Refashioning the World: an archaeology of the Roman West AD 200-500
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Birmingham
Department Name: Archaeology and Antiquity
Abstract
The period A.D.200-500 sees some of the most fundamental and important changes in the creation of Europe. On the one hand there is the political and military collapse of the western part of the Roman Empire and its replacement by smaller kingdoms ruled by kings and aristocracies of Germanic descent, sometimes giving rise to modern nations such as France. On the other hand this is the period in which Christianity became the dominant religion, and it was Christianised late Roman culture, language and law that were taken over by the new kingdoms, to lie at the core of medieval and later Europe. Our picture of this period is one drawn largely from written sources, which give us the classic image of a period of 'decline and fall'. But it is not as simple as that.
Alongside the written texts, we now have a large and growing body of archaeological evidence. This has all too often been used to supplement and confirm the historical narrative, rather than being used in its own right to tell its own story. What this project aims to do is to gather and use that evidence to create a new, distinct story of the period; one which may or may not agree with what we thought we knew. It will look at the area from the Rhine to the Straits of Gibraltar and examine the evidence for the settlements in which people lived and what they tell us about their society and values; the places in which they practised their religions, pagan and Christian; where and how they were buried; the objects they made and used; the crops and herds they raised; the amount of contact and commerce they had with each other; and how all these changed over these crucial three centuries.
To take some examples. In place of the large, undefended, lavish towns of the second century, we find much smaller, heavily fortified towns with the new Christian churches. Historically this is seen as part of 'decline and fall', but archaeologically could it be seen as the creation of a new, militarised and Christian city and citizen? Many burials of this period contain objects thought to be of Germanic origin, and thus attesting to the barbarian invaders who brought the western empire to its knees. There is evidence, though, that we are looking at 'barbarian chic'. The new, militarised nobility aping the dress of the warriors they feared? By contrast, in other regions the nobility clings to the old expressions of power, grand country houses, mosaics, lavish decor. Why should there be these contrasts?
Clearly, the archaeology has a series of different stories to tell us depending on the type of evidence and how we interpret, on the time and on the place at which we are looking. From these different types of evidence and their interpretation we may construct a different 'history' of what happened in the West between A.D.200 and 500.
The result will be the first general synthesis in English of the archaeological evidence for the late Roman West. It will present a wide range of evidence and interpretations from a large area and from several languages. It will open up the debate on a crucial period; serve as an introduction for students and others, a resource for scholars and a basis for further work.
Alongside the written texts, we now have a large and growing body of archaeological evidence. This has all too often been used to supplement and confirm the historical narrative, rather than being used in its own right to tell its own story. What this project aims to do is to gather and use that evidence to create a new, distinct story of the period; one which may or may not agree with what we thought we knew. It will look at the area from the Rhine to the Straits of Gibraltar and examine the evidence for the settlements in which people lived and what they tell us about their society and values; the places in which they practised their religions, pagan and Christian; where and how they were buried; the objects they made and used; the crops and herds they raised; the amount of contact and commerce they had with each other; and how all these changed over these crucial three centuries.
To take some examples. In place of the large, undefended, lavish towns of the second century, we find much smaller, heavily fortified towns with the new Christian churches. Historically this is seen as part of 'decline and fall', but archaeologically could it be seen as the creation of a new, militarised and Christian city and citizen? Many burials of this period contain objects thought to be of Germanic origin, and thus attesting to the barbarian invaders who brought the western empire to its knees. There is evidence, though, that we are looking at 'barbarian chic'. The new, militarised nobility aping the dress of the warriors they feared? By contrast, in other regions the nobility clings to the old expressions of power, grand country houses, mosaics, lavish decor. Why should there be these contrasts?
Clearly, the archaeology has a series of different stories to tell us depending on the type of evidence and how we interpret, on the time and on the place at which we are looking. From these different types of evidence and their interpretation we may construct a different 'history' of what happened in the West between A.D.200 and 500.
The result will be the first general synthesis in English of the archaeological evidence for the late Roman West. It will present a wide range of evidence and interpretations from a large area and from several languages. It will open up the debate on a crucial period; serve as an introduction for students and others, a resource for scholars and a basis for further work.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Simon Esmonde Cleary (Principal Investigator) |
