A340 Block 1 Unit 3 Evidence For Empire Flashcards
3.1 Different types of source: primary or secondary
Note, ‘it is absolutely crucial to establish the context of these!’ I.e. Everything you need to know about it to assess its potential relevance, value and limitations
Vital to its interpretation …txt, …ent, fo, va
CCFV
Primary sources were produced at the time to which they relate
Ancient secondary sources - Sometimes ancient written sources are written 50 years or even centuries after later
Secondary sources are those written after the events they describe
Consider - Context (the circumstances that form the setting for an event), Content, Form, Value
CONTEXT OF THE SOURCE
WeWhWoBiPur
When was it written and when did the events it describes occur?
What did they write - autobiography, history, poetry, letters, or what?
Who was the author, cultural and linguistic background, capability, career, authority, Greek or Roman, did they visit the places written about?
Potential bias and reliability/trustworthiness
Their purpose in writing and the intended audience, why was it written in
3.2 Main Ancient textual sources for Roman Britain
Julius Caesar - The Gallic War c 50 CE Latin
Tacitus - Agricola 98 CE, The Histories 105 CE Brigantes revolt, The Annals 117 CE BOUDICA’s revolt
Dio Cassius - Roman History, c 210-230 CE, invasion of Britain, BOUDICA’s revolt
Itineraries - Roman Maps
The Moorlands pan
Sequential lists of settlements, Way marks, posting stations showing distances between them ( iter - military expidition)
The Antonine Itinerary - military document 3rd c AD highest value re Roman road building and network
The Vicarello cups shows an itinerary, the golden milestone of the forum of Rome
3.3 The Archeology of Hadrian’s Wall
New noninvasive techniques air, geo, soil and metal
Non-intrusive techniques aka ‘remote sensing’ -viewing remains without excavation
Aerial photography - sees earthworks e.g. roundhouses, ditches, crop changes in colour example - Milking Gap
ground based techniques - geophysical surveying - Resistivity (features with a high resistivity such as disturbed soils, ditches, roads, walls and pits). Magnetic Anomaly (Aeas were burning/heating of soil and rocket a high temp also ferruginous (containing iron oxides or rust) soils and artefacts
- 3 The Archeology of Hadrian’s Wall II
3. 6 Digging deeper; excavation , things in front of wall
Berm - the strip of land between the northern face of the wall and the v-shaped ditch
Quincunxes (groups of five) sharpened stakes in front of ramparts in closely spaced pits in the berm beyond the ditch
3.7 Setting it all out: archaeological plans
Note that geophysical survey plans are an ‘interpretation’ of the remains found. They are a primary source but plans made from the observation remain a secondary source based on someone’s interpretation of this evidence
3.8 Vertical Thinking; Stratigraphy
Excavation of soil layers in the reverse order to that in which they were laid down, starting with the most recent and slowly working back through time - aka ‘the stratigraphy of the site’
Deeper layers laid down earlier and are therefore older than the layers above them. Artefacts/structural remains in user layers will generally be more recent than those in lower layers. If a layer can be dated, it can be applied to the site at that layer universally EXCEPT where later disturbance due to later living has changed the stratigrapphy
3.8 Vertical Thinking; Stratigraphy II
Air and pottery
Anaerobic (absence o free oxygen) preserves materials that would otherwise have rotted away. e.g. the Vindolanda wooden letters, leather sandals, material,
Terra sigillata - Samian ware, a red glossy pottery can be dated via a maker’s mark resulting in dating as it has been intensely studied by academics. In Britain terra sigillata stopped being imported from the continent in the 3rd C CE as the factories in Gaul had closed down
3.8 Vertical Thinking; Stratigraphy IV
Terminus post quem (TPQ) or ‘time before which’ e.g. a coin found at a wall’s foundation is date 9 CE means the wall could not have been built BEFORE that coin/period
Terminus ante quem (TAQ)- ‘time after which’ e.g. which an artefact’s presence could not have occurred after a particular event
3.11 An ‘Abandonment Horizon’ - the argument
BBC 2013 The Flying Archeologist Robson. Woolscroft Whittaker and Jobey propose that the area directly in front of the wall was not a sterile 10 mile militarised zone, but one with many non-roman barbarian settlements living and trading right up to the wall
Contested by Hodgson and his excavations that carbon date destruction of settlements to 120-140 CE with increased development behind the wall. Tacitus mentions militarised zones in his writings and also disputed in Salway’s Roman Britain- it was defensive not simply an economic control point
Roman titles and instillations
Tribune - This was an office crucial to an emperor’s authority and was renewed every year. - Seen on coins and helps dating
‘Principia’ - Military Headquarters Building
