Experiencing the Frontier and the Frontier of Experience: Barbarian perspectives and Roman strategies to deal with new threats

Experiencing the Frontier and the Frontier of Experience deals with 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. Rome adopted different strategies: they oscillated between inclusion, warfare and other means of exerting influence. The contributions to this volume explore the archaeological evidence for Roman practice and especially the varying strategies of power and influence in the central regions on the one hand, and the south-eastern parts of the European ‘Barbaricum’ on the other. They show how ‘Divide et impera’ functioned as practical policy based on alliances, as well as consequent warfare, and diplomatic initiatives, which are traceable by prestige-goods and subsidia treasures found in the Barbaricum. The comparison of Roman imports in different parts of Iron-Age Europe can help understand better a complex process of shifting power and influence in an emerging new Europe, which transformed the Empire towards medieval ‘Herrschaft’ and social structure.

Table of Contents

Preface

Beyond the Fringes of Empire: New Approaches concerning Roman Influence and Power in the Barbaricum. An introduction – Alexander Rubel and Hans-Ulrich Voß

Roman limes in military campaigns of the Barbarians – Krzysztof Narloch

Archaeological footprints of a superpower in hostile territory. Recent research on the traces of Roman military activities in the barbarian region north of the Middle Danube – Claus-Michael Hüssen, Balázs Komoróczy, Ján Rajtár, Marek Vlach

Friend or Foe? The political relations between inhabitants of the Upper Tisza region and the Roman Empire at the end of the 2nd and the 3rd century AD, in the light of archaeological and historical sources – Jan Bulas

The Limes Germanicus Trade and the Roman Army – Dan-Alexandru Suharoschi, Iulia Dumitrache, Roxana-Gabriela Curca

Barbarian brooches in Roman context. Analysis of the finds from the frontier marketplace at Porolissum (Romania) – Coriolan Horațiu Opreanu, Sorin Cociș, Vlad-Andrei Lăzărescu

Luxury tableware? Terra sigillata in the coastal region of the northern Netherlands – Annet Nieuwhof

Septentrional Encounters – Another Revisit to Roman Vessels in Scandinavian sites – Tove Hjørungdal

Westerholt ‘An der Mühle’- A Roman Iron Age Site on the North Sea Coast. A preliminary report – Jan F. Kegler

Beyond Hadrian’s Wall: Considerations on the Massive Terrets – Luisa Di Pastena

Pierced Roman coins from the ‘Free Dacians’ settlement of Roșiori (Municipality of Dulcești, Neamț County, Romania) – Lucian Munteanu, George Dan-Hânceanu

Mars on the River Uecker in Western Pomerania – a further indication of a Roman policy of ‘divide et impera’ in Germania? – Jens-Peter Schmidt and Hans-Ulrich Voß

South-eastern Transylvania during the Late Roman Period (3rd-4th centuries AD) – József Puskás

Roman type forts in the Middle Nile valley. Late antique fortlets between patterns of Roman military architechture and local tradition – Mariusz Drzewiecki

New Threats or New Friends? The Roman Strategies at the Lower Danube (West of Provincia Dacia) in the 2nd–3rd Centuries AD – Lavinia Grumeza

The Town of (L)Ibida/Slava Rusă (Scythia Minor) in the context of a new Defence Strategy of the Empire in Late Antiquity – Alexander Rubel

Short biographies of contributors

Alexander Rubel served at the Goethe Institute and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in Romania before being appointed Senior Research Fellow at the Archaeological Institute of the Romanian Academy and Associate Professor at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi. Since 2011 he has been the Director of the Institute of Archaeology in Iasi.

Hans-Ulrich Voß (Voss) is Scientific Assistant at the Romano-Germanic Commission (RGK) of the German Archaeological Institut (DAI) at Frankfurt am Main. He is responsible for the Iron Age, Roman and Migration Periods, and for editorial work. He is project coordinator of the ‘Corpus of Roman Finds in the European Barbaricum (CRFB)’.