Dr. Jens-Arne Dickmann

University of Freiburg
Greek and Roman Archaeology

Rector’s Fellow
October 2018 – July 2019

E-Mail: jd1019@archaeologie.uni-freiburg.de

Last Update: 31.08.2019

Curriculum Vitae

Jens-Arne Dickmann passed his academic education at the universities of Freiburg and München (LMU) and finished his PhD in 1992. Winning the Reisestipendium (Travelling Scholarship) of the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (DAI) in 1992/93 he travelled around the Mediterranean visiting archaeological and historical sites and museums in France, the Iberian Peninsula, all countries of Northern Africa, the Near East, Turkey, Greece and Italy.

After his return he has done research and taught at the universities in Cottbus (TU, 1994), Cologne (1994-95), Munich (LMU, 1995-2001), Heidelberg (2001-2011) and since 2011 in Freiburg. In 1997-2003 he conducted an excavation project of the DAI in Pompeii. Later in 2010/11 he was as a consultant and coeditor to the Landesmuseum at Halle (exhibiton “Pompeji, Nola, Herculaneum. Katastrophen am Vesuv”).

Since 2011 he has been teaching and also curating the University`s Antiquities and Cast Collection in Freiburg. In 2014 he won the project „Freiburger Akademie für Museum-, Ausstellungs- und Sammlungswesen“ (FRAMAS/museOn, 2014-2020) financed by the German Ministry of Research and Education. Under his direction two larger and homemade exhibitions on the ancient symposion and hellenistic sculpture were presented in the Freiburg Antiquities and Cast Collection (2015 and 2017) as well as considerable exhibition catalogues published.

Beyond the Vesuvian cities he is also interested in the history of ancient childhood and the histories of Antiquities collections.

Selected Publications

J.-A. Dickmann, Pompeji. Archäologie und Geschichte (3. Aufl. München 2017; italienisch: Bologna 2007)
J.-A. Dickmann – A. Heinemann (Hrsg.), Vom Trinken und Bechern. Das antike Gelage im Umbruch, Katalog der Ausstellung in der Archäologischen Sammlung der Universität Freiburg (Freiburg 2015)
J.-A. Dickmann, Crucial Contexts. A Closer Reading of the Household of the Casa del Menandro at Pompeii, in: M. Müller (Hrsg.), Household Studies in Complex Societies. (Micro) Archaeological and Textual Approaches (Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Oriental Institute Seminars 10, 2015) 211-228
F. de Angelis – J.-A. Dickmann – Felix Pirson – Ralf von den Hoff (Hrsg.), Kunst von unten? Stil und Gesellschaft in der antiken Welt von der `arte plebea´ bis heute, Internationales Kolloquium Rom, Villa Massimo 2007 (Wiesbaden 2012)
J.-A. Dickmann, domus frequentata. Anspruchsvolles Wohnen im pompejanischen Stadthaus (München 1999)

FRIAS Project

Ruhe und Bewegung in der römischen Stadt. Archäologie, Ökonomie und Soziologie des antiken Stadtverkehrs

Collective forms of behavior and specific patterns of movement within the ancient Roman town are in the focus of this project. It is going to be reconstructed by analyzing a multifold cluster of archaeological traces and historical sources. Starting with the unique cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum the research will also include other Roman towns.

Public space of ancient towns is usually investigated and described in the Archaeologies by looking at its constitutive elements that is the roads, the squares and crossings, but also wells, altars and benches, not to forget the adjoining buildings like houses, shops and workshops. A systematic approach to understand what formerly was ancient city`s traffic has not been undertaken so far. This study will include a broad spectrum of archaeological traces and contexts as well as ancient law on traffic and written and painted facades so to reconstruct the diversity of contexts and specific reception modes as well as time as crucial factor.

My own research done so far raises expectations towards the strangeness of ancient traffic in comparison to our own experiences. Thus factors like the social origin and standing of people and the roles of the single participants seem to have much more influenced the ways of behaving and moving within the city than economic factors.