Caesar’s Forum and the later Imperial Fora have been widely studied during their periods of construction and use, i.e. the Imperial Period. In contrast, the later phases of Caesar’s Forum remain less studied. However, the new Danish-Italian excavations at the site of Caesar’s Forum provide an excellent opportunity to examine the forum during the Late Antiquity and the Early Medieval period to study how Caesar’s Forum reflects Rome’s urban development.

This PhD project focuses on the continuity and change in the long-term development of the use of space in Caesar’s Forum during Late Antiquity and the Early Medieval period (3rd to 11th century AD). This development is examined through the available archaeological evidence from Caesar’s Forum and aims at recognising urban patterns in the evidence. These patterns are analysed and related to the political, religious, and societal situations and changes in Rome through Late Antiquity and the Early Medieval period. The aim is to reassess Rome and its urban development through a new understanding of the changes in centrality, the use of space, and the urban development visible in Caesar’s Forum. As part of The Caesar’s Forum Project, this PhD project has the unique possibility to test Rome’s existing assumptions and significantly to add to the recent focus and research on Medieval Rome. Furthermore, it can provide new perspectives on what we know about Rome as a city and the meaning and the use and change of Caesar’s Forum and the Imperial Fora in a diachronic perspective. 

PI: Former PhD Student Line Egelund Hejlskov