Project description
New ancient Rome study brings ‘making’ and ‘meaning’ together
How things were made in ancient Rome is a fascinating subject, but one usually studied as a practical or technical process. Little is known about the cultural, aesthetic and moral aspects. The ERC-funded FACERE project will investigate what making meant to the inhabitants of the Roman Empire. Specifically, it will analyse the Roman discourse of making: literary texts – poetry and prose in Greek and Latin – and visual art works, such as paintings, reliefs and mosaics, which represent processes of making and can tell us how Romans thought, felt and spoke about them. FACERE will also explore the impact of material culture on Roman viewers, how things were made, and how their stories of making were presented or imagined.
Objective
How did the ancient Romans respond to the material world around them? This project, FACERE, proposes a new way of approaching this question. It studies ‘making’ – the processes by which the objects and buildings which surrounded Romans in their daily lives were produced. How things were made in ancient Rome is usually studied as a practical or technical process. However, making also has a wide range of culturally specific aesthetic and moral implications. FACERE breaks new ground by asking not how making was done, but what making meant to the inhabitants of the Roman empire. To answer this question, we analyse the Roman discourse of making: literary texts – poetry and prose in Greek and Latin – and visual art works, such as paintings, reliefs, and mosaics, which represent processes of making and can tell us how Romans thought, felt, and spoke about them. FACERE aims to achieve two key objectives.
First, we will write a new cultural history of ‘Roman making’, adding to our understanding of the technological, logistic, and economic dimensions the crucial new dimension of the cultural values involved in making, in particular its aesthetic and moral complexities. How did making relate to Roman notions about the environment? How did Roman writers and artists depict the ability and agency of different kinds of makers, and how does this relate to their gender, ethnicity, and social status? Were certain ways of making considered superior to others, and why?
Second, FACERE proposes a new way of investigating the impact of material culture on Roman viewers. How things were made, and how their stories of making were presented or imagined, was deeply relevant to what they meant to their ancient viewers, owners, and users. FACERE introduces the innovative analytical concept of ‘madeness’, which allows us to bring ‘making’ and ‘meaning’ together.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities arts visual arts
- humanities history and archaeology history
- social sciences sociology anthropology ethnology
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2021-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
9712CP Groningen
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.