This course will give a concise chronological, geographic and thematic overview of Roman Britain within the Empire, and how Roman and native cultures interacted with each other. We will touch upon the issues of Romanization, continuity and change and the definition of identity (cultural vs. ‘ethnic’ identity, etc). After introducing, briefly, the origins of Rome and its rise within Italy and beyond, we will discuss the clash of cultures and identities, which resulted in the Romanization of the entire Empire. Comparisons will be drawn between Roman Britain and the Western and Eastern Provinces, as well as the limes of Central and Northern Europe. For each region we will examine landscape(s) and territories, urban and civic developments, official writing and architecture, the world of private living and family, religion and burials and their associated material cultures. Finally, we will discuss the different environmental and socio-economic, political and even cultural factors within Roman Britain and beyond that might have impacted on the decline and fall of the Roman empire.
This course provides students with the tools to understand the problems of defining and theorizing culture and cultural change, the methodologies, and theories of the archaeology of Roman Britain and the other Roman Provinces while looking to current and future research directions on the subject.