Archeology of the Roman Provinces is a discipline within the field of Classical Studies that deals with the history, material culture, and civilization of the Roman provinces, particularly those of the Latin-speaking West, from the 2nd century BC to Late Antiquity.
© Salvatore Ortisi
Archeology of the Roman Provinces is understood as a discipline of Classical and historical studies. It deals with the history, material culture, and civilization of the provinces of the Roman Empire, especially those of the Latin-speaking West (e.g. along the Rhine and the upper and middle Danube, as well as in England, France, Spain, and North Africa from Morocco to Libya). The chronological framework is defined by the beginning and end of the military and civil administration of the respective province, i.e. from the Late Republic (2nd/1st century BC) to Late Antiquity (5th to at most the mid or late 7th century AD).
Alongside written sources, material remains—from everyday objects to above- and below-ground monuments and archaeological features—are central to the field’s research interests and methodology. One of the discipline’s tasks is to document and make accessible the corpus of monuments and the wide variety of finds and material categories in order to address complex questions of occupation and provincialization, as well as the acculturation of the indigenous population and the fusion of Roman-Mediterranean and local cultures. This includes diverse aspects ranging from settlement forms and building techniques to clothing and dress, as well as customs, cult, and religion.
Both military and settlement-historical developments, as well as economic and trade structures, processes, and changes within individual or multiple provinces and larger regions, can be analyzed and assessed in far greater detail on the basis of the available material remains than on written sources alone.
Interdisciplinary collaboration has always been a defining feature of Provincial Roman research. This applies to related Classical disciplines such as Roman epigraphy and numismatics, as well as to other archaeological fields, and also to the use of modern scientific methods, for example in dating (dendrochronology) or in the systematic investigation of terrain on the ground (geophysical prospection) and from the air (aerial survey).
