Over the past thirty years, research on production in the Roman world has grown substantially, part of the renewal of historiographical questions relating to the ancient economy. However, despite an abundance of studies, the links between archaeological research on forms of production and economic history seem to favour studies of trade and the involvement of elites in the economy.

This movement can be reversed by favouring a micro-economic approach, by comparing Pompéi and Délos, two cities located in two regions distant from the Empire and benefiting from a remarkable state of conservation at particular moments in the first centuries of AD. If Pompeii has benefited from a recent renewal on production issues thanks to the work carried out for over ten years by the Centre Jean-Bérard de Naples, knowledge remains, for the imperial period, less reliable at Delos.

This project aims to question the functioning of the ancient urban economy, seen through the prism of production activities. The idea is to compare the productive fabric of two “medium” Mediterranean cities of the Roman Empire, through the study of technical systems and the identification of the production activities taking place on each of the sites. Such a comparative or follow-up trial over a long period of time has, for the moment, never been attempted either at Délos or at Pompeii.  

Beyond the publication of new scientific data obtained through excavation and cleaning campaigns at the two sites, this project will develop a training programme on its methods for young researchers – through seminars on archaeological experimentation, the economic history of techniques and the archaeology of urban production spaces. After four years of research, a travelling exhibition would also present these two major sites to the general public in a new way.