Romans and Barbarians Beyond the Frontiers by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Ancient / Rome
Publisher: Oxbow Books, Limited
Published: 2017-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

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A World of Warcraft: Warrior Identities in Roman Iron Age Scandinavia

Xenia Pauli Jensen

Introduction

In the centuries before the beginning of our era, the Iron Age societies of Southern Scandinavia seem to experience a paradigmatic shift in the need to visualise status, expressed through manifestations of power of both political and military nature. Slightly later, from the middle of the first century B.C., the Roman Empire consolidates itself in north-western and central Europe. How the presence of a super power in Europe at this point in time influenced the elites of the neighbouring Germanic societies has been widely discussed. Regarding Northern Europe, this concerns questions on how the Germanic response to the Roman impact should be interpreted, and how Roman produced items were used as symbols to visualise identity – Roman or Germanic, military or political leadership – among the North Germanic power groups. This paper is mainly concerned with the military sphere as warfare is regarded as both institutionalised and extremely communicative, thus making the preparation, the physical warfare, and the ceremonial aftermaths the perfect stage to express identity and affiliations with certain groups.

The article falls in two parts: first, I will show some examples of the Roman influence which can be identified within the Germanic material culture. The focus on Roman military equipment in Scandinavian context will lead to the second part of this article, where I will discuss the different interpretations of military organisation as seen from the Scandinavian weapon deposits.

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