Robert Witcher

Archaeologies of Landscape Excavating the Materialities of Hadrian’s Wall

This article interrogates the materiality of Hadrian’s Wall beyond its widespread perception as a monument of/to Ancient Rome. Encounters with this monument have generated multitudinous materialities: hegemonic, conflicting and ambiguous. These trajectories have their own material circulations in both solid and narrative forms. Here, we consider materiality through the cultures inspired by/of the Wall. Through the formulation of an interdisciplinary methodology and praxis, we contribute to landscape studies generally and Romano—British frontier studies in particular. Firstly, we consider the genealogies of thought through which the Wall has been created, including its definition as a contested border and its use to inform discourses of nation and empire. Secondly, the material landscapes of the Wall are considered through phenomenon and encounter informed by contemporary debates in anthropology, archaeology and cultural geography. As part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded Tales of the Frontier project (http:// www.dur.ac.uk/roman.centre/ hadrianswall/), the authors aim to provide an enriched account of the materialities of the Wall beyond traditional narratives generated by fieldwork and ancient historical texts.

The Tiber valley project: the Tiber and Rome through two millennia

In 1997 a new collaborative research project was initiated by the British School at Rome. This project draws on a variety of sources of archaeological information to explore the regional impact of the City of Rome throughout the period from 1000 BC to AD 1300. The project provides a common collaborative research framework which brings together a range of archaeologists and historians working in various institutions. In this paper those involved in different aspects of this new project outline their work and its overall objectives.

Broken pots and meaningless dots? Surveying the rural landscapes of Roman Italy

In this paper, I question why the rapid methodological development of field survey as a technique for the study of rural Roman Italy has not been accompanied by parallel developments in theoretical and interpretative frameworks. Field survey remains wedded to a limited range of text-driven and ‘processual’ questions, and is isolated from wider archaeological thinking about material culture and landscape. In marked contrast to other regions and periods, the study of the Roman countryside of Italy continues to focus on sites, pots and processes, rather than places, people and meanings. I argue for an epistemological shift to bring studies into dialogue with the wider discipline. To this end, theoretical and methodological practices are subject to critique. The suggestion that survey is incapable of responding to such issues as social identity is dismissed via a deconstruction of how archaeological knowledge is constructed. Various potential research topics are then discussed in order to outline a new agenda for field survey in Italy. The aim is to stimulate a diversification of approaches that fully realize the potential of survey to contribute to the study of Roman landscapes.

Settlement and society in early Imperial Etruria.

This paper compares the early imperial period results from thirty surveys in and around regio VII Etruria in order to identify similarities and differences of settlement, population and economy. Three sub-regional patterns are defined: the suburbium, coastal Etruria and inland Etruria. Consideration of methodological issues of survey comparison suggests the problem is real, but not insuperable. A range of interpretative models is discussed with particular reference to the impact of the urbs on economic, agricultural and social developments. The structural connections between the sub-regions are emphasized, particularly the organization of labour, demography and agricultural strategies. The results reveal varied responses to Roman control, leading to more not less social and economic diversity. More generally, the results underline the value of comparing regional survey data.

On Rome's ecological contribution to British flora and fauna: landscape, legacy and identity

ABSTRACT This paper addresses the flora and fauna of Roman Britain via two long-lived and closely-related notions: the ‘Roman introduction’ and the ‘living legacy’. These concepts connect knowledge and beliefs about the introduction of new species during the Roman period with the idea of direct and enduring biological inheritance in post-Roman societies. The paper explores both the popular and academic prominence of the Romans as agents of ecological change with effects on landscape, identity and diet which are still discernible and resonant today. These notions demonstrate wide currency, from popular stories through to scientific research. Today, archaeobotany and zooarchaeology are the primary means of documenting the flora and fauna of Roman Britain. Yet the discipline of archaeology came late to this topic. This paper outlines the evolving sources of evidence used over the past 400 years to identify those species introduced during the Roman period. This includes consideration of the reception of classical texts, linguistic etymology and genetic analysis. An overarching narrative behind these concepts is the colonial theoretical framework of ‘Romanisation’, or the genealogical appropriation of the Romans as ‘our’ cultural and biological ancestors. Despite interest in the reception of Rome and its archaeological remains, scholars have been slow to recognise the centrality of flora and fauna for understanding historical and contemporary perceptions of the Roman past. This paper opens a new avenue of research by calling attention to the intellectual biography of the dominant interpretive frameworks which structure both scientific approaches to the collection and interpretation of data and popular attitudes towards landscape and identity.

The Fabulous Tales of the Common People, Part 1: Representing Hadrian’s Wall

Abstract Hadrian’s Wall is one of the most instantly recognizable ancient monuments in the UK. This paper explores the historical and contemporary visualization practices which have created this iconic image. Moving between the disciplines of archaeology, cultural geography, and heritage and tourism studies, the paper draws upon a variety of data sources such as paintings, photographs, models, and reconstructions to consider how the Wall is visually represented within contemporary public discourse. The paper focuses on digital photography and considers the ways in which images create and sustain particular readings of the Wall’s function and significance. These contemporary representational practices demonstrate strong continuities, and earlier images are used to provide historical context. Emphasis is placed on the monument’s landscape setting in visual representations and the importance of this environmental context for readings of the Wall’s cultural and political significance. The present paper deals primarily with representations of the Wall, but it is argued that these representational practices are also fundamentally embodied. The physical encounters of visitors and archaeologists will be considered in greater detail in the second part of this study (Witcher, forthcoming).

Life of an ancient monument: Hadrian's Wall in history

The Romans are Britains favourite invaders, and Hadrians Wall is among the largest and finest of the relics they left behind on the island. However, as our authors urge, we should demand more intellectual depth from our monuments today. Not simply a cultural asset anchored in the Roman empire, Hadrians Wall had a busy afterlife, a material history reflecting the uses, attitudes and emotions of later centuries. Its ‘biography’ not only captures new information about the last two millennia, it offers a story that the modern visitor deserves to hear.

New Book Chronicle

With over half of the worlds population living in cities, urbanism is one of the defining characteristics of the contemporary age. In the past, by contrast, most people lived scattered in villages and rural settlements. Yet pre-industrial cities still exerted a disproportionate influence on society, economy and culture. In Cities that shaped the ancient world , John Julius Norwich collects 40 of the most influential. Taking inspiration from this urban super league, this instalment of New Book Chronicle tackles a selection of new volumes, each concerned with one of the cities identified by Norwich, taking us 5000 years and 13 000 km from Ur to Tikal. Each book also presents a different publication format, offering the opportunity to think not only about the individual cities, but also how we write about them.

Double Dutch: two perspectives on the landscapes of first millennium BC ItalyP.A.J. Attema, G.-J. Burgers & P.M. van Leusen. Regional pathways to complexity: settlement and land-use dynamics in early Italy from the Bronze Age to the Republican period (Amsterdam Archaeological Studies 15). iv+235 pages, 81 bw 978-90-8964-276-9 hardback €55.

TESSE D. STEK. Cult places and cultural change in Republican Italy: a contextual approach to religious aspects of rural society after the Roman conquest (Amsterdam Archaeological Studies 14). xii+263 pages, numerous illustrations. 2009. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 978-90-8964-177-9 hardback €49.50. P.A.J. ATTEMA, G.-J. BURGERS & P.M. VAN LEUSEN. Regional pathways to complexity: settlement and landuse dynamics in early Italy from the Bronze Age to the Republican period (Amsterdam Archaeological Studies 15). iv+235 pages, 81 b&w & colour illustrations. 2010. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press; 978- 90-8964-276-9 hardback €55.