Revolt, Resistance, and Long-Term Colonial Change in Roman Mediterranean Gaul

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Rising Up Against Authority: Archaeological Approaches to Rebellion" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

As with other conquered provinces of the Roman Empire, Mediterranean Gaul witnessed a number of large-scale revolts against Roman colonial rule, spanning multiple generations from the initial Roman conquest in 125 BC to ca. 74 BC. In addition to some textual references, there is good archaeological evidence for these revolts in the form of destroyed Gallic settlements, the destruction layers of which appear to postdate the violence of the initial conquest. This paper moves beyond these two more obvious pieces of evidence for revolt, to consider more broadly how archaeologists can contextualize known instances of revolt within broader patterns of social change occurring under colonial rule as evident in the material record. In the case of Roman Mediterranean Gaul, some of the material transformations that can be reasonably identified as long-term consequences of the suppression of local revolts include: land centuriation and redistribution, dramatic changes in settlement patterns and household organization, and the increased local use of coinage in the context of heavy taxation. By investigating these more long-term transformations, we can thus better appreciate revolts not as singular episodes of violence, but rather as part of larger patterns of resistance to foreign rule and ensuing colonial transformations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Rising Up Against Authority: Archaeological Approaches to Rebellion   •
• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50998