The Roman Lower Danube Frontier

Over the past few decades, there has been a significant amount of research on the Roman Lower Danube frontier by international teams focusing on individual forts or broader landscape survey work; collectively, this volume represents the best of this collaboration with the aim of elevating the Lower Danube within broader Roman frontier scholarship. The Lower Danube, running between Singidunum (modern Belgrade) and Halmyris in the Danube Delta, was one of the most densely fortified regions of the Roman Empire. The region has long been a border zone, today forming part of the border between Serbia and Romania, and the majority of the border between Romania and Bulgaria. Despite its importance for understanding both Roman frontier policy and the relationship between ancient and modern borderscapes, the region has not yet made its full contribution to international Roman scholarship. Bridging the theoretical divide that exists between different regional research traditions, chapters in this volume focus on sites like Ratiaria, in modern north-western Bulgaria, while other contributors examine the complex landscape from a wider perspective oriented around roads, temporary camps, or early Christian sites. The Roman Lower Danube Frontier emphasises the importance of engaging with Roman frontier landscapes, particularly in regions such as East-Central Europe, where they remain part of a contemporary borderscape.

Preface: Researching the Romans on the Roman Lower Danube: Challenges and Opportunities - Ioana A. Oltean Introduction: The Lower Danube Limes: Recentring a Roman Frontier Province - John Karavas and Emily Hanscam Modelling Forts and Landscapes in Scythia Minor - Nathaniel Durant Roman Camps in the Lower Danube: From Remote Sensing to Provincial Contexts - Ovidiu ?entea and Florian Matei-Popescu Roads and the Roman Landscape in Moesia Inferior - Adriana Panaite Sanctified by the Blood of Martyrs: The Creation of New Sacred Loci in Scythia Minor During the Early Christian Period (4th Century AD) - Patrick Lowinger Ratiaria: The Focal Point in the Western Part of Lower Danube Frontier - Zdravko Dimitrov Reflections on the Importance of Studies on the Lower Danubian Limes - Piotr Dyczek,

Preface: Researching the Romans on the Roman Lower Danube: Challenges and Opportunities – Ioana A. Oltean

Introduction: The Lower Danube Limes: Recentring a Roman Frontier Province – John Karavas and Emily Hanscam

Modelling Forts and Landscapes in Scythia Minor – Nathaniel Durant

Roman Camps in the Lower Danube: From Remote Sensing to Provincial Contexts – Ovidiu Țentea and Florian Matei-Popescu

Roads and the Roman Landscape in Moesia Inferior – Adriana Panaite

Sanctified by the Blood of Martyrs: The Creation of New Sacred Loci in Scythia Minor During the Early Christian Period (4th Century AD) – Patrick Lowinger

Ratiaria: The Focal Point in the Western Part of Lower Danube Frontier – Zdravko Dimitrov

Reflections on the Importance of Studies on the Lower Danubian Limes – Piotr Dyczek

Emily Hanscam is a Researcher in Archaeology at Linnaeus University, Sweden, associated with the UNESCO Chair for Heritage Futures, the LNU Centre for Concurrences and LNU Digital Transformations. She earned a PhD in Archaeology from Durham University (2019), researching Roman frontiers, archaeology and nationalism in East-Central Europe. She was previously a Lecturer in Archaeology for the University of Amsterdam and Project Manager for Archaeology at Halmyris, an international volunteer excavation project in Romania. She is co-editor of Digging Politics: The ancient past and contested present in East-Central Europe (De Gruyter, 2023).

John Karavas is a graduate of the Universities of Oxford and Durham (PhD in Ancient History, 2001). His main areas of interest lie in the fields of Hellenistic and Roman History, Greek and Roman provincial archaeology (with a special interest in Roman frontiers) as well as ancient warfare. Over the years he has participated in many excavations in Serbia, Romania and Greece; between 2008–2020 he was the Director of Excavations at Halmyris, a Greek/Roman/Byzantine military and urban site on the Danube Delta in Romania. Since 2003, he has been a faculty member at the College Year in Athens Study Abroad Program (DIKEMES). 

• Edited by Emily Hanscam
• Edited by John Karavas

‘As an edited volume, it is somewhat difficult to assess this book holistically. That said, there are many strengths found within its chapters. Archaeological data is presented in careful detail throughout, and in many places has the great advantage of bringing to the Anglophone scholar less accessible material ... The authors also take seriously the volume’s stated goal of bringing the Lower Danube frontier into dialog with current archaeological technologies and theoretical constructs. While there is solid scholarship at the heart of each chapter, not every study is equally successful. … That said, such moments … do little to detract from the volume’s valuable contributions to our archaeological understanding of one of Rome’s most important—and underappreciated—borderlands.’ – Timothy C. Hart (2024): Bryn Mawr Classical Review

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