Embracing the Provinces: Society and Material Culture of the Roman Frontier Regions

Embracing the Provinces is a collection of essays focused on people and their daily lives living in the Roman provinces, c. 27 BC-AD 476. The main aim is to showcase the vibrancy of Roman provincial studies and suggest new directions, or new emphasis, for future investigation of Roman provincial world. It capitalizes on a wealth of data made available in recent decades to provide a holistic view on life in the Roman provinces by analyzing various aspects of daily routine in the frontier regions, such as eating, dressing, and interacting. The contributors, who are acknowledged experts in their fields, make use of innovative interpretations and modern approaches to address current issues in the study of the provinces and frontiers of the Roman Empire.
Twenty-one essays are cohesively structured around five themes, encompassing studies on the female and juvenile presence on Roman military sites, Roman provincial cooking, and Roman cavalry and horse equipment. For the first time in the Roman provincial scholarship the volume has a special section on the subject of Roman leather, providing a much-needed overview of the current stance of work. A few papers deal also with experimental archaeology. The essays reflect a wide geographical and chronological range, while retaining thematic consistency, and will be of great interest to those working in Roman archaeology and provincial studies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Contributors
Carol van Driel-Murray: an appreciation
David J. Breeze
PART 1: IT’S A MAN’S WORLD
1. Two pieces of cavalry helmet from the province of Gelderland
Annelies Koster
2. “If you go down to the woods today…” A rare item of Roman horse gear from the Dutch–German border
Clive Bridger with a contribution by Frank Willer
3. Ethnic identity and archaeology: Case studies from the “national numeri” of imperial Rome’s armies
Ian Haynes
4. Transfers between units in the Roman army
David J. Breeze
PART 2: GENDER MATTERS
5. Ghost train: the (almost) invisible dependants of the Roman garrison at Dura-Europos, Syria
Simon James
6. Farming the frontier? Mixed occupants and occupations at a Roman outpost in the Rhine delta, c. AD 180–230
Erik P. Graafstal
7. Tracing women in Roman numismatics
Fleur Kemmers
8. Multi-functionality of a Romano-British glass bangle: Between theory and practice
Tatiana Ivleva
9. A Germanic woman’s hairpin from the Roman Naval Fleet Base Velsen I (NL): A story of lost and found again
Michael Erdrich
10. Veiling in Pannonia
Ursula Rothe
PART 3: WHAT’S COOKING? MILITARY AND CIVILIAN FOODSTUFF
11. Meals and the Roman military
Penelope M. Allison
12. Food for soldiers: Farm deliveries from Germania inferior in the second and third centuries AD
Laura I. Kooistra
13. Nice Meating: The canabae legionis livestock market at Nijmegen revisited
Mark Driessen
14. Cauldrons and feasting in Oppidum Batavorum on the eve of the Batavian Revolt
Harry van Enckevort
PART 4: A LONG WALK FROM ROME: THE LEATHERWORK AT THE EMPIRE’S EDGES
15. Footwear and fashion on the fringe: stamps and decoration on leather and shoes from Vindolanda (1993–2016)
Elizabeth M. Greene
16. The shoe is on the other foot? The introduction of footwear as an example for changes in the rural community of the Cananefates
Jasper de Bruin
17. Another piece in the jigsaw: the leather from a Roman well at Tollgate Farm, Staffordshire, UK
Quita Mould
PART 5: FILLING THE GAPS: INVESTIGATING THE UNEXPLORED AREAS IN PROVINCIAL STUDIES
18. “Putting some fl esh on the bones”: Bringing Roman London to life
Jenny Hall
19. Pillow talk
Lindsay Allason-Jones
20. Stylising the functional: Wooden hair combs from Vindolanda
Barbara Birley
A bibliography of the works of Carol van Driel-Murray