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Conferences and events
THE XXIST INTERNATIONAL LIMES (ROMAN FRONTIERS) CONGRESS AT NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, 2009
Call for papers and submission of summaries
Preliminary summaries for the call for papers are available for most of the thematic sessions and are attached below. There will be no summaries for the call for papers for the geographically-based sessions or for the miscellaneous session. It might be possible to include additional sessions. Any proposals for additional sessions must be received, accompanied by a summary, before August 31st, 2008.
Delegates are asked to send summaries of no more than 250 words to limes@twmuseums.org.uk (not directly to the session organisers), indicating for which session it is intended. Summaries should be submitted in two of the official languages of the Congress, which are English, German, French and Spanish. If this causes difficulties, please contact the Congress Secretariat. The time allowed for each paper will be 15 minutes, followed by 5 minutes for questions. Summaries of papers can be accepted until 31st December 2008.
Frontiers of the Eastern Roman Empire (James Crow and
Eberhard Sauer)
Roman Roads (Zsolt Visy)
Camps (Rebecca Jones)
The Roman army constructed a variety of field entrenchments whilst on campaign and manoeuvres. Many of these ‘temporary camps’ survive as upstanding earthworks or are visible as cropmarks recorded on aerial photographs. Such camps are now recorded the length and breadth of the Roman Empire. Aerial survey and excavation is shedding new light on these structures: their distribution, dating, morphology, Roman military castrametation, function and purpose. This is increasing our understanding of the activities of the Roman army, whether on active campaigning or undertaking training regimes. The province of Britannia is particularly rich in the remains of camps, with over 475 now known. This session will link in with a field visit during the Congress to the forts and camps at Chew Green in Northumberland.
Recognising differences in lifestyles through material culture:
soldier vs civilian and legionary vs auxiliary (Stephanie Hoss,
Sonja Jilek, E Deschler-Erb)
The idea of this session theme is to explore the different lifestyles
and identities of different groups within Roman society by looking at
their different material cultures. As an example of social differences
within the same geographical sphere resulting in different material cultures,
military and civilian sites and legionary fortresses and auxiliary forts
were chosen. In both cases, these sites have usually been defined by looking
at the layout of the settlements and buildings and by analyzing inscriptions.
While these methods are undoubtedly effective and (mostly) correct, other
means of determining the character of a settlement can be used in those
cases where the methods mentioned above cannot be applied.
Recent advances in archaeological theory have resulted in new ways of
approaching the questions of creation and display of group identities
and the relationship between these identities and the material record.
Because of these advances, results from the analysis of the material culture
of a settlement comprising the archaeological finds and the archaeobotanical,
archaeozoological and geoarchaeological analysis can help to determine
the military or civilian (resp. legionary or auxiliary) character of a
settlement. The statistical analysis of the composition of ceramic finds,
military and other small finds and the building techniques, animals and
plants used can be compared to compositions from other settlements to
find signifying differences and similarities.
Besides assisting with the determination of the character of a settlement,
studies in the material culture may also help to establish information
about identity that only seldom shows up in the epigraphic or literary
records. The notion that identity is constructed and negotiated through
the use and experience of objects is now widely accepted in theoretical
archaeology†. The material culture of a group thus
reflects a part of the “Selbstdarstellung” (self-representation)
of this group and their adoption of cultural habits, both important parts
of identity. The latter is especially important for the differentiation
of fairly similar social groups, such as the legionary and auxiliary soldiers
of the Roman Army.
Because we know from the written sources that legionary and auxiliary
soldiers came from different backgrounds and had different pay, diversity
in other areas might be expected. Can we see a disparity between the two
groups in their eating and drinking habits, or in the wealth of their
possessions? Another difference might lie in social habits, for example
in their clothing (fibulae) or in their proclivity to go to such Roman
institutions as the bathhouse or the amphitheatre. There might also have
been different levels of literacy and differences in their religious habits
or in other unforeseen details of their lifestyles.
†See for instance the section
on the identities of Romano-British artefacts in G. Davies, A. Gardner,
K. Lockyear (eds.) (2001). TRAC 2000: Proceedings of the Tenth Annual
Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, University College London, April
2000, Oxford.
Women and families in the Roman Army (Martina Meyr, Carol
van Driel-Murray, Colin Wells)
What place did women and families have in a Roman military context? What
role did they play in soldiers’ lives? Were there differences between
legionaries and auxiliaries, between different ethnicities, on different
frontiers and at different periods? How were family networks maintained?
Did families move when troops moved? What is the evidence for leave, remittances,
burial practices? Soldiers’ children and recruitment. The creation
of military identities. Laws governing marriage. Marriage of non-citizens.
Citizenship and inheritance. Relations between soldiers and civilians
(is the Egyptian evidence replicated elsewhere?). Evidence from forts
and cemeteries. The reappraisal of literary, epigraphic, and legal evidence.
Death and Commemoration (Maureen Carroll)
Death and burial have been an important focus of Roman archaeological
scholarship in recent decades (for example: von Hesberg and Zanker 1987;
Oliver 2000; Heinzelman, Ortalli, Fasold and Witteyer 2001; Pearce, Millett
and Struck 2000; Hope 2001; Carroll 2006; Graham 2006). It is clear that
the rituals, ceremonies and monuments associated with death, burial and
commemoration provided a visibly effective and very public arena for expressing
both the adherence to local non-Roman traditions or the adoption of Roman
funerary customs, as well as various diverse permutations in between these
two apparent poles. With the push-and-pull effect of frontier zones, and
the eclectic mix of Romans and non-Romans, both military and civilian,
inhabiting those zones, the limes and their hinterlands are an
especially fruitful area to investigate cultural, social and gender relationships
as expressed in the funerary record, although the interpretive potential
of funerary archaeology here has yet to be fully realised. Population
groups on the fringes of the Roman empire found ways of negotiating and
expressing identities, attitudes and ideologies within acceptable parameters
of society, in life and in death. The cemeteries outside Roman frontier
settlements represent a visual cross-section of a collective of individuals
and groups from many levels of society who already possessed or came to
internalise Roman social and cultural values. Not only the funerary monuments
in these cemeteries, but also the sometimes discrepant traditions of disposing
of the body and of performing rituals by which to remember and honour
the dead can offer insights into the ways people expressed beliefs, status,
wealth, and identity. On the limes, this pertains in equal measure
to actively serving soldiers, army veterans and civilians of all kinds.
This session aims to investigate the archaeology of burial and funerary
commemoration through thematically linked case studies drawn from various
regions within and on the Roman frontiers. It focuses on the processes
of burial and commemoration as inherently social and designed for an audience,
and it explores the meaning and importance attached to preserving memory.
The papers will draw on artefactual, documentary, scientific and pictorial
evidence to examine death, memory and commemoration in a variety of historical,
social and cultural contexts. A variety of interweaving themes to consider
include: burial ritual and the manipulation of the body; the role of text
and visual representations in commemoration; commemoration and ritual
as appeals to social memory; and the placing of the dead in relation to
a broader landscape.
Bibliography
H. von Hesberg, P. Zanker (eds.), Römische Gräberstraßen.
Selbstdarstellung - Status –Standard. Munich 1987; I. Morris, Death-Ritual
and social structure in Classical antiquity. Cambridge 1992; G.J. Oliver
(ed.), The Epigraphy of Death. Studies in the History and Society of Greece
and Rome. Liverpool 2000; M. Heinzelmann, J. Ortalli, P. Fasold, and M.
Witteyer (eds.), Römischer Bestattungsbrauch und Beigabensitten in
Rom, Norditalien und den Nordwestprovinzen von der späten Republik
bis in die Kaiserzeit. Wiesbaden 2001; V.M. Hope, Constructing Identity:
The Roman Funerary Monuments of Aquileia, Mainz and Nîmes. Oxford,
2001; J. Pearce, M. Millett and M. Struck (eds), Burial, Society and Context
in the Roman World. Oxford 2001; M. Carroll, Spirits of the Dead. Roman
Funerary Commemoration in Western Europe. Oxford 2006; E.-J. Graham, The
Burial of the Urban Poor in Italy in the late Roman Republic and Early
Empire, Oxford 2006).
Civil settlements/coloniae and veteran settlement
(Edward Dabrowa and Pete Wilson)
The relationships between the Roman army and those civilians living adjacent
to fortresses and forts are assumed to be symbiotic. The canabae
and vici can be seen as being of fundamental importance to our
understanding of many aspects of military life and the impact and durability
of Roman control. They are seen as fundamental to the functioning of the
formal military supply system and appear key in the development of economic
relationships with the surrounding population and supplying soldier needs
that were not met through official channels. Along with coloniae
and veteran settlements they can also been seen as providing models and
stimuli for the development of new settlement forms amongst the local
population, or for changes to existing tradition. In many cases civilian
settlements that are seen as originating as canabae or vici
outlast the military presence and form key elements of the Roman period
settlement pattern and trade/exchange networks. In addition coloniae
and the settlement of veterans may be seen as representing deliberately
created pools of citizens, and in the cases of the canabae and
vici non-citizens, that in the early stages of the consolidation
of new conquests, would represent substantial concentrations of populations
whose loyalty to the Roman cause could be assumed. This session will seek
to test these suggestions by examining the purposes behind and functioning
of civil settlements, their contribution to the success, or otherwise,
of Roman control and changes in the settlement types through time.
Although it is hoped that some papers will be illustrated with material drawn from new and recent fieldwork, the intention of the sessions is not to present straightforward accounts of excavations. It is hoped that proposals for papers will concentrate on issues of understanding and the reassessment or validation of perceived norms.
Smaller structures: towers and fortlets (Bill Hanson
and Matthew Symonds)
In addition to forts and fortresses, the Roman army regularly used smaller
structures, most commonly towers and fortlets, as an integral part of
their military control systems. Such small structures are attested in
various forms over time throughout the frontier provinces of the Empire
serving a variety of functions. Freestanding fortlets are most regularly
encountered along roads, rivers or coastlines, while both towers and fortlets
operated as part of the great artificial land frontiers.
These smaller structures display an impressive degree of flexibility in terms of size, defensive technique, internal arrangement and interaction with the landscape. Consideration of this variability facilitates greater understanding of their use and development and of the function of the wider system of which they were a part. Accordingly, they offer great potential in terms of understanding how consolidation of conquest was attempted and how complex control systems developed and operated.
The frontier fleets (Boris Rankov and Jorit Wintjes)
While the military history of the frontiers of the Roman empire in general
continues to raise much interest, as is amply proven by the ongoing attempt
to have all the former frontiers listed as UN world heritage sites, naval
aspects of Roman frontier history are somewhat lagging behind. For a comprehensive
overview over the different fleets stationed on the borders one still
has to turn to the works of Chester G. Starr and Dietmar Kienast, which
are both now fairly outdated. In the four decades since Kienast's book,
research on Roman provincial fleets has actually progressed considerably,
but little has been done to bring this together. Moreover, progress was
and still is by and large confined to the unearthing of new archaeological
evidence. While without doubt widening our knowledge about Roman provincial
fleets, this tends to narrow the focus of scholarly interest onto questions
of base construction, base distribution, ship types and the like; recent
years have seen a number of significant contributions in these fields.
In order to understand fully the way in which Roman provincial fleets
worked, however, and what their place and function on the frontiers of
the empire was, one has to look, so to speak, beyond tile stamps. In establishing
the provincial fleets, the Romans did not merely create concentrations
of ships and coastal installations, but also developed distinct operational
capabilities, so that any attempt at assessing the role of the provincial
fleets must have both an archaeological as well as historical angle to
it.
Depending on the level of interest, it would therefore seem to be advisable
to organise the session around both archaeological papers and those with
a more historical approach. A particular focus among the former might
be on nautical hardware (including the experience of creating and operating
reconstructions), while the latter might include problems such as combined
operations or blue-water capabilities. It would also be highly desirable
to avoid a concentration on the more popular fleets, particularly those
operating on Rhine and Danube, and cover the lesser-known fleets, such
as the Pontic, Syrian and Alexandrine fleets, as well.
A session of six papers might therefore consist of three archaeological papers covering, for instance, ship types, shore installations, and modern reconstructions, and three historical paper covering, for instance, operational patterns, force structure and the eastern fleets.
Logistics and supply (Bill Hanson and Val Maxfield)
The supply chain is crucial to the effectiveness of any major military
organisation, whether on campaign or in garrison. The supply problems
for the Roman army were exacerbated by the distances involved and the
slow speed or transport in the ancient world. Nonetheless, the Romans
were able to campaign hundreds of miles beyond their nearest military
base and continue to expand the limits of empire far beyond their Mediterranean
heartland. Major questions to be considered might include the impact of
economic geography on the limits of empire; the use of land versus waterborne
transport; the balance between local and long-distance supply; and the
role of civil supply to the military.
The evidence for the functioning or mal-functioning of Roman
border defence (Mordechai Gichon)
This session will try to ascertain how effective the Roman border systems
proved to be, according to the happenings and against the background intra
et extra limites in the various provinces. What were the defensive measures
applied and how did they cope with the outside threats of different peoples
and tribes at different periods, according to their means and ways to
raid, penetrate peacefully or try for permanent invasion? Thus, for example,
horse-borne raiding needed different defensive measures for the apprehension
or policing of individuals and groups moving by foot, whatever their aim.
Or, the dealing with the border crossing, caused by the deterioration
of environmental condition in the "barbaricum", had to confront
at times the vital urge to survive. Our evidence must be marshaled from
archaeological, historical, epigraphic, etc., etc. sources, and may have
primarily to deal with limited border sections.
Our means to prove our assumptions is when, how and where the hinterland
and beyond can be proved to have been affected by the functioning and
malfunctioning.
Studying Roman frontiers in a globalized world (Richard
Hingley, Divya Tolia Kelly, Rob Witcher)
This session aims to explore how and why we study Roman frontiers. Specifically,
it will consider the relationship between scholarly work and contemporary
society. Historiographical studies demonstrate how archaeologists’
interpretive frameworks are often shaped by contemporary social and political
environment (for example, the defensive frontier / Maginot Line). What
then does it mean to study Roman frontiers in today’s globalized
world? One of the defining characteristics of the contemporary globe is
the process of de-territorialization – the integrity of nation states
is eroded by the free movement of people, goods, and ideas. In such a
world, the relevance of the frontier appears to have declined; perhaps
the Roman frontier is of little relevance in a globalized world?
In fact, frontiers have not disappeared at all. Both iconic frontiers
(e.g. Berlin Wall) and banal frontiers (internal EU customs) may have
vanished; the new frontier may be in cyberspace. But other physical frontiers
persist (the US-Mexico border) and other new frontiers have been defined
(Israel-Palestine security fence). This session starts from the belief
that the study of ancient frontiers is of no less relevance today than
100 years ago. Further, bordering and globalization theories provide new
conceptual tools for the interpretation of these frontiers and the exploration
of their relevance.
Papers in this session are invited to set the study of Roman frontiers
in a broad historical context and to explore the interpretation of Roman
frontiers today. It is intended to bring together academics from a diverse
range of subjects, including archaeologists, geographers, historians who
are working on the European, Eastern and African frontiers of the Empire,
as well as scholars working on other historical and contemporary frontiers.
The aim is to consider if and how current studies have responded to the
new global order and how they might develop in the future.
Barbaricum (Thomas Grane)
All through the Principate, an important and forever present element
of the life of the Roman provinces was the interaction with the neighbours
of the Empire on all levels. The present session will focus on diplomatic
and military-political connections between the Roman Empire and the western
part of the Barbaricum. From the time of Caesar, Celtic and Germanic chieftains
appreciated the advantages of diplomatic relations with the Romans. How
these connections are identified in the archaeological record varies greatly.
Whereas the primary source in Germania is the large material from the
many elite graves, settlement finds are primary for the Scottish material.
Close studies of this material and of both local and regional contexts will provide a better understanding of the relations between elites of the Barbari and the Roman Empire. Also belonging to this sphere is the study of foreign warriors in Roman service and their possible influence on the Roman army, increasingly more present in the later centuries AD in the western frontier regions. While the Empire and elites in Barbaricum were mutually influenced by these connections, an additional factor may have been unrest in the Barbaricum involving several regions primarily known to us through the war booty sacrifices in southern Scandinavia and along the Baltic Sea coast. These extraordinary, yet somewhat enigmatic finds contain some of the largest collections of Roman militaria.
Presenting the Roman Frontiers (Nigel Mills)
This is envisaged as a three-quarters day session of up to twelve papers
with two general themes:
Theme 1: Evidence & re-construction. This part of the session
will focus on physical evidence and its use in physical re-construction
and re-enactment. The two are closely connected since full scale reconstructions
are often perceived by visitors to represent the physical reality of what
was once there. The session will explore perceived limitations on the
use of evidence in interpretation, issues of research and authenticity
in approaches to re-construction and re-enactment, and implications for
managing the World Heritage Site.
· Evidence from the Sites – compiling the Handbook
· Re-enactment – issues about authenticity
· Re-construction drawings
· Full scale physical reconstruction
· International view of reconstruction – what are the implications
for Arbeia & Carvoran? How do we manage pressures for reconstruction
versus stricter interpretation from UNESCO
Theme 2: Communicating the evidence. The second part of the session
will focus on the way the evidence is communicated to the public through
a variety of media including the written word, the arts, film and television,
museums. The session will explore relationships between the evidence,
the sorts of questions people wish to ask, developing narratives that
engage visitors in understanding and exploring for themselves.
· Written word – what messages are being presented in the
written word (textbooks, popular books )?
· Arts and literature – what are the stories the evidence
inspires amongst writers and artists?
· Film and TV – what are the images and stories ?
· The museums view – how museums interpret (museology &
representation of ethnicity)
· The visitor’s view – what might interest me about
the Roman Frontier ?
· An interpreter’s view – what is the technology going
to allow us to do in the future?
Officers of the limitanei – archaeological and historical
perspectives (Rob Collins)
This session seeks to bring together papers focused on the officer class of the limitanei of the late Roman Empire from the official creation of the limitanei under Constantine up to the end of the 6th century AD. The frontier commanders were an important class of the Roman military, as it was these men that followed or put into practice imperial policy and acted semi-autonomously in their sector of the frontier. Unfortunately, these men are often overshadowed in modern studies by the more famous officers of the comitatenses that find their way into accounts of Roman and Byzantine authors. Papers using archaeological and/or historical analyses are welcome.
Ritual or destruction? Deposition on the Roman Frontiers
(James Bruhn and Nick Hodgson)
This session seeks to bring together and debate differing interpretations of certain ‘special deposits’ on Roman frontiers. Do the well-known finds of military equipment and human remains from pits or wells at the fort of Newstead (Scotland) represent the results of a violent attack (or attacks) on the site, or do they represent ritual deposits accumulated over a period of time? How did the Schatzfunde, spectacular hoards of military equipment and temple treasure on the third-century Raetian frontier, come to be deposited? There are cases where when fortresses and forts were abandoned, their garrisons carefully concealed or buried equipment or stores. Was this a practical precaution to stop them falling into enemy hands, or was this a ritual act of closure? Or both? It is hoped that by examining closely the archaeological evidence in a number of case studies this session will be able to advance our understanding of these complex deposits. Contributions are invited from archaeologists who have studied depositions in Roman military contexts where it is unclear whether they should be connected with ritual, destruction, or abandonment.
The Roman Frontier in Wales: 40 Years after Jarrett (1969) (Barry Burnham and Jeffrey Lyn Davies)
Other general sessions
Papers will also be accepted for sessions as follows: The Germanies, and
a separate session on Augustan and Tiberian Germany to be organised by
C. Sebastian Sommer; Britain; the Danubian and Balkan provinces; Spain;
North Africa; and Miscellaneous.
Poster session
Delegates are encouraged to bring materials for the poster session. Please
submit titles to limes@twmuseums.org.uk
by December 31st 2008.
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