SOLDIERS AND SPACES: DAILY LIFE IN LATE ROMAN FORTS

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 655-683
Author(s):  
Andrew Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Dynamic Environments ◽  
Temporal Scales ◽  
Vital Importance ◽  
Roman World ◽  
The North ◽  
North Western ◽  
Late Roman

Roman forts in the north-western part of the empire were vibrant, dynamic environments through which different groups of people moved, and in which they interacted. They are thus essential contexts for the understanding of broader changes in the Roman world. In Late Antiquity, the forts of Britain and northern Gaul show clear signs of the kinds of changes that overtook these provinces in the 5th c. A.D., at the same time as indicating long-term continuities in daily practices. In this paper, the evidence of both settlement and burial deposits from such sites will be explored to try and capture something of this balance between tradition and transformation. The emphasis will be on the vital importance for archaeologists of understanding the different temporal scales at which various past processes occurred.

Introduction

2016 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Paul Huddie
Keyword(s):  
Black Sea ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Western Balkans ◽  
Crimean War ◽  
Black Sea Region ◽  
The North ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
North Western

The year 2014 marked the 160th anniversary of the beginning of the Crimean War, 1854–6. It was during that anniversary year that the names of Crimea, Sevastopol, Simferopol and the Black Sea re-entered the lexicon of Ireland, and so did the terms ‘Russian aggression’, ‘territorial violation’ and ‘weak neighbour’. Coincidentally, those same places and terms, and the sheer extent to which they perpetuated within Irish and even world media as well as popular parlance, had not been seen nor heard since 1854. It was in that year that the British and French Empires committed themselves to war in the wider Black Sea region and beyond against the Russian Empire. The latter had demonstrated clear aggression, initially diplomatic and later military, against its perceived-to-be-weak neighbour and long-term adversary in the region, the Ottoman Empire, or Turkey. As part of that aggression Russia invaded the latter’s vassal principalities in the north-western Balkans, namely Wallachia and Moldavia (part of modern-day Romania), collectively known as the Danubian Principalities. Russia had previously taken Crimea from the Ottomans in 1783....

Coastal climatology of the North-Western Mediterranean area for long-term and short-term risk assessment.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo Brandini ◽  
Stefano Taddei ◽  
Valentina Vannucchi ◽  
Michele Bendoni ◽  
Bartolomeo Doronzo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Climate Trends ◽  
Short Term ◽  
The North ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
North Western

<p>In this work we present the results obtained through a dynamic downscaling of the ERA5 reanalysis dataset (hindcast) of ECMWF, using high-resolution meteorological and wave models defined on unstructured computation grids along the Mediterranean coasts, with a particular focus on the North-Western Mediterranean area. Downscaling of the ERA5 meteorological data is obtained through the BOLAM and MOLOCH models (up to a resolution of 2.5 km) which force an unstructured WW3 model with a resolution of up to 500 m along the coast. Models were validated through available meteorological stations, wave buoy data and X-band wave radars, the latter for the purposes of wave spectra validation.</p><p>On the one hand, this allowed, by extracting the time series of some attack parameters of the waves along the coast, and according to the type of coast (rocky coasts, sandy coasts, coastal structures etc.), to compute the return periods and to characterize the impact of any individual storm. On the other hand, it is possible to highlight some trends observed in the last 30 years, during which recent research is showing an increasing evidence  of some changes in global circulation at regional to local scales. These changes also include effects of wind rotation, wave regimes, storm surges, wave-induced coastal currents and coastal morphodynamics. For example, in the North-Western Mediterranean extreme events belonging to cyclonic weather-types circulation with stronger S-SE components (like the storm of October 28-30th 2018 and many others), rather than events associated with perturbations of Atlantic origin and zonal circulation, are becoming more frequent. These long-term wind/wave climate trends can have consequences not only in the assessment of long-term risk due to main morphodynamic variations (ie. coastal erosion), but also in the short-term risk assessment.</p><p>This work was funded by the EU MAREGOT project (2017-2020) and ECMWF Special Project spitbran  “Evaluation of coastal climate trends in the Mediterranean area by means of high-resolution and multi-model downscaling of ERA5 reanalysis” (2018-2020).</p>

Field survey at Louloudies: a new late Roman fortification in Pieria

1998 ◽  
Vol 93 ◽  
pp. 463-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. G. Poulter
Keyword(s):  
Field Survey ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Secure Base ◽  
The North ◽  
Eastern Aegean ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
North Bank ◽  
North Western ◽  
Late Roman

A programme, combining a physical survey, intensive pick-up and geophysics, was carried out over 17 ha around the site of a small late Roman fortification, some 6 km south of ancient Pydna. Although the area is intensively farmed, the pick-up survey proved remarkably successful. Hellenistic occupation was identified and a restricted Roman settlement around the site of the quadriburgium. Surprisingly, a new and large late Roman fortification (c. 3–4 ha), equipped with towers, with a densely occupied interior and ‘extramural’ buildings was also found. The north-eastern curtain was discovered by resistivity surveying, the line of the north-western and south-western sides by intensive survey. Pottery and brick monograms from the new site suggests that it dates to the second half of the sixth or possibly early seventh century. It is argued that the quadriburgium may be the site of ancient Anamon, a station on the coastal road from Thessaloniki to Dion. The newly discovered site, clearly of considerable importance, lay on the north bank of the river Sourvala and probably had direct access to the sea, importing both local pottery and amphorae from the eastern Aegean. Its role may have been to protect the fertile coastline of the Pieria and to provide a secure base for the export of agricultural products to the beleaguered cities and settlements around the Thermaic Gulf.

‘Instructing readers’ minds in heavenly matters’: Carolingian History Writing and Christian Education

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 56-71
Author(s):  
Robert A. H. Evans
Keyword(s):  
Christian Education ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
History Writing ◽  
The West ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Historia Ecclesiastica ◽  
Late Roman

This article explores the ways in which histories were used in the moral and doctrinal education of Christian elites in the West from the late Roman to the Carolingian periods. In the sixth century, Cassiodorus wrote that histories, whether Christian or not, were useful for ‘instructing the minds of readers in heavenly matters’. How far was this characteristic of the period? Traditionally, scholars have emphasized either the apologetic purpose or the moral of specific histories, such as Orosius'sHistoriaeor Bede'sHistoria Ecclesiastica. Few modern scholars, however, have examined the long-term development of history writing as a vehicle for Christian education during the transformation of the Roman world. Those who have done, such as Karl-Ferdinand Werner and Hans-Werner Goetz, have emphasized continuity rather than change. The article sketches some of the changes and continuities across the period. In particular, it demonstrates that there was a shift from the apologetic concerns of the fifth-century historians, writing to educate Christians from pagan backgrounds, to the doctrinal (as much as moral) concerns of Frankish historians, emerging from the Carolingian Renaissance.

Long-term relations among fire, fuel, and climate in the north-western US based on lake-sediment studies

2008 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy Whitlock ◽  
Jennifer Marlon ◽  
Christy Briles ◽  
Andrea Brunelle ◽  
Colin Long ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fire History ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Summer Drought ◽  
Fire Occurrence ◽  
The North ◽  
Episode Frequency ◽  
North Western

Pollen and high-resolution charcoal records from the north-western USA provide an opportunity to examine the linkages among fire, climate, and fuels on multiple temporal and spatial scales. The data suggest that general charcoal levels were low in the late-glacial period and increased steadily through the last 11 000 years with increasing fuel biomass. At local scales, fire occurrence is governed by the interaction of site controls, including vegetation, local climate and fire weather, and topography. At subregional scales, patterns in the long term fire-episode frequency data are apparent: The Coast Range had relatively few fires in the Holocene, whereas the Klamath–Siskiyou region experienced frequent fire episodes. Fire regimes in the northern Rocky Mountains have been strongly governed by millennial- and centennial-scale climate variability and regional differences in summer moisture. At regional scales, sites in present-day summer-dry areas show a period of protracted high fire activity within the early Holocene that is attributed to intensified summer drought in the summer-dry region. Sites in summer-wet areas show the opposite pattern, that fire was lower in frequency than present in the early Holocene as result of strengthened monsoonal circulation then. Higher fire-episode frequency at many sites in the last 2000 years is attributed to greater drought during the Medieval Climate Anomaly and possibly anthropogenic burning. The association between drought, increased fire occurrence, and available fuels evident on several time scales suggests that long-term fire history patterns should be considered in current assessments of historical fire regimes and fuel conditions.

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