How did the ‘Barbarians’ influence Roman culture? What did ‘Roman-ness’ mean in the context of Empire? What did it mean to be Roman and/or ‘Barbarian’ in different contexts? 9 papers explore concepts of Romanisation and of Barbaricum from a multi-disciplinary and comparative standpoint, covering Germania, Dacia, Moesia Inferior, Hispania, and more.
A fascinating, lavishly illustrated account, aimed at a non-specialist audience, of the excavation of over 500 burials unexpectedly discovered during development work associated with the First Baptist Church in Philadelphia. In 2016, construction workers in Philadelphia unexpectedly uncovered a long forgotten burial ground. Archaeologists quickly discovered this was the location of the burial ground of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia, used as early as 1722. It was thought to have been exhumed and moved in 1859. Months of excavations revealed almost 500 individual burials still remained. This book shares the complex story of the discovery and excavations. It provides backgrounds of the church, Philadelphia, and the religious climate of the time to give context to the thousands of artifacts that were discovered and are presented in their entirety. The numerous coffin handles and plaques link directly back to English production and are embedded with powerful mortuary symbols. Highlighting cultural exchange between colonial America and England, Artifacts of Mourning provides an important record of 18th- and 19th-century funerary culture.
This unique full-length English biography of Varus reassesses how he has been held responsible for one of the most infamous and humiliating defeats in Roman history. Publius Quinctilius Varus is famous as the incompetent commander duped into an ambush that wiped out three legions in one of the most humiliating defeats in Roman history. Yet this is the first full length biography of the man. Dr Joanne Ball revisits the ancient sources alongside the most recent archaeological evidence from the Teutoburg battlefield in Germany, where she has been personally involved in excavations. The result is a fresh, detailed new analysis of this significant battle and a reappraisal of the Roman commander. Examination of his earlier career reveals that Varus, who had married into the Imperial family, was an experienced and competent, if harsh and ruthless, governor and general. He had served in Africa and put down rebellions in Syria and Judaea before being posted to Germany. Dr Ball sets his German command in the context of wider events, explaining the weakness of the Roman position there and the necessary reliance on auxiliary forces. Although Varus was clearly fooled by Arminius, the former Roman auxiliary who masterminded the Teutoburg battle in AD 9, she questions the extent of Varus culpability and asks whether he was scapegoated by Roman historians to deflect blame away from the Emperor.
This book considers the Roman Empire’s responses to the threats which were caused by the new geostrategic situation brought on by the crisis of the 3rd century AD, induced by the ‘barbarians’ who – often already part of Roman military structures as mercenaries and auxiliaries – became a veritable menace for the Empire.
"This first thematic volume of the new series TRAC Themes in Roman Archaeology brings renowned international experts to discuss different aspects of interactions between Romans and 'barbarians' in the north-western regions of Europe. Northern Europe has become an interesting arena of academic debate around the topics of Roman imperialism and Roman-'barbarian' interactions, as these areas comprised Roman provincial territories, the northern frontier system of the Roman Empire (limes), the vorlimes (or buffer zone), and the distant barbaricum. This area is, today, host to several modern European nations with very different historical and academic discourses on their Roman past, a factor in the recent tendency towards the fragmentation of approaches and the application of post-colonial theories that have favoured the advent of a varied range of theoretical alternatives. Case studies presented here span across disciplines and territories, from American anthropological studies on transcultural discourse and provincial organization in Gaul, to historical approaches to the propagandistic use of the limes in the early 20th century German empire; from Danish research on warrior identities and Roman-Scandinavian relations, to innovative ideas on culture contact in Roman Ireland; and from new views on Romano-Germanic relations in Central European Barbaricum, to a British comparative exercise on frontier cultures. The volume is framed by a brilliant theoretical introduction by Prof. Richard Hingley and a comprehensive concluding discussion by Prof. David Mattingly"--Publisher description.
The Barbarians Speak re-creates the story of Europe's indigenous people who were nearly stricken from historical memory even as they adopted and transformed aspects of Roman culture. The Celts and Germans inhabiting temperate Europe before the arrival of the Romans left no written record of their lives and were often dismissed as "barbarians" by the Romans who conquered them. Accounts by Julius Caesar and a handful of other Roman and Greek writers would lead us to think that prior to contact with the Romans, European natives had much simpler political systems, smaller settlements, no evolving social identities, and that they practiced human sacrifice. A more accurate, sophisticated picture of the indigenous people emerges, however, from the archaeological remains of the Iron Age. Here Peter Wells brings together information that has belonged to the realm of specialists and enables the general reader to share in the excitement of rediscovering a "lost people." In so doing, he is the first to marshal material evidence in a broad-scale examination of the response by the Celts and Germans to the Roman presence in their lands. The recent discovery of large pre-Roman settlements throughout central and western Europe has only begun to show just how complex native European societies were before the conquest. Remnants of walls, bone fragments, pottery, jewelry, and coins tell much about such activities as farming, trade, and religious ritual in their communities; objects found at gravesites shed light on the richly varied lives of individuals. Wells explains that the presence--or absence--of Roman influence among these artifacts reveals a range of attitudes toward Rome at particular times, from enthusiastic acceptance among urban elites to creative resistance among rural inhabitants. In fascinating detail, Wells shows that these societies did grow more cosmopolitan under Roman occupation, but that the people were much more than passive beneficiaries; in many cases they helped determine the outcomes of Roman military and political initiatives. This book is at once a provocative, alternative reading of Roman history and a catalyst for overturning long-standing assumptions about nonliterate and indigenous societies.
In 2006 and 2007, the editors of this volume organized sessions at the annual meetings of the European Association of Archaeologists (Cracow, Poland and Zadar, Croatia) entitled The Roman Empire and Beyond in response to the increasing amount of archaeological work being conducted in Central and Eastern Europe, areas where the Roman Empire met Barbaricum. The sessions concerned three general themes: the development of Romes older Central/Eastern provinces, Roman-Native interactions within the Empire and along Romes frontier zone, and Native-Roman interactions in Barbaricum. This book is based upon the two EAA sessions, whilst additional papers were solicited from several scholars who had not attended the EAA meetings, but whose work was deemed highly relevant for this volume. Contents: 1) Introduction (Eric C. De Sena); 2) Maritime Villas on the Eastern Adriatic Coast (Roman Histria and Dalmatia) (Vlasta Begovic and Ivancica Schrunk); 3) The Emperor and the City: a Case Study on the Link between Hadrian and Philippopolis, Thace (Ivo Topalilov); 4) Early Christian imports and local imitations of imported goods in the territory of the Central Balkans (Olivera Ilic); 5) Western Germanic Tribes and the Romanization of Central European Barbaricum (Artur Blazejewski); 6) Roman or Barbarian? Provincial Models in a Sarmatian Pottery Center on the Danube Frontier (Valeria Kulcsar and Dora Merai); 7) Romans and Barbarians: Some Remarks on Cultural Contact, Influence and Material Culture (Eduard Krekovic); 8) The Roman-Age Settlement at Csengersima-Petea and Pottery Workshops from the Upper Tisza Basin (Robert Gindele and Eszter Istvanovits); 9) Barbaricus pagus ferrariensis (Szymon Orzechowski); 10) The Barbarians and Roman Dacia. War, Trade and Cultural Interaction (Coriolan Opreanu); 11) Influence and Observation: Towards a more Concrete Understanding of the Roman-Dacian limes (Daniel Weiss); 12) Through the Looking Glass: Perceptions of Ethnic and National Identity in the Roman Balkans and Beyond (Eric C. De Sena).
This book explores the complex relationship between production, trade, and connectivity in Pre-Roman Italy, confronting established ideas about the relationships between people, objects, and ideas, and highlighting how social change and community formation is rooted in individual interactions. The volume engages with, and builds upon, recent paradigm shifts in the archaeology and history of the ancient Mediterranean which have centred the social and economic processes that produce communities. It utilises a series of case studies, encompassing the production, trade, and movement of objects and people, to explore new models for how production is organized and the recursive relationship between the cultural and the economic spheres of human society. The contributions address issues of agency and production at multiple scales of analysis, from larger theoretical discussions of trade and identity across different regions, to context-specific explorations of production techniques and the distribution of material culture across the Italian peninsula. Production, Trade, and Connectivity in Pre-Roman Italy is intended for students and scholars interested in the archaeology and history of Pre-Roman and Early Republican Italy, but especially production, trade, community formation, and identity. Those interested in issues of cultural interaction and material change in the ancient Mediterranean world will find useful comparative examples and methodological approaches throughout.
This book contributes to better recognition and comprehension of the interconnection between archaeology and political pressure, especially imposed by the totalitarian communist regimes. It explains why, under such political conditions, some archaeological reasoning and practices were resilient, while new ideas leisurely penetrated the local scenes. It attempts to critically evaluate the political context and its impact on archaeology during the communist era world wide and contributes to better perception of the relationship between science and politics in general. This book analyzes the pressures inflicted on archaeologists by the overwhelmingly potent political environment, which stimulates archaeological thought and controls the conditions for professional engagement. Included are discussions about the perception of archaeology and its findings by the public.
