Working with indigenous (descendant) communities and the study of Roman Britain

Summary

This paper explores the meaning of the Roman past to people in Britain. The imperial context of Roman studies has been interrogated for almost two decades and alternative, more-critically-based, accounts of the impact of Roman upon Britain have been produced. The popular media, however, often portrays the Roman intervention in Britain as having granted material progress to barbarian Britons through the gift of Roman civilization. These arguments tend to divide specialists from the broader public. What has not been attempted is an exploration of the variety of ideas that people in Britain hold about the Roman past and how academic and media receptions interact with these conceptions. This paper outlines a project that will aim to explore the complexity of contemporary conceptions of the Roman past focusing upon the frontier region of northern England (see http://www.dur.ac.uk/roman.centre/hadrianswall/).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Entangling Colonial Narratives New and Old   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2013

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

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PaperId(s): 177