With the decline in popularity of the term “Romanization” as a way
of analyzing the changes in the archaeological record visible
throughout the conquered provinces of the Roman Empire, scholars have
increasingly turned to the important concept of “identity” to
understand the experiences of local peoples living under Roman rule.
Studies of identity in the Roman Empire have thus emphasized how local
peoples, rather than simply passively copying Roman culture, actively
created and recreated complex and multi-faceted identities that
incorporated local traditions within the increasingly connected and
“globalized” world of the empire. How did the violent nature of
Roman rule in the provinces impact local communities and the ways in
which individuals interacted with one another? This book provides a
detailed study of the ways in which the Celtic-speaking peoples of the
ancient settlement of Lattara in Roman Mediterranean Gaul fashioned
their lives under two centuries of Roman rule,and in particular the
ways in which the creation of these lived experiences wasentangled in
the larger processes of Roman colonialism. The important
archaeological settlement and port of Lattara (located today in modern
Lattes in Mediterranean France), was occupied from ca 500 BCE to 200
CE, and has been the focus of extensive excavations by international
teams of archaeologists for over 35 years. The author seeks to
understand the ways in which the daily lives of the inhabitants of
Lattara were shaped and constrained by the particular historical
circumstances of Roman rule, involving the violent conquest of the
province between 125-121 BCE, the pacification of numerous revolts in
the in the first half of the first century BCE, and the imposition of
an oppressive system of taxation, land redistribution, and grain
levies. Through a detailed analysis of the large corpus of
archaeological evidence dating from ca. 200 BCE to 200 CE at Lattara,
the author argues that the violent establishment of Roman rule in
Mediterranean Gaul engendered very different forms of social
relationships and interactions that structured the community during
the late first century BCE and onward. This involved a new
organization of domestic space and living arrangements, new
relationships structuring the production and exchange of material
goods, different relationships between the community and the wider
spiritual world, and new strategies for acquiring political influence
and power, based upon the increasing importance of material wealth.
All of this occurred by the very end of the first century BCE despite
the continued persistence of many aspects of local identity,
particularly evident in religious practices. Furthermore, these new
social relationships were arguably paramount in the daily practices of
reproducing Roman rule at Lattara, and in the larger province of
Mediterranean Gaul more generally; practices that were in particular
rooted in an ever-increasing socio-economic hierarchy.
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An Archaeology of Colonial Transformations at Ancient Lattara
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781789255676
Publisert
2020
Utgiver
Vendor
Oxbow Books
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter