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Staff Profiles

Dr Thea Ravasi

Visiting Researcher

Background

I am a classical archaeologist whose research explores the architecture, logistics, and spatial organisation of Roman imperial residences and their surrounding landscapes. My work is interdisciplinary, combining architectural analysis, structural archaeology, digital reconstruction, 3D modelling, environmental archaeology, and historical topography within the framework of large area urban research.

My work focuses on the interplay between elite display, servile infrastructure, and resource management within palatial complexes such as Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli and the Sessorian palaces in Rome’s Eastern Caelian. I am currently Principal Investigator of the Peopling Roman Palaces project at Hadrian’s Villa, which investigates the overlooked spaces of the working population and the infrastructures that sustained daily life in imperial residences. I also lead a collaborative study with the University of Calabria on the Economy of imperial construction in Rome and Latium (2nd–5th centuries CE), assessing imperial investment in building materials and construction practices.

As PDRA of the ERC-funded Rome Transformed project, I am co-editing volumes on urban change, thermal and religious architecture, water infrastructure, and courtly logistics from the 1st to 8th centuries CE.


Research profiles and papers

ORCiD

Academia

ResearchGate


Qualifications

  • PhD in Roman Archaeology, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Italy
  • 3Ys Postgraduate Diploma in Classical Archaeology (top achievable marks), Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy
  • 4Ys Degree in Classics and Archaeology (First-class honours), Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy

Honours and Awards

  • 2018, 6 months Fellowship at the British School at Rome (Italy)
  • 2006-2008, Full 3 years PhD scholarship, Università degli Studi di Perugia
  • 2002-2004, Full 3 years scholarship, Scuola di Specializzazione dell’Università degli Studi di Milano
Research

Research Focus

My research spans the Roman West, with a particular focus on Rome, Tivoli, Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Northern Italy, and centres on Roman architecture and its social, political, and cultural dimensions.


Peopling Roman Palaces (2024–ongoing)

As PI of the Peopling Roman Palaces project at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Hadrian’s Villa (Italy), I investigate social hierarchies, security, and lived experience within imperial residences. This research explores the architecture and infrastructure that sustained these vast complexes, shifting attention from the long-celebrated ceremonial quarters to the often-overlooked spaces of the working population (Ravasi in press; Ravasi et al. 2025). By examining how servants, administrators, artisans, and guards inhabited and animated these environments, the project reframes imperial palaces not only as symbols of power but also as dynamic, lived spaces where organisation, innovation, and daily life converged.


Quantifying the economy of Roman imperial architecture (2024-ongoing)

I lead a project stemming from and partially funded by the Rome Transformed research, which addresses another key aspect of imperial architecture: the economy of imperial construction. In collaboration the University of Calabria, the project conducts a large-scale mortar study of imperially sponsored buildings in Rome and Latium from the 2nd to 5th centuries CE, a period marked by intense building activity. Through comparative qualitative and quantitative analysis of lime–volcanic ash mortars, it reconstructs sourcing strategies and levels of imperial economic investment across military, hydraulic, and residential projects. By establishing whether materials were procured centrally and redistributed or obtained locally, the project illuminates the organisation and transformation of the imperial construction economy from the High Empire to Late Antiquity. It also compares results from imperial residences with elite properties on the Eastern Caelian to assess their possible integration within imperial building networks (Ravasi, Larussa et al. in press).


Rome Transformed (2019–2025)

As PDRA of the Rome Transformed project, I studied the transformation of the urban layout of Rome’s Eastern Caelian between the 1st and 8th centuries CE. My work focused particularly on data integration and visualisation (Haynes, Ravasi et al. 2023), the design of the Sessorian Palace (Ravasi, T., & A. De Santis, eds. in preparation. The Sessorian Palace in Rome: Unravelling Transformation of an Imperial Residence in Rome’s Eastern Caelian. Oxford: Archaeopress), elite housing (Ravasi in press; Ravasi, T. & P. Liverani, eds. in preparation. The Multifaceted Nature of Rome’s Eastern Caelian: Transformations of a Residential District from Suburban to Urban. Oxford: Archaeopress), and the Late Antique transformations of the Lateran Baptistery from a thermal complex into a religious building (paper in preparation).


Roman Collecting and Displaying Practices

My interest in the design of sculptural display and collecting practices in Roman imperial residences stems from my PhD research on the sculptural display of Hadrian's Villa (Ravasi 2015a; Ravasi 2015b) and continues to inform current scholarship (e.g. Elsner 2018; Vout 2018; Beard 2023; Wheeler 2025). A new article reassesses collecting and relic display as mechanisms of imperial authority in Christianised Rome and Constantinople (Ravasi submitted).


Romanisation, Trade and Economy in Northern Italy during the Republic and Early Empire

My research also extends to Romanisation and the economy in Northern Italy, investigating broader transformations in production and consumption as suggested by the distribution of oil, wine, and garum fish sauce from the Republican period to the 2nd century CE. I have published extensively on Roman trade and economy in the Po Valley and on Roman Republican and early Imperial amphorae from the colony of Cremona (please check my publications here).

Teaching

PhD supervisions:


I have taught the following modules:

  • (UG) CAC1012 Classical art and archaeology 
  • (UG) ARA2091 The Archaeology of the Roman Empire  
  • (MA) ARA8050 Graduate Seminar in Roman Archaeology
Publications