In our ancient sources, signs of women’s influence on their local surroundings are everywhere, from the bricks produced from the estate of Domitia Lucilla Minor to the “For Rent” notices painted outside the Praedia of Julia Felix in Pompeii and images on reliefs and vase paintings depicting women tavern keepers, fruit sellers, and oil vendors. It is clear from both the material and literary evidence that women participated in a range of industrial activities and influenced the economic landscape in critical ways (e.g., Holleran 2013; Kennedy 2014; Becker 2016), yet they are often underplayed or go unmentioned in ancient sources.

The increased attention on women in the ancient economy has coincided with the rise of female scholars working on the social and economic history of the ancient world. This demographic shift has already generated some discussion (Bowes 2021) about the ways we approach social and economic history and whether changing perspectives and approaches can yield new insights. Although the number of women in leadership roles in archaeology is slowly climbing, it is not keeping pace with the growing number of women who are joining the field, on excavations and in graduate programs (Hamilton 2014).

This panel explores women’s roles in the ancient economy and also the female scholars today who study the ancient economy. The former—from laborers working in or out of the house to wealthy women who finance public buildings—provide a rich landscape of underexplored data (artifacts, inscriptions, documentary texts). The latter—on the growing number of women working on ancient economic studies, traditionally a male-dominated field—prompts us to reflect on how emerging voices can steer the field in new directions.

Introduction

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