Prof. Andrew Wilson

Research Interests

Ancient water supply usage; ancient technology; the economy of the Roman Empire; Roman architecture; field survey.

Current and Recent Activities

Co-director with Professor Alan Bowman of The Oxford Roman Economy Project, which aims to collate and analyse a series of quantifiable indicators, from papyrological, epigraphic and archaeological sources, on the growth and contraction of the Roman economy between 100 B.C. and A.D. 300. Excavations near the SE corner of the Roman Forum and in the Horrea Agrippiana, Rome; excavations of the Aqua Traiana and Roman water-mills on the Janiculum Hill, Rome; excavations of the Archaic-early Hellenistic city of Euesperides (Benghazi, Libya); study of the foggara (underground irrigation) systems in the Fezzan (Libyan Sahara).

Publications

• 'Site recovery rates and the ancient population of the Biferno Valley', in G. Lock and A. Faustoferri (eds) Archaeology and Landscape in Central Italy. Papers in Memory of John A. Lloyd, Oxford University School of Archaeology Monographs, 69. School of Archaeology, Oxford (2008): 233-53
• 'Hydraulic Engineering', in J. P. Oleson (ed.) Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World. Oxford, Oxford University Press (2008): 285-318
• 'Machines', in J. P. Oleson (ed.) Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World. Oxford, Oxford University Press (2008): 337-66
• 'Large-scale manufacturing, standardization, and trade', in J. P. Oleson (ed.) Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World. Oxford, Oxford University Press (2008): 393-417
• 'The castra of Frontinus', in A. Leone, D. Palombi and S. Walker (eds) Res bene gestae. Richerche di storia urbana su Roma antica in onore di Eva Margareta Steinby (Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae, Supplementum IV). Roma, Quasar (2007): 439-44
• 'The Metal Supply of the Roman Empire', in E. Papi (ed.) Supplying Rome and the Roman Empire (JRA Supplement 69). Portsmouth, Rhode Island, Journal of Roman Archaeology (2007): 109-25
• 'Fish-salting workshops in Sabratha', in L. Lagóstena, D. Bernal and A. Aréval (eds) Cetariae 2005. Salsas y Salazones de Pescado en Occidente durante la Antigüedad. Actas del Congreso Internacional (Cádiz, 7-9 de noviembre de 2005). (British Archaeological Reports, International Series 1686), Archaeopress, Oxford (2007): 173-81
• Urban development in the Severan Empire”, in S. C. R. Swain, S. J. Harrison and J. Elsner (eds) Severan Culture. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (2007): 290-326
• 'The spread of foggara-based irrigation in the ancient Sahara' in D.J. Mattingly, S. McLaren, E. Savage, Y. Fasatwi and K. Gadgood (eds) Natural Resources and Cultural Heritage of the Libyan Desert, London (2006): 205-16
• 'Une cité grecque de Libye: fouilles d’Euhésperidès (Benghazi)', in Comptes rendus de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, novembre-décembre 2003 (2005), 1648-1675
• 'Classical water technology in the early Islamic world', in C. Brunn and A. Saastamoinen (eds), Technology, ideology, water: from Frontinus to the Renaissance and beyond, (Acta Instituti Romani Finlandiae, 31), Roma (2004): 115-41
• Late antique water-mills on the Palatine', (2003), Papers of the British School at Rome 71: 85-109
• 'Machines, power and the ancient economy', (2002), Journal of Roman Studies 92: 1-3
• 'Urban production in the Roman world: the view from North Africa', (2002), Papers of the British School at Rome 70: 231-73
• 'Industrial uses of water in the ancient world', 'Drainage and sanitation' and 'Land drainage' in Ö. Wikander (ed.), (2000), Ancient water technology; Leiden
• 'Deliveries extra urbem: aqueducts and the countryside', (1999), Journal of Roman Archaeology 12.1: 314-331
• 'Commerce and industry in Roman Sabratha', Libyan Studies 30 (1999): 29-52
• 'Water-supply in ancient Carthage', in Carthage papers: The early colony's economy, water supply, a private bath, and the mobilization of state olive oil, (1998), JRA Supplement 28: 65-102.