Economic change in Eastern Gaul during the 1st century BC.

Romanisation was a gradual and complex phenomenon. It is often investigated in urban settings where Roman power was ostentatious. Where the process has been examined in rural contexts, research has focused primarily on the most prominent production and land management facilities, such as villae or centuriations. More rarely is use made of the overall dynamics of the rural structures under study and of the system of settlement through which urban and rural areas interact in synergy. It is this last approach that is highlighted in this study.

The Transformation of Economic Life under the Roman Empire, 2002

Did a Roman imperial economy exist under the Late Republic, the Roman Principate and the Later Roman Empire? And if so, what type of economy was it? Another equally important question is: did the Roman Empire, by specific actions, the creation of infrastructures, or its very existence, trigger a transformation of economic life in the regions which it dominated? Or was the Empire a marginal affair in the regions that belonged to it, and did economic developments take their own course, independently of the Empire? Questions like these, which are of great consequence to any student of Roman history, archaeology, and Roman law, were at the centre of interest during the second workshop ofthe network Impact ofEmpire 1 • Recent discussion of the Roman imperial economy has been dominated by the controversy between modemists like Michael Rostovtzeff, primitivists like Moses Finley and scholars who take an intermediate position, like Keith Hopkins, with his well-known argument that Roman taxation stimulated trade empire-wide 2 • In reaction to Rostovtzeff's modernistic interpretations 1 We owe thanks to Luuk de Ligt for his advice. This introduction draws heavily on articles by H.W.

1987

A basic archaeological assumption is that temporal change is reflected in spatial change. Whether stylistic (as in the decoraticln of a bowl), or statistical and physical (measures of the spatial relationships in a site's accumulated deposits), archaeological evidence invariably has a spatial component. From spatial evidence temporal continuity and change are inferred. If archaeologists wish to examine the mechanisms of cultural change, rather than simply providing descriptions nf spatial and temporal variation in material culture. they must address the question of how cultural change is encoded in and inferred from spatial discontinuity. Fundamental to this efiort are analyses conducted simultaneously at muitipie scales (for an expanded discussion see Marquardt and Crumley 1987). Scale refers to the "grain" of the unit of analysis relative to the matrix as a whole; effective scale (Crumley 1979:164-65) is any scale at which pattem may be recognized and meaning inferred. For many years archaeology was dominared by research at ihe scale of the site, paralleling a focus in anthropology on community. In the second haif of the twentieth century, an emphasis on the individual and on context rendered legible severa1 more scales, ranging from regional settlement patterns to sub-site activity areas (Willey 1953; Binford and Binford 1968: Hil1 and Gunn 1977). Subsequent developrrients link concepts and techr~iques that allow the recovery of cartain cognitive aspects oí' vanished societies, such as the role of history and o i cultural preierence in adaptive strategies (Crumley 1993; McGovern 1994) or the recovery of aspects of landscape symbolism in vanished belief systems (Ashmore and Knapp 1996). In addition, increasingly sophisticated techniques for extracting more traditional economic, social, political, and environmental information have become available. Particularly fruitiul for the analysis of vanished polities has been long term regional-scale analysis. With the passage of time a polity, or its administrative successor(s) in a region. re-ranks the importance of that region's resources. These tluctuating boundaries. priorities, and perceptions necessitate a dynamic definition of region in which, like any artifact, its forrn and content is transformed over time. Even regions that at one scale are ostensibly homogeneous nonetheless have distinctive cultural and physical features, both within the area and overlapping into other contiguous areas; manifest at greater or lesser scales, these features harbor contradictions with the potential to negate any claim of uniformity. Thus the analysis o i regions and their political, social, and environmental boundaries and other divisions must be undertaken at severa1 temporal and spatial scales. The concept of lanrlscape. the spatial manifestation of the relations between human groups and their environments, is particularly useful to archaeologists. Landscapes offer a framework within which contemporaneous sites and olher zones oC activity can be irrtegrated with features of the physical erivirorimerrt (Crumley 1976:7; Marquardt and Crumley 19875; Crumley and Marquardt 1990). A landscape signature (ibid. 1987:7) is the material record, manifest in both physical and sociohistorical structures, of the human activities that characterize a particular time and place. From its signature, priorities, choices, and the interna1 dynamics and external relationships of a politp's administrative and political system rnay be inierred. Thus the concepts of region and landscape. in their transformation across time and space, and in their multiple meanings to those within and beyond fluctuating borders and divisions, are powerful tools for the study of pre-and prcto-historic polities. These integrated regional-and continental-scale data oiier new insights when applied to the topographical realities of the European countryside, and many factors in the decision-making process are clarified. The interpretative utility of this body of information, especially as it regards Gaulish polities, is

1997

A basic archaeological assumption is that temporal change is reflected in spatial change. Whether stylistic (as in the decoraticln of a bowl), or statistical and physical (measures of the spatial relationships in a site's accumulated deposits), archaeological evidence invariably has a spatial component. From spatial evidence temporal continuity and change are inferred. If archaeologists wish to examine the mechanisms of cultural change, rather than simply providing descriptions nf spatial and temporal variation in material culture. they must address the question of how cultural change is encoded in and inferred from spatial discontinuity. Fundamental to this efiort are analyses conducted simultaneously at muitipie scales (for an expanded discussion see Marquardt and Crumley 1987). Scale refers to the "grain" of the unit of analysis relative to the matrix as a whole; effective scale (Crumley 1979:164-65) is any scale at which pattem may be recognized and meaning inferred. For many years archaeology was dominared by research at ihe scale of the site, paralleling a focus in anthropology on community. In the second haif of the twentieth century, an emphasis on the individual and on context rendered legible severa1 more scales, ranging from regional settlement patterns to sub-site activity areas (Willey 1953; Binford and Binford 1968: Hil1 and Gunn 1977). Subsequent developrrients link concepts and techr~iques that allow the recovery of cartain cognitive aspects oí' vanished societies, such as the role of history and o i cultural preierence in adaptive strategies (Crumley 1993; McGovern 1994) or the recovery of aspects of landscape symbolism in vanished belief systems (Ashmore and Knapp 1996). In addition, increasingly sophisticated techniques for extracting more traditional economic, social, political, and environmental information have become available. Particularly fruitiul for the analysis of vanished polities has been long term regional-scale analysis. With the passage of time a polity, or its administrative successor(s) in a region. re-ranks the importance of that region's resources. These tluctuating boundaries. priorities, and perceptions necessitate a dynamic definition of region in which, like any artifact, its forrn and content is transformed over time. Even regions that at one scale are ostensibly homogeneous nonetheless have distinctive cultural and physical features, both within the area and overlapping into other contiguous areas; manifest at greater or lesser scales, these features harbor contradictions with the potential to negate any claim of uniformity. Thus the analysis o i regions and their political, social, and environmental boundaries and other divisions must be undertaken at severa1 temporal and spatial scales. The concept of lanrlscape. the spatial manifestation of the relations between human groups and their environments, is particularly useful to archaeologists. Landscapes offer a framework within which contemporaneous sites and olher zones oC activity can be irrtegrated with features of the physical erivirorimerrt (Crumley 1976:7; Marquardt and Crumley 19875; Crumley and Marquardt 1990). A landscape signature (ibid. 1987:7) is the material record, manifest in both physical and sociohistorical structures, of the human activities that characterize a particular time and place. From its signature, priorities, choices, and the interna1 dynamics and external relationships of a politp's administrative and political system rnay be inierred. Thus the concepts of region and landscape. in their transformation across time and space, and in their multiple meanings to those within and beyond fluctuating borders and divisions, are powerful tools for the study of pre-and prcto-historic polities. These integrated regional-and continental-scale data oiier new insights when applied to the topographical realities of the European countryside, and many factors in the decision-making process are clarified. The interpretative utility of this body of information, especially as it regards Gaulish polities, is

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2008

HAL is a multidisciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires

Late Antique Archaeology, 2004

This paper illustrates the evolution of settlement types in a small territory between Antiquity and the Medieval period. During the Early and Mid Roman periods, the area was densely and uniformly covered by numerous modest rural estates, in a way that differs from the 'classical' villa pattern. Many of these remained active until the 4th c. During the 5th c., small villages of 'Germanic' type replaced scattered settlements. This clustering of rural population was accompanied by a change to a landscape consisting of clearings and uncultivated areas. In the new villages, Early Medieval properties, in which a quadrangular ditched enclosure contained scattered structures such as timber buildings, sunken huts, and storage pits, were not replaced by the type of dwelling associated with the 'Medieval' village until the 11th or 12th c.

With Come Ponroy. In Paths to Complexity. Centralisation and Urbanisation in Iron Age Europe. Fernandez-Gotz, M., Wendling, H. & Winger, K. Oxbow books

The ruling elite of the local communities in the Roman provinces are mainly known through epigraphic texts. These texts have often been studied as a source in themselves. In this paper, I adopt a contextual approach to study the inscriptions of councillors and magistrates of several civitates in Belgic Gaul and Lower Germany in relation to their archaeological context, with particular reference to villa sites and civitas capitals. Based on historical as well archaeological evidence, it is first argued that there cannot have been a standard size for the local ordines. Findspots of inscriptions of councillors and magistrates in the countryside are then used as indicators for rural properties and burial places on rural estates. The final section of this paper deals with the bronze inscriptions from the villa of Valkenburg-‘Ravensbos’ which provide some nice examples of personal and political patronage. The results of a re-examination and restitution of these texts, which after their first publication in the excavation report of 1925 have never been re-studied again, have been added as an appendix to this paper.

Celtic oppida from Late La Tène period are often interpreted as the earliest towns in temperate Europe. But it seems clear that some of the open agglomerations built on plains in the third and second century BC, like the site of Aulnat, were also proto-urban settlements. These two types of large settlements, fortified on a hilltop or open, have in fact “ancestors”, often dated from the end of the first Iron Age and the end of the Late Bronze Age, like Bourges or Corent in central France. The aim of this article is to discuss the features and status of these sites which are older than celtic oppida, in central and eastern Gaul. Some of them are only the result of a concentration of rural settlements, or correspond to the development of an aristocratic house. But others, like Bourges, are clearly urban sites although they weren’t occupied for a long time. They show there were different waves and ways of experimentation during the earliest history of urbanisation.

… and trades from Neolithic to Middle …, 2008