standard procedure in Roman...