British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences

BA PDF Symposium 2006

26 April 2006

Abstracts

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Dr Paul Newson

Imperialism, Cultural Ideals and Customs: The Rural Landscape of the Roman Near East

This paper will assess our understanding of rural landscapes in the Near East between the first and eighth Centuries AD. As one major theme affecting rural landscapes of the region in this period, it will consider the extent to which such environments may have been affected by the processes of Roman Imperialism and acculturation.

The traditional approach, and one which to a large extent has remained the current orthodoxy in respect to the Near East, has implied that the power of Rome, whilst being decisive in Western Europe and North Africa in disseminating aspects of Roman culture, made little impression on an already long civilised and Hellenized East. Such assumptions have in themselves proved a hindrance in explorations into the effects of Roman Imperialism on the countryside of provinces previously within the realm of Hellenistic kingdoms. Recent work in other areas of the Eastern Mediterranean, notably in Greece itself, have begun to demonstrate the effect of Roman domination on previously Hellenized provinces. With the introduction of postcolonial theory in recent years a reappraisal of the extent to which Rome influenced and changed local cultures has been developing. Again much of this work has centred on the western Roman provinces.

This paper will attempt to provide an Eastern model against which such theories as have been developed for the western provinces can be tested. In providing such a test case the paper will highlight recent archaeological evidence collected from the rural landscapes of Central Syria on certain issues crucial in framing development and change within the rural arena.

Dr Paul Newson is currently a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Archaeology, Durham University. Following a BA and MA at UCL, London in Classics and Archaeology he obtained a PhD at the University of Leicester in the Archaeology of Floodwater farming systems of Roman Arabia. Paul is also currently undertaking a fieldwork project in the environs of Homs, Syria.