New Directions in Urban Planning in the Ancient Mediterranean assembles the most up-to-date research on the design and construction of ancient cities in the wider Mediterranean. In particular, this edited collection reappraises and sheds light on 'lost' Classical plans. Whether intentional or not, each ancient plan has the capacity to embody specific messages linked to such notions as heritage and identity. Over millennia, cities may be divested of their buildings and monuments, and can experience periods of dramatic rebuilding, but their plans often have the capacity to endure. As such, this volume focuses on Greek and Roman grid traces - both literal and figurative. This rich selection of innovative studies explores the ways that urban plans can assimilate into the collective memory of cities and smaller settlements. In doing so, it also highlights how collective memory adapts to or is altered by the introduction of re-aligned plans and newly constructed monuments.

New Directions in Urban Planning in the Ancient Mediterranean assembles the most up-to-date research on the design and construction of ancient cities in the wider Mediterranean. In particular, this edited collection reappraises and sheds light on 'lost' Classical plans. Whether intentional or not, each ancient plan has the capacity to embody specific messages linked to such notions as heritage and identity. Over millennia, cities may be divested of their buildings and monuments, and can experience periods of dramatic rebuilding, but their plans often have the capacity to endure. As such, this volume focuses on Greek and Roman grid traces - both literal and figurative. This rich selection of innovative studies explores the ways that urban plans can assimilate into the collective memory of cities and smaller settlements. In doing so, it also highlights how collective memory adapts to or is altered by the introduction of re-aligned plans and newly constructed monuments.

Vitruvius lived within spaces that contained implicit architectural codes for him to ponder. He prescribed Roman architecture not as he saw it, but rather, as he imagined it. The Roman architect lived within an urban setting that was highly dynamic and not readily interpreted. Notions related to specific and ideal spaces were stored within the minds of builders and in turn shaped, according to a particular set of pre-existing cultural and built traditions. The corresponding looseness that characterizes the writing of Vitruvius has rendered increasingly imaginative interpretations. Through transcriptions, translations, emendations and the eventual inclusion of drawings, the transformed book has enabled the classical imagination to become fused to memories of what monuments should be. The difficulties arise when the architects and archaeologists of today, eager to convince themselves and others of their theoretic, forget that the architectural memory residing in the minds of Vitruvius and his architect colleagues remains elusive. Memory was key within the building trades and memory is thus part of our key in interpreting De architectura.