 Logo of TRAC | |
| Predecessor | Theoretical Archaeology Group |
|---|---|
| Formation | 23–24 March 1991 |
| Founder | Eleanor Scott |
| Founded at | University of Newcastle |
| Purpose | Promotion of a theoretical discourse in Anglophone Roman archaeology |
| Website | http://trac.org.uk/ |
The Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference (TRAC) is an academic organisation and conference which was designed to be an arena for open discussion of archaeological theory in Roman archaeology.
TRAC, organised initially by Eleanor Scott, was held for the first time in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Newcastle on 23–24 March 1991. [1] [2]
Historically, one of TRAC's main focuses has been on the debates surrounding Romanisation, and this dominated many of the volumes during the 1990s. However, since the early 2000s, there have been a rising number of discussions relating to post-imperial and post-colonial approaches to the Roman world. [3]
TRAC was originally established as a one-off event, but, the interest that this conference garnered led to it becoming an annual fixture. After the initial meeting in Newcastle, TRAC has been run at many of the major archaeology departments in the UK and has even been organised at institutions in Europe and America.[ citation needed ]
TRAC was joined with RAC (the Roman Archaeology Conference), organised by the Roman Society, at Reading University in 1995. [4]
Many of the participants in TRAC are early career scholars or postgraduates who use the conference to outline their own original research and attempt to re-define existing models about the Roman past. [5]
Andrew Gardner, in an article in TRAC 2005, raised the issue of a gender imbalance in the history of TRAC conferences. [6] However, in more recent article, Eleanor Scott concluded that TRAC had given an equal platform to female archaeologists working within Roman archaeology. [7] In the 2010s, TRAC has becoming increasingly international. [8]
| 29th | Canterbury | 11-14 April 2019 |
| 28th | University of Edinburgh | 12-14 April 2018 |
| 27th | Durham University | 28-31 March 2017 |
| 26th | Rome | 16-19 March 2016 |
| 25th | University of Leicester | 27-29 March 2015 |
| 24th | University of Reading | 28-30 March 2014 |
| 23rd | King's College London | 4-6 April 2013 |
| 22nd | Frankfurt | 29 - 1 March April 2012 |
| 21st | Newcastle | 14-17 April 2011 |
| 20th | University of Oxford | 25-28 March 2010 |
| 19th | Michigan/Southampton | 3-5 April 2009/April 17–18, 2009 |
| 18th | Amsterdam | 4-6 March 2008 |
| 17th | London | 29 - 1 March April 2007 |
| 16th | Canterbury | 24-25 March 2006 |
| 15th | Birmingham | 31-3 March April, 2005 |
| 14th | Durham University | 26-27 March 2004 |
| 13th | University of Leicester | 3-6 April 2003 |
TRAC was previously published as a set of conference proceedings. [9] From TRAC 2017 it moved to an online open access journal, the Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal, published by the Open Library of Humanities. [10] [11]
Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort (castrum) just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, which it pre-dated. Archaeological excavations of the site show it was under Roman occupation from roughly 85 AD to 370 AD. Located near the modern village of Bardon Mill in Northumberland, it guarded the Stanegate, the Roman road from the River Tyne to the Solway Firth. It is noted for the Vindolanda tablets, a set of wooden leaf-tablets that were, at the time of their discovery, the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain.
Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum has been both exhibited as art and censored as pornography. The Roman cities around the bay of Naples were destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, thereby preserving their buildings and artefacts until extensive archaeological excavations began in the 18th century. These digs revealed the cities to be rich in erotic artefacts such as statues, frescoes, and household items decorated with sexual themes.
Robin George Collingwood was an English philosopher, historian and archaeologist. He is best known for his philosophical works, including The Principles of Art (1938) and the posthumously published The Idea of History (1946).
Patricia Southern is an English historian of classical Rome.
Miles Russell, is a British archaeologist best known for his work and publications on the prehistoric and Roman periods and for his appearances in television programmes such as Time Team and Harry Hill's TV Burp.
Eleanor Scott is a British archaeologist and politician. She founded the Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference (TRAC) in 1991.
Lindsay Allason-Jones, is a British archaeologist and museum professional specialising in Roman material culture, Hadrian's Wall, Roman Britain, and the presence and role of women in the Roman Empire. She is currently a visiting fellow at Newcastle University.
Khirbet et-Tannur is an ancient Nabataean temple situated on top of Mount Tannur, in today's Jordan. Whom the temple was dedicated to is not yet certain; based on the iconography of the deities depicted, it was either the fertility goddess Atargatis and Zeus-Hadad, or perhaps other Nabataean gods with similar attributes. The only inscription which mentioned a deity was in reference to the Edomite god Qos, who was the equivalent of the Arab god Quzah, the god of the sky.
Ellen Swift is a British archaeologist and Professor of Roman Archaeology at the University of Kent.
Kevin Greene is a British classical archaeologist. He was a reader at Newcastle University until his retirement, and is now a visiting fellow in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in January 1981.
The historiography of Romanisation is the study of the methods, sources, techniques, and concepts used by historians when examining the process of Romanisation. The Romanisation process affected different regions differently, meaning that there is no singular definition for the concept, however it is generally defined as the spread of Roman civilisation and culture throughout Italy and the provinces as an indication of a historical process, such as acculturation, integration and assimilation. Generally, the Romanisation process affected language, economics, cultural structures, family norms and material culture. Rome introduced its culture mainly through conquest, colonisation, trade, and the resettlement of retired soldiers.
Zena Kamash FSA is a British Iraqi archaeologist and senior lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research topics include water, food, memory, the Roman period in the Middle East and Britain.
Sofia Voutsaki is Professor of Greek Archaeology at the University of Groningen and a specialist in the archaeology of the Bronze Age Aegean and classical Greece. She has directed excavations and surveys in the Argolid and at the Mycenaean site of Ayios Vasileios near Sparta, and has also published works on social change, mortuary archaeology, archaeological science, and the history of 19th- and 20th-century Greek archaeology.
Carol van Driel-Murray is a Roman archaeologist who specialises in the role of women and studying leather. After studying at the University of Liverpool, van Driel-Murray worked at the University of Amsterdam for 37 years and the University of Leiden for three before she retired in 2015.
Louise Revell is a Roman archaeologist, currently associate professor in Roman Studies at the University of Southampton. Revell's research focuses on provincial archaeology of the Western Roman Empire.
Andrew Gardner is an archaeologist working in the areas of Roman archaeology and archaeological theory.
Winterton Roman villa is a Roman villa in Winterton, North Lincolnshire. It was discovered in 1747.
John C. Barrett, is a British archaeologist, prehistorian, and Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield. His research has primarily focussed on archaeological theory, European Prehistory from early agriculture to Romanisation, and the development of commercially funded archaeology in the UK. Barrett has been seen as an influential figure in the development of archaeological theory, critiques of archaeological practice, and British Prehistory.
Puticuli were open pits used as mass graves for the poor in ancient Rome. According to Varro, a Roman scholar, puticuli were located outside of towns. He claims that the name originates from the Latin word for wells and pits, putei. Varro also describes an alternative etymology proposed by his mentor Aelius Stilo. Aelius believed that since the bodies were thrown into the puticuli to rot, the name originated from the Latin verb, putescebant, meaning "used to rot." Varro also cites another Roman writer named Afranius, who calls the puticuli "pit-lights." Afranius referred to the puticuli with these terms since the bodies that were thrown into the grave looked up at the light from the pit. Puticuli were also filled with waste, animal carcasses, and rubbish; they are sometimes seen as an example of waste management in ancient Rome. Another issue for classicists is the importance of these gravesites to Roman society. It has been argued that the ordered arrangement of graves found in this site implies the Roman government was involved in their creation and regulation. Furthermore, the limited size of the gravesites indicates they were intended for temporary use and were not a commonplace means of burial and disposal.
Transgender archaeology is an approach to archaeology that encompasses how transgender studies and its theoretical approaches can be a tool to understand past cultures and communities around the world. This approach diversifies cisgender approaches to archaeological practice. In 2016 a special issue of the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory was dedicated to papers that challenged a binary approach to gender. Researchers, such as Mary Weismantel, have discussed how understanding past gender diversity can support contemporary transgender rights, but have called for transgender archaeology to "not re-populate the ancient past ... but to offer a subtler appreciation of cultural variation". Jan Turek, writing in 2016, described how archaeological interpretation can be limited since "current gender categories do not always correspond with those of a former reality".
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