Concluding remarks on the Handbook of the Archaeology of Roman Germany

This chapter summarizes the contributions to this handbook. It notes the limitations a book conceived from a perspective on Roman Germany that emphasizes unilaterally the provinces of Germania Inferior and Germania Superior as well as Germania Magna. However, it acknowledges that the handbook has successfully dealt with current trends in German scholarly research on these areas in a comprehensive way, especially for northern and western Germany. It further suggests that this German scholarship has attracted much less attention in Britain in recent years. Were the reciprocal interest in new results obtained in the respective provinces in Britain and Germany to increase, then comparative studies on all aspects of life in the imperial period of the British and Germanic provinces would once again offer great research opportunities.

Roman Germany and provincial archaeology

This chapter presents a North American perspective on the state of archaeological research and methodology in Roman Germany. It suggests that despite the huge amount of interest in classical antiquity in the New World, and scholarly research in other Roman provinces, the Roman west has been of so little interest as a result of educational and scholarly traditions. The chapter explains how Roman Germany and other western provinces fit into a North American view of the ancient world. It then turns to the point of how German archaeological scholarship could be made more accessible to a North American audience, and why such accessibility and extending the profile of Germany’s archaeological traditions should be a desirable goal.

The Archaeology of Roman Germany

This chapter provides an overview of the book’s main themes. The book gives Anglophone readers a representative, well-grounded survey of the current status of the archaeology of Roman Germany. It reveals a discipline that is evolving strongly in an interpretative sense, a discipline to which traditional stereotypical labels such as ‘positivist’ and ‘descriptive’ or ‘an archaeology at risk’ (Bloemers 2002) no longer apply. German archaeologists face the challenge of continuing to nurture their rigorous historicizing and empirical traditions, while at the same time seeking closer integration with social theory-building and the findings of scientific archaeology. The contributions to this volume are steps in this direction.

Germanies, Britains, and the Roman World

This chapter offers a British perspective on the rich array of contributions by German scholars that make up the present volume. The stories told of Roman Germany and Roman Britain are entwined both in their detail and in the manner of their telling. A mass of data attests to the movement of objects, people, and ideas between these areas. It is argued that comparative archaeological studies of different parts of the Roman Empire are necessary in order to illuminate the entangled history of that empire. Analogy is a powerful weapon at the heart of most archaeological analyses, but our dependence upon it seldom receives the consideration it demands. Moreover, the importance of Roman Britain to the archaeology of the Roman Empire is out of all proportion to Britannia’s importance in the Roman World.

Roman Germania? What Germania?

This chapter presents some general remarks about Roman Germany. The English term ‘Roman Germany’ refers to both the two Roman provinces of Germania (respectively Inferior and Superior) and to the regions of modern Germany that were Romanized, i.e. the two provinces of Roman Germania, Raetia, and a small part of Noricum. When considered from the perspective of the Roman administrative organization, Roman Germany is not confined to the territory of modern Germany: it extends over a significant part of modern France. The discussions include the rhythms of economic development in the provinces of Germania; the great strides made by German archaeology in recent years; and the position of the free Germanic world in its relations with the Empire.

Provincial Art

In this chapter we give an idea of the characteristics and peculiarities of so-called ‘provincial art’ in Roman Germany. We shall focus in particular on images, but also occasionally on objects, recovered in the provinces of Germania Inferior, Germania Superior, Gallia Belgica, and Raetia. The emphasis will be less on the artistic value of the images and objects and much more on their capacity to convey information. Communication by means of images created a wide-ranging and diverse theatre of exchange; these images were often rigidly codified, or—for example when images were reproduced in series—mass-produced and hence standardized to project and propagate a specific vision. The use and attributes of the images are at the core of our considerations; we aim to provide an understanding of the language employed, of the images’ function as a medium of communication, and of the processes that underlay their production.

Roman Cultural Influence in Western Germania Magna

This chapter examines Roman cultural influence in Barbaricum east of the Rhine and north of the Danube, with particular emphasis on whether ‘regular trade’ existed between the Roman provinces and Barbaricum. It also considers the non-material influences and ‘imports’ that were adopted by the people living beyond the border. The chapter begins with an overview of import/export trade between Barbaricum and Roman Germany, along with the role of Roman negotiatores in bringing goods from their places of production to the great cities along the Rhine and Danube. It then looks at the goods that were exchanged between Barbaricumand the Roman provinces, as well as the infrastructure through which these goods were transported. It describes the legal settings of Roman trade in Barbaricum, and concludes by analysing a selection of ‘intangible imports’ and considering whether their main function is representation of status.

Roman Rural Landscape Occupation in Present-Day Germany

This chapter deals with spatial studies concerning Roman settlement within the area of present-day Germany, paying special attention to the parts of the provinces of Germania Inferior and Germania Superior, as well as the parts of the province of Gallia Belgica and the northern part of the province of Raetia that lie within Germany’s modern borders. It begins with a brief survey of the history of research in ‘rural settlement archaeology’ in general and ‘landscape archaeology’ in particular in Roman Germany from the later 1980s to today. It then considers Roman settlement archaeology in the Lower and Middle Rhine regions, the Moselle region, the northern Rhine region, and the southern Upper Rhine and Neckar region. The chapter concludes by assessing settlement archaeology in northern Raetia.

Reception and History of Research in the Roman Provinces of Germany

This chapter considers the reception and history of research in the provinces of Roman Germany. It begins by tracing the roots of the discipline of provincial Roman archaeology to the conceptual framework of ancient history and classical archaeology, and its methods to prehistory and protohistory. It then outlines the eight phases of the history of Roman research in Germany: creation of legends in the Middle Ages; rebirth of the ancient world in the Renaissance; the Roman Germany of the antiquarians and the beginnings of limes research; early science and civic societies; the emergence of modern organised science; the Römlingeat the time of National Socialism; academic recognition; and current research (dissertations and externally funded projects). The chapter concludes by discussing prospects for the discipline of provincial Romanarchaeology.

The Transformation into the Early Middle Ages (Fourth to Eighth Centuries)

This chapter focuses on the transformation of Roman Germany into the early Middle Ages (fourth to eighth centuries). The final collapse of Roman rule in northern Gaul in the middle of the fifth century signalled the de facto end of the three Late Roman provinces: Germania Prima, Germania Secunda, and Maxima Sequanorum. The territories along the western bank of the River Rhine experienced quite different political destinies between the middle of the fifth and the middle of the sixth century. The chapter first looks at how migrations of peoples from Barbaricum into the Roman Empire caused the end of a Roman-style society and economy in former Roman Germany. It then discusses early medieval archaeology in Germany, with particular emphasis on cemeteries and churches. Finally, it analyses methodological developments in late antique and early medieval archaeology, along with the transformation of towns and landscape/rural settlements.