Beyond Romanization and Colonialism: Roman Influences in Ireland

Summary

Currently, models of colonial theory are being broken down with better understandings of fluid frontiers and more complex systems of culture contact. These new frameworks offer greater insights into how groups interact and provide us with a substantial platform on which to discuss nuanced exchange networks. With recent renewed interest in exchange during the Late Iron Age in the British Isles, there has been greater advanced scholarship in our understanding of interactions between Rome and Ireland, not however within a colonial framework. During this period, new types of material culture were formed and flourished, a new literary tradition developed, and new religious practices took root. In the Late Iron Age, Ireland remained outside of Roman political control but not necessarily outside the sphere of Roman cultural influence. This paper reassesses cultural and social interaction across the Irish Sea, engaging with the Roman material and vestiges of Roman culture present in the Irish archaeological record. By using a colonial model, we gain greater insights into Late Iron Age Ireland as well as open up discussions of colonialism and culture contact in non-modern contexts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Breaking Boundaries: Exploring Colonialism in the Modern World and Beyond

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