Frontiers and Borderlands in Imperial Perspectives

Exploring Rome's Egyptian Frontier

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4536282
AutoresAnna Lucille Boozer (University of Reading, autor correspondente)
Ano2013
Volume117
Fascículo2
Páginas275-292
Data de publicação2013-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAmerican Journal of Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0002-9114 • E-ISSN: 1939-828X
EditoraUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.3764/aja.117.2.0275
OpenAlexW644123271
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas9
Referências citadas55

Archaeological research has addressed imperial frontiers for more than a century. Romanists, in particular, have engaged in exploring frontiers from economic, militaristic, political, and (more recently) social vantages. This article suggests that we also consider the dialogue between space and social perception to understand imperial borderland developments. In addition to formulating new theoretical approaches to frontiers, this contribution represents the first comprehensive overview of both the documentary sources and the archaeological material found in Egypt’s Great Oasis during the Roman period (ca. 30 B.C.E. to the sixth century C.E.). A holistic analysis of these sources reveals that Egypt’s Great Oasis, which consisted of two separate but linked oases, served as a conceptual, physical, and human buffer zone for the Roman empire. This buffer zone protected the “ordered” Nile Valley inhabitants from the “chaotic” desert nomads, who lived just beyond the oases. This conclusion suggests that nomads required specific imperial frontier policies and that these policies may have been ideological as well as economic and militaristic

Ancient history · Archaeology · Frontier · Geography · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Classical Antiquity Studies · History