Five ancient shipwrecks have been found in the sea off Croton, in southern Italy, each carrying a marble cargo composed of massive blocks, column shafts, and smaller artifacts. Three of them were located while surveying the seafloor with a multibeam sonar, and the remaining two with the help of divers, in the summers of 2005 and 2006. Two of the marble carriers are located in the bay of Punta Scifo and, therefore, are identified as the Punta Scifo A and Punta Scifo B shipwrecks, the remaining three take their names from the closest promontories: Punta Cicala, Capo Cimiti, and Capo Bianco. The Punta Scifo A shipwreck was chosen as the main focus of this work because it contains a unique assemblage of marble artifacts; including 13 basins, 15 stands decorated with lions’ paws, 16 column shafts, 14 blocks, 6 statue pedestals, and one statuette of Eros and Psyche. Moreover, because the original discovery dates back to 1908, and in 1915 salvors raised 150 tons of marble artifacts, much information was in danger of being lost. Consular inscriptions on the Punta Scifo A’s marble blocks and column shafts date the shipwreck to the early third century A.D. The merchantman was ca. 30 m long and 10 m wide, with a cargo of marble items weighting ca. 200 tons. The merchantman was loaded with its marble cargo in Asia Minor: all the items carried on board came from the quarries of Proconnesus and Docimium. The most likely point of departure was either Epheus or Miletus. While sailing toward the Strait of Messina, it is likely that a Grecale or Levante storm broke, and the helmsman was forced to look for shelter in the protected bay of Punta Scifo. Due to a change in wind direction a southerly Scirocco storm caused the ship to sink. Since the entire coastline south of Croton is totally unprotected to the south, there was no way for the crew to save their ship. Where the Punta Scifo A merchantman was destined remains unknown, although Rome appears to be a likely candidate.

The master's thesis summarizes existing knowledge of both post houses and sunken floor buildings in the Roman Age and Migration Period in Bohemia. It analyzes a collection of 131 sunken floor houses and available records about the post houses. The sunken floor building were divided in several groups according to preserved traces of their contruction which enables a comparison of the situation in Bohemia with that of neighboring areas. Using statistical methods helped to determine mutual relations between features and to identify certain regional differences. Both kinds of buildings were evaluated from the construction and functional point of view. The knowledge of post houses served as the basis for analyzing a season of an excavation of 1959 in Zalužany, dist. Příbram. Key words Bohemia - Roman Age - Migration Period - settlements - prehistoric construction

L’étude des céramiques culinaires conduit à une analyse fonctionnelle de ces objets. S’ils se rattachent tous au domaine de la cuisine, certains peuvent servir à stocker, d’autres à préparer ou mélanger et d’autres enfin à cuire les aliments. Le travail présenté ici s’intéresse à ce type de mobilier dans le Languedoc depuis la création de la province romaine de Gaule Transalpine jusqu’à la fin du IIe s. ap. J.-C. La technique utilisée pour fabriquer ces poteries renseigne déjà sur leur fonction. Le choix de l’argile, la façon de la préparer, de la cuire, donne soit des vases solides soit des récipients résistants au feu. L’identification des formes par la constitution d’une typologie sur trois nivaux (classe, forme, type) permet d’analyser la composition de la batterie de cuisine. À partir des textes antiques on retrouve l’utilisation de ces récipients et on peut reconstituer les pratiques culinaires. L’étude se double d’une analyse culturelle à une époque où sont en contact les cultures romaine et gauloise. Si, sur les plans technique et typologique, le Languedoc occidental, en particulier le Narbonnais, présente des caractéristiques très italiques, le Languedoc oriental reste plus traditionnel. Néanmoins, du point de vue fonctionnel, la répartition des formes indique des pratiques culinaires similaires qui se confondent avec la culture romaine comme le montrent certains exemples pris en Italie (Pompéi, Ostie). / Cooking ware study leads to analyse the functions of the ceramics objects. Even if all those objects are linked to the field of cookery, some of them may be used specifically to stock, to prepare or mix ingredients, or to cook. This PhD Thesis focuses on this type of ceramics material in Languedoc since the creation of the Transalpin Gaul Province by the Romans. The choice of ceramic technique tells us a lot about the function of ware. The selection of clay, the way it is prepared and fired cause either hard-wearing ware or fireproof container. Typing shapes according to their group / shape / type, allows to analyse composition of set of pots and pans. Thanks to antic texts we may find how the containers were used and we can piece together what were culinary practices. Furthermore, this study is also a cultural analysis of roman acculturation in south of Gaul. Typology and technique studies enlighten two specific cases: on the one hand, in Western Languedoc – mostly the Narbonne area -, wares have Italic characteristics, and on the other hand, in Eastern Languedoc, wares have traditional characteristics. Nevertheless, from a functional point of view, distribution of shapes points to similar culinary practices, closed to roman practices (examples of Pompéi and Ostie).