Archaeology and Imperialism

Roman Expansion and the Greek City

Authors

  • Susan E. Alcock Clare College, Cambridge

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jmea.v2i1.87

Keywords:

imperial systems, politics, empire, territory

Abstract

The study of imperial systems has been an important growth area in archaeological research in recent years. One aspect that has received attention in a variety of settings is the territorial reorganisation frequently associated with political incorporation. The paper reviews a number of general archaeological and historical patterns of imperial consolidation and outlines some underlying factors, before moving on to consider their applicability in a well-documented case study, that of Achaia (the Roman province of Greece). Direct Roman intervention in the distribution of central places and the location of political boundaries is examined, together with local-level adaptions to incorporation within a larger and more demanding imperial system. Despite the long history of archaeological research in Greece (and indeed the eastern Roman empire as a whole) to make a more significant contribution to expansion and control in empires.

Author Biography

  • Susan E. Alcock, Clare College, Cambridge
    Susan E. Alcock is a Research Fellow at Clare College, University of Cambridge. She received a B.A. in Archaeology and History at Yale University in 1983, before taking up a Mellon fellowship at Cambridge where she took a second B.A. in Classics in 1985. She has recently completed a doctoral dissertation at Cambridge University, entitled 'Greek Society and the Transition to Roman Rule'. Apart from work on imperial expansion and control and the material effects of conquest in the Eastern Roman Empire, her research interests include the comparative analysis of surface survey data, changing patterns of settlement and land-use in the Classical world, and problems in the reconciliation of the archaeological and historical evidence. She has been involved with several survey projects in Greece, most recently the Nemea Valley Archaeological project in the north-east Peloponnese.

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Published

1989-06-01

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 1 (1989)

Section

Articles

License

© Equinox Publishing Ltd.

For information regarding our Open Access policy, click here.

How to Cite

Alcock, S. E. (1989). Archaeology and Imperialism: Roman Expansion and the Greek City. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, 2(1), 87-135. https://doi.org/10.1558/jmea.v2i1.87