Frontiers and Mobilities: The Frontiers of the Roman Empire and Europe

Richard Hingley

doi:10.1017/eaa.2017.17

Abstract

This article addresses questions relating to the ‘Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site’ and seeks to introduce into this initiative some concepts derived from recent writings on contemporary mobilities and bordering, exploring the possibility of creating greater engagement between the two academic fields of ‘border studies’ and ‘Roman Frontier Studies’. By examining the relationship between the Roman Frontiers initiative and the European Union's stated aims of integration and the dissolution of borders, it argues in favour of crossing intellectual borders between the study of the present and the past to promote the value of the Roman frontiers as a means of reflecting on contemporary problems facing Europe. This article considers the potential roles of Roman Frontier Studies in this debate by emphasizing frontiers as places of encounter and transformation.

Highlights

A new focus on mobilities and migrations is developing in archaeology across the world.1 Archaeologists, in Britain, have focused on human mobility within the Roman Empire, using a series of newly-developed scientific techniques that offer new understandings (Eckardt, 2010; Eckardt et al, 2014; Eckardt & Müldner, 2016; Martiniano et al, 2016; Redfern et al, 2016)
This may be seen as a negative message by many who seek to publicize the Roman frontiers for visitors, it should be possible to adopt a more nuanced perspective that emphasizes the variable characters of frontiers and borders in both the past and the present
Attempts to manage the movement of people across the European Union (EU)’s borders have been deeply challenged by the political troubles that have transformed the lands to the south and east of the Mediterranean over the past decade, leading to sustained scholarly and public criticism of the EU’s policies and practices on its borders

Summary

INTRODUCTION

A new focus on mobilities and migrations is developing in archaeology across the world (van Dommelen, 2014). Archaeologists, in Britain, have focused on human mobility within the Roman Empire, using a series of newly-developed scientific techniques that offer new understandings (Eckardt, 2010; Eckardt et al, 2014; Eckardt & Müldner, 2016; Martiniano et al, 2016; Redfern et al, 2016). Empire and the apparent success of the imperial administration in assimilating people from disparate backgrounds into a settled society (Hingley, 2005; Versluys, 2014) The character of the FREWHS will be addressed as a series of venues for encounter and transformation rather than as measures of (former) national or colonial division (see Cooper & Rumford, 2013: 114) These materials will be used to reflect on the trends toward nationalistic and divisive rhetoric in Europe, drawing on the prominence of the FREWHS to argue the value of heritage as a means of promoting inclusive messages that link into the interconnectedness of the people of Europe and the Mediterranean region. The role of the Roman frontiers as the borders of an intercontinental military dictatorship makes the World Heritage Site potentially potent as a parallel and source of contemplation over concerns about contemporary border building and mobilities

ROMAN FRONTIER STUDIES AND WORLD HERITAGE STATUS

EUROPEAN IDENTITIES

CONCLUSION

Universal Value for the Frontiers of the

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE