Postnationalism and the Past: The Politics of Theory in Roman Archaeology

Abstract

European archaeology faces two significant challenges: the intractability of old national narratives about the past, combined with the resurgence of reactionary populism, and the need to update the toolkit of social archaeological theory to meet the challenges presented by the current global political climate. The theory of postnationalism offers one way of addressing both the present political situation and the need to rejuvenate archaeological theory to meet this danger—it provides both a warning of how nationalism continues to influence research and an entreaty for archaeology to embrace its political nature. By exploring the history of scholarship and politics in Roman archaeology in Romania and the public reception of Roman studies in Britain through the lens of postnationalism, this paper argues that while the past has always been and always will be political, archaeology as a discipline is at a watershed moment—archaeologists must become unapologetic political actors.