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Romanisation: Interaction, Conquest and Change in Late Iron Age and Roman Dacia

Module description

The case study used throughout this module will be the area of Dacia on the Lower Danube. As the only province to be conquered through warfare in the second century AD, this offers a unique opportunity to assess the impact of that process on neighbouring cultures and on conquered territories when Rome was at the height of her power. Through extensive comparison with provinces conquered previously, the module will also address the changing character of the Roman approach to conquest and administration.

Module aims - intentions of the module

Focusing on the case of one province of the Roman Empire, the module aims to develop understanding of the impact of the Roman civilisation on native cultures as an Empire-wide, changing phenomenon.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Understand the concept of Romanisation as a process of cultural interaction and acculturation
• 2. Know the key features of the archaeology of Iron Age and Roman Dacia (main sites, current problems and interpretations)
• 3. Demonstrate ability to assess comparatively various datasets as commonly encountered in Roman provincial archaeology
• 4. Demostrate awareness of the different scales of social and political organisation and how they are expressed in the archaeological record

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Research a topic guided by a reading list, to understand and interpret archaeological information from a range of sources
• 6. Organise a range of information synthetically in order to addresses key thematic issues

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Self-reflect on progress within a co-operative group environment
• 8. Learn from peers, both giving and receiving constructive criticism
• 9. Write clearly and concisely in good English, to strict word limits

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Introduction to Romanisation; The Northern Thracians: the Dacians and the Getae
• Settlement pattern and economy
• Religion and spiritual life
• Dacia and the Mediterranean cultures; Dacia and the European Iron Age
• The Roman conquest and the organisation and development of the Roman province
• Military presence
• Settlement pattern: and urbanisation and the countryside (villas and villages)
• Economy and religion
• Society: colonists and natives
• The end of Roman Dacia

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Hanson, W.S. and Haynes, I.P. (eds) 2004 Roman Dacia: the making of a provincial society, JRA Supplementary Series 56, Portsmouth, Rhode Island.
• Oltean, I.A. 2007, Dacia. Landscape, Colonisation, Romanization, Routledge, London, New York.
• Oltean IA, Hanson WS (2017). Conquest strategy and political discourse: new evidence for the conquest of Dacia from LiDAR analysis at Sarmizegetusa Regia. Journal of Roman Archaeology, 30, 429-446
• Oltean I, Fonte J (2019). Microtopographies of Dacian upland settlement strategies and community aggregation trends in the OrÄ?Å?tie Mountains, Romania. In Cowley DC, Fernandez-Gotz M, Romankiewicz T, Wendling H (Eds.) Rural Settlement Relating Buildings, Landscape, and People in the European Iron Age, Leiden: Sidestone Press, 251-261
• Pitts, M. and Miguel John Versluys, M.J. (eds) 2015. Globalisation and the Roman world: world history, connectivity and material culture Cambridge : Cambridge University Press (online).
• Popa, C. N. and Stoddart S. (eds). 2014. Fingerprinting the Iron Age: approaches to identity in the European Iron Age : integrating South-Eastern Europe into the debate. Oxford : Oxbow Books (online).
• Roselaar, S.T. (ed) 2015. Processes of cultural change and integration in the Roman world Leiden; Boston: Brill (online).
• Wells, P.S. 1999 The Barbarians speak: how the conquered peoples shaped Roman Europe, Princeton.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=1783

Key words search

Dacia, Roman, Archaeology