Towards Romanization 2.0. High-definition narratives in the Roman Northwest

Abstract

This article explores the implications of studying Romanization 2.0, a concept that entails putting connectivity and human-object entanglements at the centre of new high-definition narratives. While this perspective brings important pay-offs, de-centring Rome in historical narratives, and moving beyond the methodological nationalism that has often dogged studies of Roman imperialism, it also presents archaeologists with an array of methodological challenges. How can the Big Data of multiple localities connected by flows of objects and people be appropriately visualised and analysed? To address this question, I present some results from a project concerning the selection of standardized objects in funerary contexts, and their impacts on local communities in Britannia, Gallia Belgica, and Germania Inferior, c. 100 BC – AD 100, drawing on a database of over 3000 grave assemblages.