The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Roman Germany

Germania was one of the most important and complex zones of cultural interaction and conflict between Rome and neighbouring societies. A vast region, it became divided into urbanised provinces with elaborate military frontiers and the northern part of the continental 'Barbaricum'. Recent decades have seen a major effort by German archaeologists, ancient historians, epigraphers, numismatists, and other specialists to explore the Roman era in their own territory, with rich and often surprising new knowledge. This Handbook aims to make the results of this great effort of modern German and overwhelmingly German-language scholarship more widely available to Anglophone scholarship on the empire.

Archaeology and ancient history are international enterprises characterised by specific national scholarly traditions; this is notably true of the study of Roman-era Germania. This volume compromises a collection of essays in English by leading scholars working in Germany, presenting the latest developments in current research as well as situating their work within wider international scholarship through a series of critical responses from other, very different, national perspectives. In doing so, this book aims to reveal the riches of the archaeology of Roman Germany, promote the achievements of German scholars in the area, and help facilitate continued English and German language discourses on the Roman era.

Simon James, Professor of Archaeology, University of Leicester,Stefan Krmnicek, Director of the Numismatic Department, University of Tubingen

Simon James is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Leicester. After a decade at the British Museum as an archaeological illustrator and then as an educator, he returned to the University sector via a Leverhulme Fellowship at Durham. He joined the University of Leicester in January 2000, becoming professor in 2012. His research mainly relates to ancient conflict, especially in the Roman world and contemporary societies in Europe and the Middle East.


Stefan Krmnicek is Junior Professor of Ancient Numismatics and Director of the Numismatic Department at the Institute of Classical Archaeology, University of Tubingen. His research interests cover a wide range of topics, including coin iconography, economic and social history, and archaeometry, with current research focuses on the study of money and coinage at the interface between archaeology, Roman and Iron Age numismatics, anthropology, and sociology.

Introduction, Simon James & Stefan Krmnicek
Part I: Prelude, Conquest, and Provincialisation
1. Occupation and Consolidation
1. The Lands of Germania in the Later Pre-Roman Iron Age, Susanne Sievers
2. Emergence of the Provinces, Reinhard Wolters
2. Creating a Provincial Landscape
3. Archaeology of Germania Superior: Urban Settlements, Klaus Kortum
4. Archaeology of Germania Inferior: Urbanization, Norbert Hanel
5. Roman Rural Landscape Occupation in Present-Day Germany: An Overview, Thomas Maurer
Part II: Core Provinces at the Edge of Empire
3. Wars and Frontiers
6. Roman Battlefields in Germany: Kalkriese and Harzhorn, Gunther Moosbauer
7. The Limes, Martin Kemkes
4. An Integrated Economy
8. Roman Pottery Research in Germany, Susanne Biegert and Markus Helfert
9. Coinage and Money in the Roman Rhineland, David Wigg-Wolf
5. Constituting Provincial Identity
10. Religion, Cult, and Burial Customs in the German Provinces, Constanze Hopken
11. Writing and Literacy/Illiteracy, Krešimir Matijević
12. Provincial Art, Alexandra W. Busch and Henner von Hesberg
Part III: The Transformation of Power
6. Crisis of the Third Century
13. 'Vi barbarorum absumptam': A Military History of Roman Germany during the Third Century AD, Marcus Reuter
14. Crisis Research in a Civil Context, Michaela Konrad
7. Germani and Rome
15. The Germani and the German Provinces of Rome, Claus von Carnap-Bornheim
16. Roman Cultural Influence in Western Germania Magna, Michael Meyer
17. Transformations in the Roman West: The Case of the Alamanni, Claudia Theune
8. After Rome
18. The Transformation into the Early Middle Ages, Hubert Fehr
19. Reception and History of Research in the Roman Provinces of Germany, Alexander Heising
Part IV: External Perspectives and Final Thoughts
9. The Foreign Commentaries
20. The Archaeology of Roman Germany, A Dutch Perspective, Nico Roymans
21. Roman Germania? What Germania?, Michel Redde
22. Germanies, Britains, and the Roman World, Ian Haynes
23. Roman Germany and Provincial Archaeology, The North American Perspective, Philip Kiernan
10. Final Word
24. Concluding Remarks on the Handbook of the Archaeology of Roman Germany, Thomas Fischer