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Arja Karivieri

About me

Research

My research interests include the topography of Athens, Roman architecture (especially the archaeology of Ostia antica and Pompeii), mosaics, pottery (especially Greek and Roman oil lamps), sculpture; art and cultural policy in the age of Emperor Hadrian; Early Christian architecture and the use of spolia, as well as the cultural change in Late Antiquity.

My doctoral dissertation presented different aspects of the production of terracotta lamps in Athens from the 3rd to the 7th century AD, i.e. iconography, chronology, the organization of the lamp workshops, trade and local copying of Athenian lamps in different parts of the Late Roman world.

My studies on iconography include imperial portraits of the Early Roman period, iconography of oil lamps and mosaics. Though small objects, aimed for everyday use, lamps can give us important information about the ideological change in ancient society. Discus motifs on oil lamps reflect the changing attitudes in Late Antiquity, when Christianity became the main religion in the Mediterranean world: mythological motifs were successively abandoned and Christian symbols, as well as geometric, neutral motifs became dominating.
My studies on architecture include the archaeology and history of Ostia antica, Pompeian architecture, Late Roman villas and houses, Early Christian churches and the reuse of pagan and profane structures for church building.

Current projects, selection

I have continued lychnological studies by publishing, among others, two studies on the ancient lamps at the Museum of Classical Antiquities at the Lund University, and I will publish the lamp finds from the Swedish excavations at the garden of the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta, and at the Sanctuary of Poseidon at Kalaureia, Poros. I have also acted as the president of the ILA, International Lychnological Association (2003-2015), an association that promotes the study of ancient lighting. ILA arranges international congresses and thematic round-tables in cooperation with museums, universities and other institutions.

I am a member of the executive committee of the Swedish Pompeii project since 2000, and I will publish the so-called House of Caecilius Iucundus in cooperation with Dr Renée Forsell from the Lund University. The fieldwork has been completed, and archival studies conducted since 2007. The field documentation and archival studies have already resulted in several studies (see www.academia.edu) and an on-line publication of field documentation sheets on the website of the Swedish Pompeii Project (www.pompejiprojektet.se) as preparation for the final publication of the project. Results of our study in the House of Caecilius Iucundus were presented in the exhibition “Pompeji” at Millesgården, Lidingö, 20 September 2014-18 May 2015.

Since 1999, I am the director of the excavation project of the Finnish Institute at Athens in an Early Christian Church at Arethousa in Northern Greece, where Finnish, Swedish and Greek scholars and students of Classical Archaeology participated in the fieldwork between 1999-2004. The results of the Arethousa project are published in the publication series of the Finnish Institute at Athens, the first volume was published in 2017.

From 2015 to 2019, I was the director of the project Segregated or Integrated? Living and Dying in the Harbour City of Ostia, 300 BCE-700 CE, financed by the Academy of Finland and Tampere University. One of the results of this project was the organisation of the exhibition Ostia, Gateway to Rome, in collaboration with Parco Archeologico di Ostia Antica and Museumcentre Vapriikki at Tampere, Finland (31 October 2019 – 10 January 2021, with 139 000 visitors) and the volume Life and Death in a Multicultural Harbour City: Ostia Antica from the Republic through Late Antiquity (ActaIRF, vol. 47), Rome: Institutum Romanum Finlandiae & Quasar, 2020. (see also my publications on DiVA from 2019 onwards).

Academic Award

In 2021, I received the "Prof. Luigi Tartufari" International prize in Archaeology from the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome, ex aequo with Prof. Eva Margareta Steinby, Professor of the Archaeology of the Roman Empire, All Souls College, Oxford University.

Links

International Lychnological Association (http://www.lychnology.org)

The Swedish Pompeii project (http://www.pompejiprojektet.se/)

The Arethousa project (https://www.finninstitute.gr/en/paliambelan-varhaiskristillisen-kirkon-kaivaukset/)

Ostia – Segregated or Integrated? –project (https://projects.tuni.fi/ostia/)

Greece between Europe and Asia (GEA), Cambridge-Stockholm Collaborative Research Grant (2020-2023) (https://www.ccgs.csah.cam.ac.uk/subject/greece-between-europe-and-asia)

For publications, see also https://www.academia.edu/

Publications

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

  • Olaus Magnus the Goth on Fire, Light and Lighting Devices of the Northern People

    2019. Arja Karivieri. Glass, wax and metal, 32-38

    Chapter

    Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Uppsala, published Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus in Rome in 1555. This encyclopedic, illustrated work on the customs and history of the Nordic people became popular and it was translated into several European languages during the following decades. In this article, a special focus is given to the various instances where Olaus Magnus comments on fire, light and lighting devices in Scandinavia, such as the symbolic meaning of fire and light at wedding ceremonies, lighting the guild feasts, light in Christian processions and in the church, lighting in wintertime, light and fire in summertime, fire and lights during warfare, birds and lights, and fishing by means of fire.

    Finally, the evidence provided by Olaus Magnus is compared with other sources, and what archival sources reveal about the use of light and lighting devices at Häme and Turku Castles in Finland during the same period.

    Read more about Olaus Magnus the Goth on Fire, Light and Lighting Devices of the Northern People

  • Varius, multiplex, multiformis: Greek, Roman, Panhellenic

    2019. Arja Karivieri. Gender, Memory and Identity in the Roman World, 283-300

    Chapter

    This paper will review how civic identity, ethnicity and religious identity were debated and revalued during the Hadrianic era.  The Panhellenic identity promoted by Hadrian was linked to a Hellenic identity and Greek history but also to the mythic history of Rome. Emperor Hadrian promoted the development of multifaceted identities, being himself a representative of virtus and Romanitas, and a promoter of Greek paideia. The multiple identities of Hadrian, Empress Sabina and the emperor’s beloved Antinoos, and their contemporaries reflect this development in culture, society and religion: identity, gender, and memory got multifaceted interpretations, became fluid and flexible. This development continued in Late Antiquity, when memories of the Greek and Roman past were revived and reused in new contexts.

    Read more about Varius, multiplex, multiformis: Greek, Roman, Panhellenic

  • Trinacria, 'An Island Outside Time'

    2021. .

    Book (ed)

    Trinacria, the ancient name for Sicily extending back to Homeric Greek, has understandably been the focus of decades of archaeological research. Recognizing Sicily’s rich prehistory and pivotal role in the history of the Mediterranean, Sebastiano Tusa - professor, head of heritage agencies and councilor for Cultural Heritage for the Sicilian Region - promoted the exploration of the island’s heritage through international collaboration. His decades of fostering research initiatives not only produced rich archaeological results spanning the Palaeolithic to the modern era but brought scholars from a range of schools and disciplines to work together in Sicily. Through his efforts, uniquely productive methodological, theoretical and interpretative networks were created. Their impact extends far beyond Sicily and Italy.

    To highlight these networks and their results, the Institutum Romanum Finlandiae, the Swedish Institute in Rome, the Norwegian Institute in Rome, the British School at Rome and the Assessorato dei Beni Culturali of Sicily, with generous support from the Swedish Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, assembled this anthology of papers. The aim is to present a selection of the work of and results from contemporary, multi-national research projects in Sicily.

    The collaboration between the Sicilian and international partners, often in an interdisciplinary framework, has generated important results and perspectives. The articles in this volume present research projects from throughout the island. The core of the articles is concerned with the Archaic through to the Roman period, but diachronic studies also trace lines back to the Stone Age and up to the contemporary era. A range of methods and sources are explored, thus creating an up-to-date volume that is a referential gateway to contemporary Sicilian archaeology. 

    Read more about Trinacria, 'An Island Outside Time'

  • Jewish Inhabitants in Ancient Ostia

    2022. Arja Karivieri. Negotiation, Collaboration and Conflict in Ancient and Medieval Communities, 209-224

    Chapter

    This case study will analyse various ways of integration in the harbour city of Rome through inscriptions, archaeological material, and literary sources, to study how Jewish immigrants and inhabitants of the city were integrated into Roman culture and the urban society of Ostia. To give examples of different ways of integration, we present four inscriptions from Ostia that tell us more about the Jewish inhabitants in the city. These four inscriptions make it possible for us to discuss in greater detail the role of the Jewish inhabitants as members of the Ostian society, their participation in the various activities of the Ostian community, as well as their social roles. For this ‘case study’, the names of the individuals reveal information about both their background and their personal history.

    Read more about Jewish Inhabitants in Ancient Ostia

  • Ανασκαφές στην Αρέθουσα 1999-2004: συνθετικές εργασίες: Archaeological Excavations at Arethousa 1999-2004: Synthesis of the Project

    2022. Arja Karivieri. Tο Αρχαιολογικό Έργο στη Μακεδονία και στη Θράκη 30, 2016, 415-422

    Conference

    The archaeological fieldwork of the Finnish Institute at Athens in Arethousa, Paliambela, was conducted between 1999 and 2004 in co-operation with the 9th Byzantine Ephorate in Thessaloniki, the Greek Ministry of Culture and the International Committee for the Conservation of Mosaics. The aims of the Finnish project were to study the history of the Early Christian church and the site, to document and consolidate the pavements and walls found since 1994, and to prepare a plan for the future conservation, preservation and maintenance of the site. The conservation of the mosaic pavements was carried out from 2000 to 2003, and the conservation and treatment of the walls in 2004. Several field reports and analyses of the mosaic floors and their conservation have been published since the year 2000. The first larger synthesis of the results of the Finnish archaeological project in Arethousa, "The Early Christian Basilica of Arethousa in Macedonia I. Production, Consumption and Trade", was published in 2017 in the series "Papers and Monographs of the Finnish Institute at Athens".

    Read more about Ανασκαφές στην Αρέθουσα 1999-2004: συνθετικές εργασίες

  • Erotica Ostiensia: Lucerne, statuette e amuleti in un ambiente multiculturale

    2023. Ria Berg, Arja Karivieri. Ostia e Portus dalla Repubblica alla Tarda Antichità, 175-194

    Chapter

    In questo articolo presentiamo una serie di statuette, vasi plastici e lucerne trovate ad Ostia antica, e studiati nell’ambito del progetto “Segregated or Integrated? Living and Dying in the Harbour City of Ostia, 300 BCE-700 CE”, che ha esaminato le forme culturali della coesistenza degli abitanti romani e non-romani della città portuale. Il contributo si focalizza sulle rappresentazioni degli stranieri nelle arti minori in forma grottesca legate alla sfera sessuale e analizza gli usi di tali immagini come apotropaia. La discussione comincia da una serie di erme priapiche, continua con lucerne plastiche in forma fallica e con una statuetta c.d. pseudo-Baubo egiziana. La parte finale è dedicata alla discussione approfondita di una particolare lucerna erotica ostiense, importata dalla fabbrica ateniese di Preimos, e probabilmente trovata in contesto funerario.

    Read more about Erotica Ostiensia

  • Michael Heinzelmann (Hrsg.), Forma Urbis Ostiae. Untersuchungen zur Entwicklung der Hafenstadt Roms von der Zeit der Republik bis ins frühe Mittelalter. (Sonderschriften des Deutsches Archäologischen Instituts Rom, Bd. 25.) Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz 2020

    2022. Arja Karivieri. Historische Zeitschrift 315 (3), 741-743

    Article
    Read more about Michael Heinzelmann (Hrsg.), Forma Urbis Ostiae. Untersuchungen zur Entwicklung der Hafenstadt Roms von der Zeit der Republik bis ins frühe Mittelalter. (Sonderschriften des Deutsches Archäologischen Instituts Rom, Bd. 25.) Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz 2020

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