More Italy Than Province? Archaeology, Texts, and Culture Change in Roman Provence

Abstract

Pliny the Elder's vision of a Provence already deeply Romanized by the late first century C.E. has long informed historical and archaeological discourse on the region. Monographs on the province of Gallia Narbonensis and the Gallic provinces generally, while acknowledging the important cultural developments of the pre-Roman period, tend to interpret, a la Pliny, Romanization as something of a one way process involving mainly the adoption of Roman culture by the local population.' A more balanced assessment of the nature of culture change in southern Gaul in the Roman period is overdue. This can only be achieved through a more thorough analysis of the archaeological record than has been attempted to date, and by a greater willingness on the part of archaeologists and historians of Roman Provence to move beyond a vision of archaeology as something more than a material affirmation of the vision presented in the ancient literature. To illustrate the potential of this approach I would like to present two archaeological case studies that tell a slightly story of cultural change and invention in Provence than that told by ancient texts. But different in this instance should not be taken to mean discordant, for, when integrated, these disparate bodies of knowledge inform one another and contribute to a new understanding of Provence's Roman past.

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