Late Roman Research Articles

Josiah Osgood, Christopher Baron (Edd.): Cassius Dio and the Late Roman Republic.

Josiah Osgood, Christopher Baron (Edd.): Cassius Dio and the Late Roman Republic.

Emperor Theodosius and the Roman World Restoration

The article examines a complex of various measures (military, political, diplomatic, economic, financial, social, and religious) of Emperor Theodosius undertaken by him in the first years of his reign and aimed at overcoming the consequences
 of the Adrianople catastrophe, which put the Roman Empire on the brink of survival. The author defines what exactly had to be restored and what the «Roman World»
 meant. The main attention is paid to the activities of Emperor Theodosius and his measures in various areas of domestic and foreign policy, as well as to the estimation
 of their effectiveness in the context of the history of the Late Roman Empire. The analysis of the sources does not allow us to call Theodosius in the full sense of the word «the restorer of the Roman world», and his contemporaries did
 not give him such a title. Nevertheless, these measures turned out to be effective for a certain period, and they can be recognized as quite logical and correspond-
 ing to the historical situation. Some of them had a long-term effect and significance that went far beyond the reign of their initiator; others were limited to the current moment or were intended for the near historical perspective

Iustitia and Corruptio in Liber Constitutionum sive Lex Gundobada

After 476, Flavius Gundobadus, King of the Burgundians (473–516), sought ways and means to consolidate and strengthen his power, including through legal regulation of the relations between the Burgundians themselves, on the one hand, and between the Burgundians and the Gallo-Romans, on the other. Thus, Liber Constitutionum sive Lex Gundobada was issued, the main purpose of which is the legal regulation of the complex relations in the kingdom, through a codification of the preserved customary law – an embodiment of tribal traditions, practices, and customs, with reasonable use of Roman legal ideas, notions, and norms. The translation and analysis of selected provisions from Lex Gundobada in this paper show the extent to which the Burgundians perceived, received, adopted, and adapted some of the most valuable Roman legal and moral rules and principles, especially the Roman concepts of iustitia and corruptio, and how the rights of both the Burgundians and the Romans were regulated and protected through them. Lex Burgundionum is part of a series of legal Barbarian codes, compiled, adapted, published, and applied in the Barbarian regna between the 5th and 9th centuries. These codes are one of the significant and true sources for the historical reconstruction of the socio-political, socio-cultural, and legal-administrative transition from the late Roman Empire to the German kingdoms and early medieval Europe. They manifest how historically the arena of clashes, confrontations, and wars between Romanitas and Barbaritas gradually became a contact zone of legal reception, of cultural, legal, and socio-political influences, from which a new world will be born, a successor to the old ones, and a new legal system – the Romano-Germanic one.

Mid‐ to Late Holocene landscape dynamics and rural settlement in the uplands of northern Bavaria, Germany

AbstractWe present results from a systematic interdisciplinary study on (pre‐)historic rural settlement and landscape development in an upland region of northern Bavaria, Germany. The archaeological and geoarchaeological investigations—supported by radiocarbon dating, optically stimulated luminescence dating, and palaeoecological analysis—were performed to (i) identify so far unknown prehistoric rural settlement sites, (ii) determine site‐specific soil erosion from colluvial deposits, and (iii) assess the composition of woodland from on‐ and offsite charcoal finds. The earliest indicators of human activities from the Younger Neolithic (late 5th to early 4th millennium B.C.E.) come from colluvial deposits. Our investigations, for the first time, show Middle to Late Bronze Age (ca. 1400–800 B.C.E.), permanent rural settlement in a German central upland region, with a peak in the Late Bronze Age. Due to the varying thicknesses of Bronze Age colluvial deposits, we assume land use practices to have triggered soil erosion. From the spectrum of wood species, Maloideae, ash, and birch are regarded as successional indicators after fire clearance in that period. Settlement continued until the 5th century B.C.E. After a hiatus of 500 years, it re‐flourished in the Late Roman and Migration periods (mid‐3rd–5th century C.E.) and went on in the Medieval period.

Rich weapon burial from the Late Roman Iron Age at Veldbæk, Denmark –

During two campaigns in 1997 and 1999, archaeologists from Esbjerg Museum excavated a spectacular Late Roman Iron Age weapon burial at Veldbæk in Esbjerg, Denmark. In addition to full weaponry, the deceased was buried with magnificent grave goods such as gilded fittings for a military belt, gaming pieces, a gold finger ring, a silver animal fibula, a red carnelian intaglio, and a copper-alloy-clad wooden bucket. The assemblage dates the grave to the transition between periods C1b and C2 of the Late Roman Iron Age, which is to say ca. AD 250 or shortly thereafter. The grave is a crucial new piece in the puzzle to understand how power was distributed in southern Jutland during the Late Roman Iron Age.

Book Review: S. GERMANIDOU (ed.), Secular Byzantine Women. Art, Archaeology, and Ethnography of Female Material Culture from Late Roman to Post - Byzantine Times, London and New York, Routledge, 2022

Book Review: S. GERMANIDOU (ed.), Secular Byzantine Women. Art, Archaeology, and Ethnography of Female Material Culture from Llate Roman to Post - Byzantine Times, London and New York, Routledge, 2022

Results of excavation at the Roman Period site in Podegrodzie, Nowy Sącz district

In the Late Roman and the Early Migration Periods, i.e. the 4th and the early 5th centuries AD, in the Polish Western Carpathians, especially in the Sącz Basin, the adjacent Sącz Beskid Mts and Wyspowy Beskid Mts as well as in the Krosno-Jasło Basin, a significant intensification of settlement is observed. The area has been investigated through archaeological surface surveys and excavations; in the Sącz region, five sites have been excavated with the results published to date. This text presents the results of test excavation at yet another site, Podegrodzie 7, Nowy Sącz district. In the feature investigated there a rare jug ornamented with glossed triangles, several storage vessels of the Krausengefäße type, as well as some organic remains were discovered. Palaeobotanical analysis has shown that common barley (Hordeum vulgare) was the predominant species cultivated by the inhabitants of this territory. The radiocarbon date obtained from a charcoal sample corresponds to the chronology of the site determined by the ceramics typology. The results of the excavation at Podegrodzie 7 site are complemented with a map presenting the location of settlement in that area in the Late Roman and the Early Migration Periods.

Przeworsk tribes in the Western Ukrainian lands in the first centuries AD (according to the materials of funeral sites)

During the 1st-3rd centuries AD, waves of migrations repeatedly swept through the area of present-day western Ukraine. As evidenced by archaeological materials, migrations of Dacian and Przeworsk populations at the beginning of the 1st century AD and during the 2nd century led to the formation of the Lipitsa culture in this region, a cultural unit combining ethnic traits of both communities. Turbulent times of the Marcomannic Wars (166–180 AD) and a new wave of Przeworsk culture migration pushed the Lipitsa population out to Dacia. The distribution of archaeological sites from the late 2nd-3rd cent. AD shows that the Danube region was not the only direction of the Przeworsk tribes’ movement, as they also resettled and colonised new territories in the Volhynia, Podolia, and Polesia regions. Thus, the Przeworsk populations migrating to the western Ukraine in the first two centuries AD blended with the Dacian milieu, contributing to the creation of the Lipitsa culture. The Przeworsk populations of the second wave, which moved to the territory of Ukraine towards the end of the 2nd century and in the first half of the 3rd century AD, became the basis and a major component of a new cultural unit: the Chernyakhov culture of the Late Roman Period.

Anatomies of failed revolution in Ovid’s Aeginetan Plague and Mary Shelley’s The Last Man1

This essay examines the way that plague discourse allows two writers, Ovid and Mary Shelley, to contemplate the power of a revolution to transform a civic body. The author focuses initially on Ovid’s rendering of plague on Aegina in Metamorphoses 7, contextualizing it as a response to the changing significance of pietas as well as to the succession crisis faced by the Principate in the 20’s BCE; she interprets King Aeacus’ narrative of the tragedy he witnesses among his people and their replacement by Myrmidons (ant-people) as a cynical response to the Augustan revolution and its ability to implement lasting change in how Roman subjects interact after the prolonged civil wars of the late Roman Republic. The author then turns to Mary Shelley’s The Last Man, in which a plague eradicates all of known humanity except for a single survivor and eye-witness, Lionel Verney. The essay demonstrates that Shelley taps into Ovid’s cynicism regarding the potential for human recovery after widespread devastation as she and her protagonist consider various alternatives for effective governance in England. Shelley’s exploration of the affective bonds born from familial ties (Ovidian pietas) suggest that such ties pose insurmountable problems to implementing permanent transformation within any human social order.

What You Clean Is What You Get: A Novel Chemical Cleaning Technique and the Interpretation of Corrosion Products Found in Late Roman Copper Alloy Coins Retrieved from the Sea

Thirteen Late Roman copper alloy coins with a dark concretion layer from the Early Islamic period Ma‘agan Mikhael B shipwreck were chosen to undergo an experimental chemical cleaning and polishing procedure for removing the concretion while limiting the damage to the surviving metal. These coins, and two more without concretion discovered on the beach nearby, were then subjected to a series of non-destructive analyses–visual testing, XRF, multi-focal light microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy–to determine their state of preservation, identify their corrosion products, and acquire information regarding their core material. An additional coin was examined by destructive metallographic light microscopy and SEM-EDS analyses to gain further information concerning the concretion cover. Preservation varied: For some chemically cleaned coins, a shiny orange-coloured metallic surface was exposed, while others were poorly preserved. Moreover, evidence of the stamping process was also observed. The results show that the suggested chemical cleaning treatment could be useful for processing other copper alloy objects retrieved from underwater environments; we propose a 12-step methodology to this effect.

Roman and Early Byzantine evidence from the area of Palamas. A preliminary report of the ongoing Greek-Swedish archaeological work in the region of Karditsa, Thessaly

This paper presents preliminary results of the Palamas Archaeological Project relating to the Late Roman and Early Byzantine periods in the study area in western Thessaly, Greece. These periods are comparatively understudied in Thessaly, and the aim of this work is to highlight the extent of the material and the potential of investigating the archaeology of Late Antiquity in the region. The work was centred on excavations and survey at the site at Vlochos, alongside architectural survey at the neighbouring site on Kourtikiano hill. The paper also presents studies into Late Roman and Early Byzantine material found during cleaning at Vlochos. Additionally, an unpublished inscription spoliated in a church in nearby Palamas is presented. The results show a dynamic and detailed range of Late Antique activity in the area, adding significantly to our understanding of the post-Classical habitations on the western Thessalian plain.

:Metal Finds and Coins: Final Publications from the Danish-German Jerash Northwest Quarter Project II

:<i>Metal Finds and Coins: Final Publications from the Danish-German Jerash Northwest Quarter Project II</i>

Natural cave usage in the Late Roman Empire. Shelter in times of instability?

In 2014 we began an ambitious study of the usage of natural caves in between first and fifth centuries AD in the area between the Ebro and the Pyrenees (Navarre, Basque Country, and northern Aragon). The aim was to make an inventory of all natural caves with Roman remains in the western Pyrenees in a database, to clarify the chronology of different cave usages thanks to the study of the archaeological material, to establish the function of those kinds of sites, and finally, to put into relation the caves with their surroundings in the cases that it is possible. In this article, we analyse a disputed subject in the historiography of this phenomenon: the possible use of the caves as shelter in times of instability during the Low Empire period. This interpretation has been repeated since the 70s of the 20th century until today, despite the inexistence of clear evidence.

Archaeology and History: A Late Antiquity for Britain

Archaeology and History: A Late Antiquity for Britain

Presentism and the Study of Late Antiquity

Presentism and the Study of Late Antiquity

Root and root canal diversity in human permanent maxillary first premolars and first molars in inhabitants from the ancient Middle Euphrates Valley (Syria)

AbstractThe morphological and anatomical structure of the roots and root canals of human dentition is very diverse. This means that tooth morphology can effectively differentiate populations and be used in both contemporary and historical research populations. The aim of the study was to investigate whether historical populations from the Middle East showed variation in the number of tooth roots and the morphology of canal systems.The tooth material used for the research was obtained from three sites: Terqa, Tell Masaikh, and Jabel Mashtale (Syria) during archaeological expeditions. The odontological material has been divided into three historical periods: Bronze (2,650–1700 BC), late Roman (200–500 AD) with Islamic (600–1,200 AD), and Modern (1850–1950 AD). The teeth of 31 individuals of both sexes were collected for analysis, with a total of 73 teeth examined. The subjects underwent cone‐beam computed tomography (CBCT) analysis.The greatest variation in the number of roots and root canal configurations occurred in the Late Roman and Islamic periods. In addition to the typical number of tooth roots and their characteristic root canal configurations, the presence of less typical morphological forms was noticed in each type of tooth analyzed during this period. This may indicate the influx of new genes and their mixing with local ones, which was reflected in the morphological variability.The presented studies, although they must be continued, already indicate that the analysis of root and canal variability broadens the spectrum of odontological studies conducted on historical populations.

Late Roman Light Coloured Wares From Tripolis

Lydia Bölgesi sınırları içerisinde yer alan Tripolis’te yapılan kazı çalışmalarında, Geç Antik Çağ’a tarihlenen kırmızı astarlı mal gruplarına ait çok sayıda ve formda yerel/ithal seramikler bulunmuştur. Bu çalışmada ise kil, astar ve süsleme yönüyle farklı bir grup seramik incelenmiştir. Tripolis’te, kırmızı astarlı seramikler içerisinde en az buluntu gruplarından birini oluşturan Açık Kırmızı Astarlı seramiklerden 2012-2019 yıllarında toplam 11 adet ele geçmiştir.&#x0D; Geç Antik Çağ’da Tripolis seramik ticaretinde, Anadolu (Sagalassos, Phokaia, vd.) ile sınırlı kalmayıp Doğu Akdeniz’in kıyı kesimindeki yerleşimlerle de ticareti bilinmektedir. Kentte her ne kadar ithal seramik kullanımı var olsa da yerel atölyelerce üretilen seramiklere ait farklı form gruplarına ait örneklerin sayısı her geçen yıl artmaktadır.&#x0D; Bu çalışmada Tripolis’in Geç Antik Çağ’da ithal (Açık Kırmızı Astarlı Seramikler) seramik ticaretindeki rolü de açıklanmaktadır. Tripolis’te az sayıda ele geçen ve araştırmacılar tarafından üretimleriyle ilgili farklı görüşler önerilen bir grup seramik üzerinde durulmaktadır. Tripolis’te bulunan Açık Kırmızı Astarlı seramikler, kil ve astar yapısı dikkate alınarak daha önceki çalışmalar da dikkate alınarak, Kuzeybatı Anadolu çevresinden ithal edildiği düşünülmekte olup, MS 5- 7. yüzyılın başlarına tarihlendirilmektedir.

Orientals in Late Antique Italy: Some Observations

Some evidence points at the presence of Orientals in late Roman Italy: traders (labelled “Syrians”), petty sellers (the pantapolae in Nov. Val. 5), but also students, professors such as Ammianus Marcellinus, or pilgrims. Although being Roman citizens, nonetheless they were considered foreign individuals, subject to special restrictions. The actual strangers made a different case, especially the Persians. The situation of foreign individuals was quite different. Chauvinistic attitudes are widely attested, and they worsened in critical periods, for example after Adrianople. This may explain the laws of early 397 and June 399, promulgated during Stilicho’s regency, which prohibited the wearing of trousers (bracae) and some fashionable boots called tzangae. Of course, some protégés of the imperial court had the right to enter Italy, as it was the case of the Sassanian prince Hormisdas, who accompanied Constantius II in his visit of Rome in 357.

The organic residues of lining in transport vessels from the Red Sea coast of Eritrea: a further element to understand past commercial relations

The archaeological site of Adulis lays on the Red Sea Coast of Eritrea and during Late antiquity played a significant role in interregional commerce among the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean coasts. Contacts with the Eastern Mediterranean, Arabian Peninsula and the Sasanian world have been attested from different classes of pottery that were brought to light from on-going excavations at the site. Transport vessels have attracted particular attention as they testify the extent of trades and exchange networks. Transport vessels were coated by organic materials to seal porosity and make them suitable to transport different liquids and/or food. The characterisation of coating materials helped shedding light on their function, and support the attribution to different classes of transport vessels found in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea worlds. Here, the characterisation of the organic lining detected on a set of samples identified as Late Roman Amphora 1 is discussed. Results from the chemical analyses, performed preliminarily by FT-IR and then by GC–MS, revealed that bitumen was used for lining the jars, thus leading to set the classification of the amphorae within the wide class of the so- called Torpedo jars. By overcoming the question of typological complexity posed from macroscopic examination of the sherds, the chemical investigation contributed here crucial information for the interpretation of past trading in the Indian Ocean. The research gave clues to broaden the distribution of the Torpedo jars to Adulis, giving an unexpected insight into the trading routes of the past.

Вірменія та Месопотамія в римській східній політиці та ідеології доби Антонінів: проблеми термінології латиномовної традиції

The article is devoted to the analysis of the terminology used by the Latin Roman tradition of the 2nd century CE. The texts associated with coin legends represented the policy of the Roman Empire in the East, in particular in the context of the eastern campaign of Marcus Ulpius Trajan, which ended with the short-term transformation of the territory of Armenia and Northern Mesopotamia into Roman provinces. Not only large texts by Roman authors such as Tacitus, but also small inscriptions on coins were used to characterize the transformation of the territories of Armenia and Northern Mesopotamia into Roman territories. The author offers an original approach to the interpretation of some of the legends found on the issues of Roman coins of the Trajan era and which were associated with attempts to incorporate Armenia and Northern Mesopotamia into the Roman Empire. The formula “IN POTESTATEM P R REDACTAE” finds certain analogies in the texts of the Late Roman Republican era and the time of the Early Empire, which were connected, in particular, with the transformation of Ptolemaic Egypt into a Roman province. In the 2nd century CE the formula was already used to represent the accession of Armenia and Mesopotamia to Rome.The author, unlike A. Kefelian, who proposed to connect the relevant terminology with legal analogies and property rights in the texts of Roman lawyers, offers his own interpretation. The used terms, in his opinion, were connected with the concept of “deditio in potestatem”, which had close ties with the foreign policy aspect of Roman activity, in particular in the East. Coin legends and inscriptions combine two main trends – we can see an appeal both to the victories of the Romans in the East and to the creation of new provinces in the context of the activity of the ruler, in particular through the category of delegated “power of the Roman people” along with “surrender” and “transfer” of certain territories and states under the “power of the people”, the symbolic and actual expression of which in the 1st–2nd centuries CE was connected with the Emperor. The corresponding study of terminological problems is one of the components of the study of the East image in the Western tradition, in particular in the Classical period.