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This is a special edition of an established title widely used by colleges and
GLOBAL universities throughout the world. Pearson published this exclusive edition
for the benefit of students outside the United States and Canada. If you
GLOBAL
EDITION purchased this book within the United States or Canada, you should be aware EDITION
EDITION
GLOB AL
that it has been imported without the approval of the Publisher or Author.
Features
• Many fundamental ideas of linear algebra are introduced early, in the concrete setting of
n
, and then gradually examined from different points of view.
• Utilizing a modern view of matrix multiplication simplifies many arguments and ties
vector space ideas into the study of linear systems.
• Every major concept is given a geometric interpretation to help students learn better by
visualizing the idea.
• Keeping with the recommendations of the original LACSG, because orthogonality plays an
important role in computer calculations and numerical linear algebra, and because inconsistent
linear systems arise so often in practical work, this title includes a comprehensive treatment
of both orthogonality and the least-squares problem.
• Projects at the end of each chapter on a wide range of themes (including using linear
transformations to create art and detecting and correcting errors in encoded messages) enhance
EDITION
student learning.
SIXTH
• NEW! Reasonable Answers advice and exercises encourage students to ensure their computations
are consistent with the data at hand and the questions being asked.
Available separately for purchase is MyLab Math for Linear Algebra and Its Applications, the teaching Linear Algebra and Its Applications
Linear Algebra
and Its Applications
G L O B A L E D I T I O N
David C. Lay
University of Maryland–College Park
Steven R. Lay
Lee University
Judi J. McDonald
Washington State University
Pearson Education Limited
KAO Two
KAO Park
Hockham Way
Harlow
Essex
CM17 9SR
United Kingdom
The rights of David C. Lay, Steven R. Lay, and Judi J. McDonald to be identified as the authors of this work have been
asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Authorized adaptation from the United States edition, entitled Linear Algebra and Its Applications, 6th Edition, ISBN
978-0-13-585125-8 by David C. Lay, Steven R. Lay, and Judi J. McDonald, published by Pearson Education © 2021.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
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remove any material in this eBook at any time.
David C. Lay
3
4 About the Authors
Steven R. Lay
Steven R. Lay began his teaching career at Aurora University (Illinois) in 1971, after
earning an M.A. and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California at Los
Angeles. His career in mathematics was interrupted for eight years while serving as a
missionary in Japan. Upon his return to the States in 1998, he joined the mathematics
faculty at Lee University (Tennessee) and has been there ever since. Since then he has
supported his brother David in refining and expanding the scope of this popular linear
algebra text, including writing most of Chapters 8 and 9. Steven is also the author of three
college-level mathematics texts: Convex Sets and Their Applications, Analysis with an
Introduction to Proof, and Principles of Algebra.
In 1985, Steven received the Excellence in Teaching Award at Aurora University.
He and David, and their father, Dr. L. Clark Lay, are all distinguished mathematicians,
and in 1989, they jointly received the Outstanding Alumnus award from their alma
mater, Aurora University. In 2006, Steven was honored to receive the Excellence in
Scholarship Award at Lee University. He is a member of the American Mathematical
Society, the Mathematics Association of America, and the Association of Christians in
the Mathematical Sciences.
Judi J. McDonald
Judi J. McDonald became a co-author on the fifth edition, having worked closely with
David on the fourth edition. She holds a B.Sc. in Mathematics from the University
of Alberta, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. As a professor
of Mathematics, she has more than 40 publications in linear algebra research journals
and more than 20 students have completed graduate degrees in linear algebra under her
supervision. She is an associate dean of the Graduate School at Washington State Uni-
versity and a former chair of the Faculty Senate. She has worked with the mathematics
outreach project Math Central (http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/) and is a member of the
second Linear Algebra Curriculum Study Group (LACSG 2.0).
Judi has received three teaching awards: two Inspiring Teaching awards at the Uni-
versity of Regina, and the Thomas Lutz College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Award at
Washington State University. She also received the College of Arts and Sciences Insti-
tutional Service Award at Washington State University. Throughout her career, she has
been an active member of the International Linear Algebra Society and the Association
for Women in Mathematics. She has also been a member of the Canadian Mathematical
Society, the American Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America,
and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
Contents
5
6 Contents
Appendixes
A Uniqueness of the Reduced Echelon Form 597
B Complex Numbers 599
Credits 604
Glossary 605
Answers to Odd-Numbered Exercises A-1
Index I-1
Applications Index
Biology and Ecology Color monitors, 178 Series and shunt circuits, 161
Estimating systolic blood pressure, 422 Computer graphics, 122, 171–177, Transfer matrix, 161–162, 163
Laboratory animal trials, 367 498–500
Molecular modeling, 173–174 Cray supercomputer, 153 Engineering
Net primary production of nutrients, Data storage, 66, 163 Aircraft performance, 422, 437
418–419 Error-detecting and error-correcting Boeing Blended Wing Body, 122
Nutrition problems, 109–111, 115 codes, 447, 471 Cantilevered beam, 293
Predator-prey system, 336–337, 343 Game theory, 519 CFD and aircraft design, 121–122
Spotted owls and stage-matrix models, High-end computer graphics boards, 176 Deflection of an elastic beam, 137, 144
297–298, 341–343 Homogeneous coordinates, 172–173, 174 Deformation of a material, 482
Business and Economics Parallel processing, 25, 132 Equilibrium temperatures, 36, 116–117,
Accelerator-multiplier model, 293 Perspective projections, 175–176 193
Average cost curve, 418–419 Vector pipeline architecture, 153 Feedback controls, 519
Car rental fleet, 116, 368 Virtual reality, 174 Flexibility and stiffness matrices, 137,
Cost vectors, 57 VLSI microchips, 150 144
Equilibrium prices, 77–79, 82 Wire-frame models, 121, 171 Heat conduction, 164
Exchange table, 82 Image processing, 441–442, 473–474,
Feasible set, 460, 562 Control Theory 479
Gross domestic product, 170 Controllable system, 296 LU factorization and airflow, 122
Indifference curves, 460–461 Control systems engineering, 155 Moving average filter, 293
Intermediate demand, 165 Decoupled system, 340, 346, 349 Superposition principle, 95, 98, 112
Investment, 294 Deep space probe, 155
Leontief exchange model, 25, 77–79 State-space model, 296, 335 Mathematics
Leontief input–output model, 25, Steady-state response, 335 Area and volume, 195–196, 215–217
165–171 Transfer function (matrix), 155 Attractors/repellers in a dynamical
Linear programming, 26, 111–112, 153, system, 338, 341, 343, 347, 351
484, 519, 522, 560–566 Electrical Engineering Bessel’s inequality, 438
Loan amortization schedule, 293 Branch and loop currents, 111–112 Best approximation in function spaces,
Manufacturing operations, 57, 96 Circuit design, 26, 160 426–427
Marginal propensity to consume, 293 Current flow in networks, 111–112, Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, 427
Markov chains, 311, 359–368, C-1–C-63 115–116 Conic sections and quadratic surfaces,
Maximizing utility subject to a budget Discrete-time signals, 228, 279–280 481
constraint, 460–461 Inductance-capacitance circuit, 242 Differential equations, 242, 345–347
Population movement, 113, 115–116, Kirchhoff’s laws, 161 Fourier series, 434–436
311, 361 Ladder network, 161, 163–164 Hermite polynomials, 272
Price equation, 170 Laplace transforms, 155, 213 Hypercube, 527–529
Total cost curve, 419 Linear filters, 287–288 Interpolating polynomials, 49, 194
Value added vector, 170 Low-pass filter, 289, 413 Isomorphism, 188, 260–261
Variable cost model, 421 Minimal realization, 162 Jacobian matrix, 338
Computers and Computer Science Ohm’s law, 111–113, 161 Laguerre polynomials, 272
Bézier curves and surfaces, 509, 531–532 RC circuit, 346–347 Laplace transforms, 155, 213
CAD, 537, 541 RLC circuit, 254 Legendre polynomials, 430
Page numbers denoted with “C” are found within the online chapter 10
Linear transformations in calculus, 241, QR algorithm, 312–313, 357 Radar data, 155
324–325 QR factorization, 403–404, 405, 413, 438 Seismic data, 25
Simplex, 525–527 Rank-revealing factorization, 163, 296, Space probe, 155
Splines, 531–534, 540–541 481 Steady-state heat flow, 36, 164
Triangle inequality, 427 Rayleigh quotient, 358, 439 Superposition principle, 95, 98, 112
Trigonometric polynomials, 434 Relative error, 439 Three-moment equation, 293
Schur complement, 154 Traffic flow, 80
Numerical Linear Algebra Schur factorization, 439
Trend surface, 419
Band matrix, 164 Singular value decomposition, 163,
Weather, 367
Block diagonal matrix, 153, 334 463–473
Wind tunnel experiment, 49
Cholesky factorization, 454–455, 481 Sparse matrix, 121, 168, 206
Companion matrix, 371 Spectral decomposition, 446–447
Condition number, 147, 149, 211, 439, Spectral factorization, 163 Statistics
469 Tridiagonal matrix, 164 Analysis of variance, 408, 422
Effective rank, 190, 271, 465 Vandermonde matrix, 194, 371 Covariance, 474–476, 477, 478, 479
Floating point arithmetic, 33, 45, 221 Vector pipeline architecture, 153 Full rank, 465
Fundamental subspaces, 379, 439, Least-squares error, 409
469–470 Physical Sciences Least-squares line, 413, 414–416
Givens rotation, 119 Cantilevered beam, 293 Linear model in statistics, 414–420
Gram matrix, 482 Center of gravity, 60 Markov chains, 359–360
Gram–Schmidt process, 405 Chemical reactions, 79, 83 Mean-deviation form for data, 417, 475
Hilbert matrix, 149 Crystal lattice, 257, 263 Moore-Penrose inverse, 471
Householder reflection, 194 Decomposing a force, 386 Multichannel image processing,
Ill-conditioned matrix (problem), 147 Gaussian elimination, 37 441–442, 473–479
Inverse power method, 356–357 Hooke’s law, 137 Multiple regression, 419–420
Iterative methods, 353–359 Interpolating polynomial, 49, 194
Orthogonal polynomials, 427
Jacobi’s method for eigenvalues, 312 Kepler’s first law, 422
Orthogonal regression, 480–481
LAPACK, 132, 153 Landsat image, 441–442
Powers of a matrix, 129
Large-scale problems, 119, 153 Linear models in geology and geography,
LU factorization, 157–158, 162–163, 164 419–420 Principal component analysis, 441–442,
Operation counts, 142, 158, 160, 206 Mass estimates for radioactive 476–477
Outer products, 133, 152 substances, 421 Quadratic forms in statistics, 449
Parallel processing, 25 Mass-spring system, 233, 254 Regression coefficients, 415
Partial pivoting, 42, 163 Model for glacial cirques, 419 Sums of squares (in regression), 422,
Polar decomposition, 482 Model for soil pH, 419 431–432
Power method, 353–356 Pauli spin matrices, 194 Trend analysis, 433–434
Powers of a matrix, 129 Periodic motion, 328 Variance, 422, 475–476
Pseudoinverse, 470, 482 Quadratic forms in physics, 449–454 Weighted least-squares, 424, 431–432
This page is intentionally left blank
Preface
The response of students and teachers to the first five editions of Linear Algebra and Its
Applications has been most gratifying. This Sixth Edition provides substantial support
both for teaching and for using technology in the course. As before, the text provides
a modern elementary introduction to linear algebra and a broad selection of interesting
classical and leading-edge applications. The material is accessible to students with the
maturity that should come from successful completion of two semesters of college-level
mathematics, usually calculus.
The main goal of the text is to help students master the basic concepts and skills they
will use later in their careers. The topics here follow the recommendations of the original
Linear Algebra Curriculum Study Group (LACSG), which were based on a careful
investigation of the real needs of the students and a consensus among professionals in
many disciplines that use linear algebra. Ideas being discussed by the second Linear
Algebra Curriculum Study Group (LACSG 2.0) have also been included. We hope this
course will be one of the most useful and interesting mathematics classes taken by
undergraduates.
Content Changes
• Since matrix multiplication is a highly useful skill, we added new examples in Chap-
ter 2 to show how matrix multiplication is used to identify patterns and scrub data.
Corresponding exercises have been created to allow students to explore using matrix
multiplication in various ways.
• In our conversations with colleagues in industry and electrical engineering, we heard
repeatedly how important understanding abstract vector spaces is to their work. After
reading the reviewers’ comments for Chapter 4, we reorganized the chapter, condens-
ing some of the material on column, row, and null spaces; moving Markov chains to
the end of Chapter 5; and creating a new section on signal processing. We view signals
12
Preface 13
as an infinite dimensional vector space and illustrate the usefulness of linear trans-
formations to filter out unwanted “vectors” (a.k.a. noise), analyze data, and enhance
signals.
• By moving Markov chains to the end of Chapter 5, we can now discuss the steady
state vector as an eigenvector. We also reorganized some of the summary material on
determinants and change of basis to be more specific to the way they are used in this
chapter.
• In Chapter 6, we present pattern recognition as an application of orthogonality, and
the section on linear models now illustrates how machine learning relates to curve
fitting.
• Chapter 9 on optimization was previously available only as an online file. It has now
been moved into the regular textbook where it is more readily available to faculty and
students. After an opening section on finding optimal strategies to two-person zero-
sum games, the rest of the chapter presents an introduction to linear programming—
from two-dimensional problems that can be solved geometrically to higher dimen-
sional problems that are solved using the Simplex Method.
Other Changes
• In the high-tech industry, where most computations are done on computers, judging
the validity of information and computations is an important step in preparing and
analyzing data. In this edition, students are encouraged to learn to analyze their own
computations to see if they are consistent with the data at hand and the questions being
asked. For this reason, we have added “Reasonable Answers” advice and exercises to
guide students.
• We have added a list of projects to the end of each chapter (available online and in
MyLab Math). Some of these projects were previously available online and have a
wide range of themes from using linear transformations to create art to exploring
additional ideas in mathematics. They can be used for group work or to enhance the
learning of individual students.
• PowerPoint lecture slides have been updated to cover all sections of the text and cover
them more thoroughly.
Distinctive Features
Early Introduction of Key Concepts
Many fundamental ideas of linear algebra are introduced within the first seven lectures,
in the concrete setting of Rn , and then gradually examined from different points of view.
Later generalizations of these concepts appear as natural extensions of familiar ideas,
visualized through the geometric intuition developed in Chapter 1. A major achievement
of this text is that the level of difficulty is fairly even throughout the course.
Linear Transformations
Linear transformations form a “thread” that is woven into the fabric of the text. Their
use enhances the geometric flavor of the text. In Chapter 1, for instance, linear transfor-
mations provide a dynamic and graphical view of matrix–vector multiplication.
Pedagogical Features
Applications
A broad selection of applications illustrates the power of linear algebra to explain
fundamental principles and simplify calculations in engineering, computer science,
mathematics, physics, biology, economics, and statistics. Some applications appear
in separate sections; others are treated in examples and exercises. In addition, each
chapter opens with an introductory vignette that sets the stage for some application
of linear algebra and provides a motivation for developing the mathematics that
follows.
Examples
This text devotes a larger proportion of its expository material to examples than do most
linear algebra texts. There are more examples than an instructor would ordinarily present
in class. But because the examples are written carefully, with lots of detail, students can
read them on their own.
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
know what sort of documentation to expect on religious matters
from an Etruscan tomb, by extrapolating back from rites which the
Romans believed they had inherited from Etruria, especially in the
area of foretelling the future by examining the livers of animals
(hepatoscopy) or observing the flights of birds (augury). One of the
most curious surviving documents of Etruscan superstition is the
bronze model of a sheep’s liver (Fig. 2.10) found in 1877 near
Piacenza, on the upper Po, and now in the Civic Museum there. The
liver is split in two lengthwise. From the plane surface thus provided
three lobes project. The plane surface itself is subdivided into
sixteen compartments (Fig. 2.11); over each compartment a god
presides. The same sixteen subdivisions were used in the imaginary
partition of the sky for augury, and the same principle governed the
layout and orientation of cities like Marzabotto and probably Spina.
The same superstition found in Babylonia directs our attention once
more to the probable Near Eastern origin of the Etruscan ruling
class. The priest would take his position at the cross-point of the
intended cardo and decumanus of the city, facing south (we recall
that the three-celled temple on the arx at Marzabotto faces south).
The half of the city behind him was called in Latin the pars
postica (posterior part), the part in front of him the pars antica
(anterior part); on his left was the pars familiaris (the lucky side;
hence thunder on the left was a good omen) on his right the pars
hostilis (unlucky). To the subdivision of the earth below
corresponded a similar subdivision of the sky above; either was
called in Latin (using a concept clearly derived from Etruscan
practice) a templum, “part cut off,” a sacred precinct, terrestrial or
celestial. From the Piacenza liver and the orientation of Marzabotto
we can deduce both the orderliness of the Etruscan mind and the
ease with which it degenerated into rigidity and superstition. For this
deadly heritage the Etruscans apparently found in the Romans
willing recipients; often, but not always, for old Cato said, “I cannot
see how one liver-diviner can meet another without laughing in his
face.”
Fig. 2.12 Potentiometer profile. The high points on the graph
show where hollowed tomb-chambers exist under ground.
(ENIT, Italy’s Life, p. 106)
Other finds cast further light. The Capua tile prescribes funerary
offerings to the gods of the underworld. An inscribed lead plaque
from near Populonia is a curse tablet, in which a woman urges
Charun or another infernal deity, Tuchulcha, to bring his gruesome
horrors to bear on members of her family whose death she ardently
desires. Bronze statuettes give details of priestly dress (conical cap
tied under the chin, fringed cloak) or show Hermes, Escorter of
Souls, going arm-in-arm with the deceased to the world below. The
total picture is one of a deeply religious, even superstitious people,
attaching particular importance to the formalities of their ritual
relations with their gods, and obsessed with the after life, of which
they take a progressively gloomier view as their material prosperity
declines.
* * * * *
What can archaeology tell us about Etruscan cultural life? Of art
for art’s sake there seems to have been very little, of literature none,
except for liturgical texts. The Etruscans excelled in fine large-scale
bronze work, like the famous Chimaera of Arezzo or the Capitoline
Wolf, but their minor masterpieces in bronze deserve mention also,
especially the engraved mirrors, the cylindrical cosmetic boxes called
ciste, and the statuettes whose attenuated bodies appeal strongly to
modern taste. Their painting at its best shows in its economy of line
how intelligently they borrowed from the Greeks, in its realism how
sturdily they maintained their own individuality. In architecture,
Etruscan temples, having been made of wood, do not survive above
their foundation courses, but recent discoveries of terracotta temple-
models at Vulci tell us something about their appearance, and
masses of their terracotta revetment survive, brightly-painted
geometric, vegetable, or mythological motifs, designs to cover
beams, mask the ends of half-round roof tiles, or (in pierced
patterns called à jour crestings) to follow the slope of a gable roof.
Made from molds, the motifs could be infinitely repeated at small
expense, an aspect of Etruscan practicality which was to appeal
strongly to the Romans.
But the Etruscans’ artistic genius shows at the best in their
architectural sculpture in painted terracotta, free-standing or in high
relief. Their best-known masterpiece in this genre is the Apollo of
Veii (Fig. 2.16), designed for the ridgepole of an archaic temple.
Discovered in 1916, it is now in the Villa Giulia museum in Rome.
The stylized treatment of the ringlets, the almond eyes, the fixed
smile are all characteristic of archaic Greek art, and the fine edges of
the profile, lips, and eyebrows suggest an original in bronze. But this
is no mere copy. It is the work of a great original artist, probably the
same Vulca of Veii who was commissioned in the late sixth century
B.C. to do the terracottas for the Capitoline temple in Rome. The
sculptor is telling the story of the struggle between Apollo and
Hercules for the Hind of Ceryneia: the god is shown as he tenses
himself to spring upon his opponent; the anatomical knowledge, the
expression of mass in motion, and the craftsmanship required to
cast a life-size terracotta (a feat which even now presents the
greatest technical difficulties) are all alike remarkable.
A set of antefixes (used, as we have seen, to cover the ends of
half-round roof-tiles), from the archaic temple at Satricum in Latium,
in the same museum, are noteworthy for their humor. They
represent a series of nymphs pursued by satyrs. The satyrs are
clearly not quite sober, and the nymphs are far from reluctant. In a
particularly fine piece (Fig. 2.17) the satyr frightens the nymph with
a snake which he holds in his left hand, while he slips his right hand
over her shoulder to caress her breast. Her gestures are almost
certainly not those of a maiden who would repel a man’s advances.
Fig. 2.16 Rome, Villa Giulia Museum.
Apollo of Veii, terracotta. (MPI)
Fig. 2.17 Rome, Villa Giulia Museum. Terracotta antefix of
satyr and nymph, from Satricum. (MPI)
* * * * *
Fig. 2.18 Tarquinia, Museum. Winged horses, terracotta relief, from
Ara della Regina. (MPI)
Fig. 2.19 Cerveteri: Tomb of the Reliefs, interior. (MPI)
Early Rome
Everyone remembers that Augustus left Rome a city of marble, but too few
people recall that he found it a city of brick. The picture of Rome in most
people’s minds is of a marble metropolis, proud mistress of a Mediterranean
Empire. This to be sure she eventually became, but the archaeological
evidence is that until the end of the third century B.C. Rome looked tawdry, with
patched temples and winding, unpaved streets. To trace the development is
fascinating, and archaeology is our chief guide.
The story that we read from the earth begins not in Rome itself but in the
Alban Hills, extinct volcanoes in the Roman Campagna, sixteen miles southeast
of Rome, close to Castel Gandolfo, the lovely lakeside spot where nowadays
the Pope has his summer palace. Here, in a pastureland called the Pascolare di
Castello, some peasants in 1817 were cutting trenches for planting vineyards.
Under the topsoil of the Alban Hills is a thick bed of solid lava, called tufa,
which seals in a layer of ashes. In digging their trench the peasants cut
through the lava seal and revealed large dolia, jars of rough clay, each of
which contained, in an urn shaped like a miniature oval hut, the ashes of a
cremation burial, together with fibulae, objects in amber and bronze, and
numerous vases. It was not until fifty years later that a committee of experts,
including the same Pigorini who afterwards overstepped his evidence about the
terremare, first connected the burials with the city of Alba Longa, traditionally
founded in the mists of prehistory by the son of Aeneas. In 1902, in cremation
graves from a necropolis to which we shall return, on the edge of the Roman
Forum itself, hut-urns and artifacts were found so similar to those from the
Pascolare that the inference of cultural connection was inescapable. Whether
Alba Longa was the metropolis and Rome the colony, as stated by the literary
sources, or the other way about, was not evident from the artifacts.
A necropolis or graveyard implies an inhabited site. The inhabited site of
Alba Longa was destroyed by the Romans about 600 B.C. Where was the
inhabited site that used the Forum in Rome as a necropolis? It could hardly
have been the Forum itself, which was a swamp not drained and fit for
habitation until about 575 B.C., a date which, as we shall see, marks the end of
the necropolis. Could it have been the Palatine Hill which rises from the south
side of the Forum? At first sight it seemed unlikely that any evidence for
prehistoric habitation could be found on the Palatine, since the hill was covered
with the substructures of Imperial palaces. But beneath these as early as 1724
were found the remains of the mansions of Republican nabobs (recorded in
literature, too, as having lived here), and beneath these in turn why should
there not lie the traces of even earlier dwellings? Vergil had pictured Aeneas
humbly entertained on the Palatine by Evander, and lodged in a hut with
swallows under the eaves. Excavations published in 1906 by the great Italian
archaeologist G. Boni (who lived in a villa on the Palatine, and whose memorial
bust appropriately adorns the Farnese Gardens there) found under the Flavian
Palace traces of huts containing artifacts matching those found in the Forum
necropolis.
These artifacts fell into two phases. The first included the rough handmade
pottery called impasto, which we have already seen to be characteristic of
Villanovan sites; serpentine fibulae (which match those found in the First
Benacci period at Bologna); ware incised with a clamshell in dogtooth,
meander, and swastika patterns, or with a rope-like clay appliqué; pierced
beads, spools, and a curious kind of Dutch oven with a perforated top,
examples of which were known from the Forum necropolis and the Alban Hills,
but not elsewhere. Artifacts of a different and more developed type, belonging,
therefore, to a second phase, included pots with thinner walls, sharper profiles
(as seen in elevation drawings), and more complicated handles; they are
decorated with spirals and semicircles, apparently compass-drawn. There was
even a miniature clay sheepdog, his curly coat represented by circles
impressed with a metal tube or a hollow reed. Such artifacts match those
found in the evolved Villanovan culture, dated in the first half of the sixth
century B.C. This culture is contemporary with a rich, sophisticated one in
Etruria, but the techniques in Rome and its vicinity are much more primitive
than in Etruria. We conclude that the Palatine village was infinitely less
prosperous than, say, the contemporary Etruscan cities of Caere or Tarquinia.
But equally primitive artifacts are found in the Alban Hills burials, certain tombs
on the Quirinal and Esquiline Hills in Rome (discovered when the city expanded
after Italy’s unification in the 1870’s), and in burials in hollowed-out tree-trunks
from the Forum necropolis, the latter now on display in the Forum
Antiquarium.
In 1907 D. Vaglieri began excavations in the southwest corner of the
Palatine which revealed cuttings in the rock. These were actually, though
Vaglieri did not recognize them as such, cuttings for early Iron Age huts, the
date being an inference from the artifacts, whose stratification Vaglieri did not
record. After a sharp controversy with Pigorini (whose prestige, because of
public interest in the terremare, was then at its height), the dig was
suspended, leaving one but half-excavated. Here, in this intact area,
excavations were resumed in 1948 by a younger specialist in the prehistoric
archaeology of Italy, S. M. Puglisi. This time, the methods were rigorously
scientific, and the cultural strata were observed and recorded with meticulous
care. Puglisi recognized that a scientific dig requires the constant presence on
the site during working hours of a competent archaeologist; no precise results
can ever be obtained by an excavation director who visits his site only a couple
of times a week, since unsupervised workmen can hardly be expected to
respect levels of stratification, preserve the right artifacts, or keep accurate
excavation notebooks, without which, of course, no scientifically valid
conclusions can be drawn.
In the area left undug by Vaglieri, Puglisi was able to distinguish five levels,
which have been schematically reproduced on the walls of the Palatine
Antiquarium. The top level consisted of nine feet of ancient dump. But the four
levels beneath the dump amounted to six-and-a-half feet of compact,
undisturbed strata, of which the bottom eight inches represented what had
collected on the hut floor while it was still in use. Here the sherds were very
tiny, for they had been walked on, it being the regular practice of Iron Age
man—and woman—to live comfortably in the midst of their own debris. The
hearth (one of the Dutch ovens was discovered in fragments in situ) was near
the center of the hut, very close to a cutting for a central supporting post—the
first evidence ever found for such construction. But there was no danger of
setting the central post on fire, since the cooking flame was entirely enclosed
within the clay of the oven. Bits of fallen wattle-and-daub revealed the wall-
construction. There were animal bones and impasto sherds bearing the marks
of fire, but none of the shiny black pottery called bucchero (the best examples
of which are rarely found in Rome in contexts earlier than 700 B.C.) and no
painted ware. This level, then, belonged to the first phase of the Iron Age,
dated, by parallels with the finds from beneath the Flavian Palace, about 800–
700 B.C. (The traditional date of Rome’s founding is 753.) The lowest level
being so shallow, and the sherds showing the marks of fire, the inference is
that the hut had not been occupied very long before it was burned down.
The contents of the next superimposed level, two feet deep, show that the
site was next used as a kitchen-midden or refuse-heap. Here the deposits
resemble those from a well (dug long ago but never described in a detailed
scientific article), in the sanctuary of Vesta in the Forum, which is dated in the
second phase of the Iron Age (700–550 B.C.), corresponding in the tradition to
A
the reigns of the five Roman Kings from Numa to Servius Tullius. These finds
include polished impasto, with high or twisted handles and out-turned rims;
slat-smoothed ware covered with a thin coating or engobe of reddish clay,
ornamented with double spirals and palmettes, and of a size to fit on the Dutch
ovens; sherds of fine bucchero (the first evidence of imports from Etruria), and
of a coarser grey local imitation; painted ware, of the style known as sub-
Geometric, imported from south Italy, and also some local imitations identified
by their cruder technique.
A
It will be convenient to record here for future reference
the traditional dates (B.C.) of Rome’s seven kings:
Romulus: 753– Etruscan Dynasty:
716
Numa Pompilius: Tarquinius
716–672 Priscus: 616–
578
Tullus Hostilius: Servius Tullius:
672–640 578–534
Ancus Marcius: Tarquinius
640–616 Superbus:
534–509
The next higher level shows fat-bodied “bloodsucker” fibulae, and flanged
tiles, some with horses molded in low relief, betraying a completely different
and more sophisticated building technique, like that used in Etruscan temples.
The artifacts matched those found in the level under the late Republican House
of the Griffins and under the “House of Livia” on the Palatine, and in the upper
strata of the shrine of Vesta well; they are associated with the huts built in the
Forum after it was drained; that is, with a transitional period after about 575
B.C. The lower date suggested by the archaeological finds for this second phase
corresponds to the dates assigned by the literary tradition to Rome’s Etruscan
kings, Tarquin I, Servius Tullius, and Tarquin the Proud.
The hut itself (Fig. 3.1) was a large one (12 × 16 feet), sunk about a yard
into the tufa of the hill, with six cuttings for the perimetral posts, two for a
front porch, and one for the central support. The cuttings, averaging fifteen
inches in diameter, are wider than is necessary for posts to support so flimsy a
structure; the logs were probably held upright by wooden or stone wedges.
The hut, reconstructed, represents a historical fact very much like what Vergil
had in mind when he described the sleeping quarters assigned by Evander to
Aeneas, and such capanne can be found in out-of-the-way places of the
countryside near Rome even today. Lucretius, Vergil, and Livy all knew what a
Bronze and an Iron Age meant; their generation venerated a replica of the
“Hut of Romulus” on the Palatine. It suited Augustus’ propaganda purpose to
stress Rome’s rise from humble origins; so, too, to us, archaeology’s picture of
Rome’s primitive beginnings may well make the story of her later expansion
seem more impressive, and her domination of subject peoples less
overbearing.
* * * * *
Fig. 3.1 Rome, Palatine. Prehistoric hut, reconstruction.
(G. Davico, Monumenti Antichi 41 [1951], p. 130)
Fig. 3.2 Rome, Forum necropolis, showing cremation and
inhumation graves. (MPI)
* * * * *
On top of the Forum necropolis, when the swamp was drained, huts were
built. The archaeological evidence for this phase of early Rome’s history was
provided by Boni’s stratigraphic excavation (recently confirmed by the Swede
Einar Gjerstad) to the northwest of the site of the equestrian statue of the
Emperor Domitian in the middle of the Forum. Gjerstad dug a trench sixteen
feet long and eleven feet wide, down to virgin soil, which he found nineteen
feet below the present Forum level. On the earth wall of the trench the story of
the centuries could be read in the successive levels (Figs. 3.3 and 3.4).
Between levels three and nineteen, six pavements could be counted, but level
nineteen takes us, to judge by the pots found in it, only back to about 450 B.C.
In layers twenty to twenty-two, Gjerstad found three pebble pavements, which
he dates about 575 B.C. If he is right in assigning to this date the beginning of
monarchic Rome, he has pushed its date down in our direction over 150 years
from the traditional 753 B.C. But there is more history below this. Strata twenty-
three to twenty-eight are remains of huts, similar to but (pottery again) later
than the ones on the Palatine. Gjerstad dates them in two phases: 650–625
and 625–575 B.C. Rather than push the traditional date down so far, it seems
plausible to suppose that these huts represent the period assigned by the
literary tradition to the early kings, and to argue that the sophisticated period,
symbolized by the Forum’s earliest pebble pavement, was inaugurated by
Rome’s earliest Etruscan king, Tarquin I.
Fig. 3.3 Rome, Forum. Excavation at Equus Domitiani, showing strata. (E.
Gjerstad, Early Rome I, p. 37)
Fig. 3.4 Rome, Forum. Excavation at Equus Domitiani, schematic
drawing of strata. (E. Gjerstad, Antiquity 26 [1952], p. 61)
These other huts confirm the other archaeological data, which show that
what later was unified into urban Rome was originally a group of simple hut-
villages clustered on various hills, the Forum huts having spilled down, as it
were, from the village on the Palatine. The huts in the level just above the
Forum necropolis represent a still earlier stage of this spillover; they antedate
the earliest huts in Gjerstad’s twenty-nine levels. By the date of Gjerstad’s
earliest pebble pavements, the huts in the necropolis area have been replaced
by a more developed domestic architecture, perhaps with rooms opening on a
central court. These houses have rectangular plans, mud-brick, wood-braced
walls, and tufa foundations. At the spillover stage, the villagers from the
various hills formed some kind of confederation symbolized archaeologically by
the two types of graves in the Forum necropolis, and in literature by the
tradition of the joint religious festival called the Septimontium.
The period of the first pebble pavement (575 B.C.) is one of major change,
from village to urban life, to a city now for the first time boasting a civic center,
destined to become the world’s most famous public square, the Roman Forum.
Of the same date are the earliest remains on the Capitoline Hill, which was to
be the arx or citadel of historic Rome. Of the same date are the earliest
artifacts from the Regia, which later generations revered as the palace of the
kings. Of the same date is a sophisticated phase of the round shrine of Vesta,
which encircled the sacred flame, symbol of the city’s continuity. The literary
tradition would date the last two earlier, at least to Numa’s reign. However no
architectural remains have so far been discovered which associate them with
the earlier date.
In his interpretation of the archaeological evidence about the date of the
beginning of the Roman Republic, Gjerstad is just as iconoclastic as about the
dating of the kings. His argument, more ingenious than convincing, is that an
event as important politically as a change from a monarchy to a republic
should be reflected in the artifacts, changing from richer to poorer, whereas no
such objective evidence of a cultural break is visible in the levels dated by him
(perhaps more closely than the facts warrant) at 509 B.C. Such a cultural break
does not come until some fifty years later, when Etruscan imports cease. There
are grave difficulties in pushing the date of the Roman Republic’s beginning
down so far, of which the chief is a list (the Fasti) of pairs of consuls 509–450
B.C. where many names are too obscure to have been invented. Gjerstad’s
excavation, in sum, is important as confirming the accuracy of Boni’s methods,
and as telling us much about the village stage of Rome, but the absolute
chronology cannot be said to be as yet firmly fixed, nor the traditional one
definitely upset.
* * * * *
Apart from absolute chronology, what unequivocal evidence can
archaeology provide that early Rome was ruled by kings? The ideal evidence
would be an inscription, and one was discovered in 1899 in the Forum near the
Comitium, where, in the open air in front of the Senate House, the popular
assembly met. The inscription is called the lapis niger stele, because it lies
under a later pavement of black marble (lapis niger), now preserved under a
deplorable corrugated iron roof. But the stone on which it is carved is not
marble but tufa, identified as having come from the quarries of Grotta Oscura
in the territory of Veii, some nine miles north of Rome.
On the various kinds of tufa or volcanic stone in use in early Rome there
hangs a tale. In 1924 an American, Tenney Frank, published an epoch-making
study of Roman building materials in which he put the dating of Roman
monuments on a firmer basis by distinguishing several different kinds of tufa
used by Roman builders at successive dates. Subsequent studies have blurred
the dividing lines and shown the possibility of overlap, but Frank’s nice eye for
discriminating tufas has revolutionized the architectural history of the Roman
Republic. The following table illustrates Frank’s methods:
Fig. 3.5 Rome, Forum: lapis niger stele. Note the word RECEI, which may be
evidence for the historicity of Rome’s kings. (P. Goidanich, Mem. Acc. It. 7.3
[1943], Pl. 9)