To preface this question and try and explain what I'm trying to ask: By "street clutter", I don't only mean trash laying on the street, though that is definitely a type of it. By street clutter, I mean all things that are randomly laying on the streets, that weren't perhaps intended to be there, but are there anyhow.
I am an artist, working on a project set in Rome, the very city, in 50-45 BC. I've drawn streets and city scapes before, and they always have some kind of clutter - I live in Finland, where streets are generally quite tidy, and around here, street clutter consists of random candy/single-package-snack-food wrappers, the occasional lost item of children's clothes, and plantlife, such as fallen leaves in autumn and dropped branches in the spring.
Rome, as I've understood, was a surprisingly tidy city for its time, but looking at reference photos and artists interpretations of what buildings and streets looked like back in the day, they're unnaturally tidy - no city that has people living in it is completely immaculate, pristine and sterile.
Rome of the time naturally did not have plastic wrappers, dropped fast food french fries with seagulls and jackdaws fighting over them, or frequent birch trees both intentionally planted and growing wild around city areas like my familiar modern finnish cities do.
So what kind of street clutter would Rome of the era have had?
Where i live ,that is in Greece, close to my house it is considered and described in ancient texts to be the site of town of ancient city of Aenea,which was inhabited until the founding of thessaloniki by king Cassander.Ok so far so good nothing special just historical facts.
There is an open field owned and unused by red cross foundation where usually dirtbikers go every sunday.They by accident have found a temple of aphrodite there,close by in a field there ,they have found an aristocratic tomb,and some guy in the area while digging to build his house stumbled into a tomb containing a golden crown all have just been moved to a museum .My point is that farmers have been finding pots etc all the time i was walking throught a freshly plowed field and i found pieces pottery (that probably is ancient by the look and paint but i lack the equipment to test) so you know the site of a damn ancient city i dont get why noone cares to dig?
Ok i get it that the goverment might not have the funds to put into that project but seriously noone?I have sent to universities i have sent email to archaelogy department and nothing.And the thing is that we are talking about a mostly uninhabited area so it would make the digs easy its just sad in my perspective
A concrete example would be the ancient city of Troy in modern-day Turkey, but this seems to be the case with other cities as well (Rome, Greece, etc.) Why are earlier parts of the city buried feet under the newer parts, sometimes 20-30 feet? It just doesnβt really make sense to me. Obviously buildings donβt last forever and need to be rebuilt over time, but wouldnβt they be rebuilt at the same grade? Why are entire buildings of ancient Rome underneath of modern-day Rome?
I understand that some ancient empires - like Rome or the Hellenistic Kingdoms - were known for being cosmopolitan, with people from all over the empire intermingling in the largest cities. Was this also the case for the Achaemenids, Parthians, or Sassanians?
In my world, there are many such Cities; Fortresses built from rocky stone, hewn from glass, and carved into the clouds.
The City of Khil'Ssyr
Khil'Ssyr was the Main Frontier of the Khassyrian Empire that conquered the South. Their City was placed beyond the Dunes of Al'Aram, blocking itself from the rest of the world if not for the access to the sea. The City was built from great columns of Obsidian that was dug deep into the earth by the Magi of the Khassyrians, and from there they were capable of setting up Watch Towers that scryed the land around them. Making it nearly impenetrable. Ofcourse, this was when infighting happened, and the Khassyrian Lords started ripping into each other, causing Kinslaying. This is how most of the Kin of Khassyria has been lost though there are certain bloodlines in the South which still have the Old Blood. Khil'Ssyr mainly traded in Driftwood, as well as Zefeer (The crystalized tears of the God of Life Arishkhghal) that is used by the Magi in the Nobility to enhance themselves. Both magically by expanding themselves, and physically by boosting themselves to near-immortality.
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