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Recent excavations and survey at the Roman and late antique city of Aeclanum provide important insights into developments across the fourth and fifth centuries CE at this site. Located in the inland region of Hirpinia, on the border of Apulia et Calabria and Campania, Aeclanum was insulated from some of the disasters that plagued the coastal regions in this period. It was, however, struck by two natural disasters: an earthquake in the mid-fourth century and the eruption of Vesuvius in 472 CE. Despite these events, new work suggests that the city remained a vital urban center even into the sixth century. In light of this new evidence, this article explores what the built remains, ceramics, and epigraphy reveal about the changing cityscape, economy, and society of Aeclanum. It further situates this evidence within its regional context to demonstrate how urban living was upheld, even in the face of significant environmental, religious, and administrative change. Our focus is on how human agency—of different forms—is manifest in the material evidence, and how this manifestation varies across available datasets and the networks between them. The availability of different datasets makes it a unique case study in this region and allows us to explore aspects of urban life in greater detail than is possible for many nearby cities. By using a pluralistic approach to material output, these examples reveal that, among some communities, circumstances and events long considered to be catastrophic to urban success were not as absolute as once thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Science Museum has in its East Hall one of the finest collections of steam engines anywhere. The collection has traditionally been interpreted in formal taxonomical terms. However, as the display scheme has become physically fragmented, and the museum's relationship with its visitors has been assessed in new ways, so new approaches to interpreting the collection have been sought. The primary and secondary source review underpinning development of a revised gallery scheme for the East Hall suggested the existence of an 'imaginarium of steam', a body of historic material illustrating how the steam engine exerted an imaginative hold on those who built, worked with, and observed it. The steam engine was as much a symbolic and imaginative machine as it was a tangible one. This is reflected in a rich range of sources, stretching far beyond the technical sources so traditionally and closely identified with the engine. This paper will outline some of these primary sources with particular reference to the museum's collection and other appropriate material culture, and attempt to identify some of their shared characteristics, which together form the imaginarium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]