Symposium: Current Studies in Roman Settlement and Landscape Archaeology: Exploring Regional Dynamics
Date: 15 May 2025
Location: Universiteit Utrecht, Drift 27 (University library), room 0.72 (‘Eetkamer’)
The study of the settlement landscape offers a distinct and valuable perspective in archaeology, transcending the level of the individual site and isolated find material. By examining broader spatial frameworks and temporal scales, these studies reveal how human communities organised, constructed and responded to their environment across diverse regions and time periods. Drawing from landscape archaeology, computational archaeology and related (interdisciplinary) fields, settlement landscape research provides a holistic understanding of the complex interplay between natural, cultural and social factors that shaped patterns of human habitation.
This symposium aims to provide a platform for recent studies that explore the structure and typology of Roman settlement landscapes, their chronological evolution, the multifaceted factors that influence their formation and development, and the societal dynamics that result from the structure of the settlement landscape.
While computational methods – such as GIS, remote sensing, and spatial analysis – offer powerful tools to model and visualise complex settlement systems, this symposium invites a range of methodological approaches. We are interested in studies that employ both quantitative and qualitative frameworks to reconstruct and analyse past settlement landscapes and their respective communities. We place a special emphasis on offering space to studies from a wide geographical scope and potentially extending outside the Roman Period as well, to encourage a richer, more inclusive understanding of settlement landscape dynamics across human history.
You can sign up via this link.
© iStock.com/Olga Kurbatova
Preliminary schedule
10:30 – 11:00 Registration and Coffee/Tea
11:00 – 11:20 Welcome and introduction
11:20 – 11:45 Karen de Vries (ADC ArcheoProjecten): No place like home. The importance of
understanding both norm and variation in regional dynamics
11:45 – 12:10 Anita Casarotto (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen): Mapping clustering in settlement data of
Roman landscapes: case studies from Italy, Spain, and Portugal compared
12:10 – 13:15 Lunch break
13:15 – 14:05 Antonin Nüsslein (Université de Strasbourg): The settlement systems in the Roman
period (2nd and 3rd c. AD) between the Rhine and the Meuse (France) (invited guest lecture)
14:05 – 14:30 Mark Groenhuijzen (Universiteit Utrecht): Divergent developments: the impact of the
Roman limes on the structure and integration of the settlement landscape in borderland communities
14:30 – 14:55 Andrew Lawrence (Universität Bern): TBA
14:55 – 15:15 Coffee break
15:15 – 15:40 Marco Bakker (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen): The settlement system in the (former) peat
zone of Friesland during the (pre-)Roman Iron Age
15:40 – 16:05 Dianne van de Zande (Provincie Zeeland/Universiteit Leiden): Black holes and
circumstantial evidence: tracing the Roman army in the Dutch delta
16:05 – 16:30 Roeland Emaus (Universiteit Leiden/Saxion University of Applied Sciences): TBA
16:30 – 16:45 Closing remarks and discussion
16:45 – Optional drinks at nearby bar
Credits: ARCHON members can receive 1 ECT for attending the conference and handing in a reflection report afterwards.
You can sign up via this link.
Organisers:
The symposium is organised as part of the NWO Constructing the Limes project and co-funded by the Archon research school.