‘Understanding Late Antique North Africa’, in A. H. Merrills (ed.), Vandals, Romans and Berbers: New Perspectives on Late Antique North Africa (London: Ashgate, 2004), 1-29. (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Saharan Berber Diaspora and the Southern Frontiers of Byzantine North Africa
E. Fentress and A. I. Wilson (2016): 'The Saharan Berber Diaspora and the Southern Frontiers of Byzantine North Africa', in S. T. Stevens and J. P. Conant (eds.), North Africa under Byzantium and early Islam (Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Symposia and Colloquia 7). Washington, DC, pp. 41-63., 2016
Using a combination of archaeological evidence and historical linguistics, this paper argues that the Moorish raids on late Roman, Vandal, and Byzantine North Africa in the fourth to sixth centuries AD were carried out by groups migrating from oases in the northern Sahara, probably under the impetus of environmental change.
2017
in the Three Chapters dispute was not the protection of local practice, but rather an absolute deference to the authority of the Council of Chalcedon; if anything, the bishops of the African church were motivated by their concern to be active members of a universal church. Ch. 5 'The Moorish Alternative' is a difcult outlier, but the territory is navigated with condence. Once proud and unambiguous Romani, many of the inhabitants of the Mauretanian provinces, Numidia and inland Tripolitania found themselves viewed with disdain as barbaric Mauri by the time of the Byzantine conquest. But if the Mauri of Corippus and Procopius do frequently sound like barbarians, they acted in ways that would not have been completely alien to the aristocrats of Carthage. Spectacular as the Djedar tumuli near Tiaret may seem, they were adorned with Latin inscriptions. Other well-known inscriptions, such as those of Masgiven at Altava and Masties in the Aurès mountains, also reveal a rm desire to articulate authority in a familiar 'Roman' mode. In part, of course, this is simply a reection of the nature of our sources, and forms of identity display (and political organization) which were not inscribed in Latin on prominent stones are invisible to us. But what survives remains important. C. provides a tremendously helpful summary of this material, and a series of important observations about its interpretation. In many ways, the specic title of C.'s book belies its true value. While important observations are certainly offered here about the changing nature of 'Roman' (and other) identities in Late Antiquity, these are based upon exceptionally rm foundations. As a starting point for Vandal and Moorish history in this periodstill better as a thorough overview of the status quaestionis on the murky world of Byzantine Africa-C.'s book is to be warmly recommended.
The Arab Conquests and the End of Ancient Africa?
A Companion to North Africa in Antiquity
This chapter in the Blackwell Companion to North Africa in Antiquity, examines and provides a critical overview of the impact of the Arab conquests on North Africa, which all too often has been viewed by classical scholars as marking the 'end' . It provides a brief introduction to the historical background of Africa under the caliphate before turning to tackle five key areas of scholarly debate: urban collapse and continuity, the transformation of the classical city, the countryside, the economy, and religious change. Integrating both archaeological and textual evidence for this pivotal period.
Europe in Africa: Some Systems of Roman Economic Colonisation in North Africa
Ibadan Journal of European Studies, 2007
Most postcolonial studies on European colonization have placed the invasion of Africa in the contemporary times and have generally agreed that the most obvious systems of colonization include the use of subtle diplomacy, creation of western puppet regimes, signing of treaties, forming military alliances, engaging in international trades and commerce, encouraging intertribal and inter-state hostilities and outright military conquests. This gives the view that the Europeans never had any serious interest in colonizing Africa before the 'scramble' that began in 1884/5. This paper therefore goes back into the remote classical antiquity to examine the theme of European colonization in North Africa during the Roman Republic. It considers the place of Rome in Western Europe and, from an economic perspective, identifies the reason for the Romans' interest in Carthaginian Africa. The paper concludes that Africa was a highly profitable field for investment and natural resources, hence, Rome's use of both violent and non-violent methods of penetrating the African continent. Her systems of colonization set the tone and standard for subsequent post-Roman eras of Islam, middle Ages and modern European Capitalist Empires.
This paper presents an overview of ceramics, economy, and trade in North Africa from the Vandal to the early Arab periods (up to the early eleventh century), tackling both the transition from the Byzantine to Arab occupation and the first centuries of Arab rule. Whereas the excavations at Bir Ftouha (Carthage) and at Ṣabra al Mansūriyya provide fairly solid insight into the late tenth and eleventh centuries, and the fifth to seventh centuries have considerable archaeological documentation with respect to North Africa and its economic connections with the rest of the Mediterranean and beyond, it was clear from the outset that bridging the eighth to mid-tenth centuries is problematic. This essay will demonstrate that part of the difficulty is a lack of coherent excavation strategies and an overly synthetic, selective publication of the ceramics and it will outline some of the themes that would be fruitful to investigate in the future. Continuities and discontinuities within Africa-Ifrīqiya of ceramic production, diet, cuisine, and culinary practices are explored here, the last illustrated by the distinctive ceramics repertoires necessary for the processing and cooking of food; so are possible links between contemporary Arab cultures manifest in Ifrīqiya, al-Andalus, and Sicily, across the water. It is with the mapping of culinary culture and its accessories that I believe we shall best be able to understand the Arab (and Berber) communities of North Africa, with respect to their origins, development, and interaction across the Maghreb and the Islamic West.
From Africa to Ifriqiya. The Transition from Byzantine to Islamic North Africa: an Introduction
In: R. Bockmann - A. Leone - Ph. von Rummel (eds.), Africa - Ifriqiya. Continuity and Change in North Africa from the Byzantine to the Early Islamic Age. Papers of a Conference held in Rome, Museo Nazionale Romano - Terme di Diocleziano, 28 February-2 March 2013. Palilia 34 (Wiesbaden 2019) 1-7, 2019
Introduction to a volume dedicated to the study of the transformational period that marked the end of Antiquity in the southern Mediterranean: the transition between the east Roman, or Byzantine, and the Arabic (and ultimately Islamic) rule over the Maghrib, the former territory of Roman North Africa.
The Vandal Conquest of North Africa: Origins of a Historiographical Persona
Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2017
A close reading of sources documenting the Vandal conquest (429–39 ce) reveals that contemporary authors did not present the event as a persecution. To be sure, they insisted on the devastation that the Vandals caused, the typical woes of war, but not on its religious motivation. The article argues that it was Augustine who, in his ep. ccxxviii, first presented a theological interpretation of the event that allowed later sources writing within the Augustinian tradition to frame the conquest retroactively as a persecution.
in: M.V. Klinkenberg, R.M.R. van Oosten and C. van Driel-Murray (eds), A Human Environment. Studies in honour of 20 years Analecta editorship by prof. dr. Corrie Bakels (Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia 50), Leiden, 2020
Ecologically and politically peripheral areas, such as mountains, deserts and marshes have often been seen as zones of resistance against the encroaching state. At first sight, the mountainous uplands and the desert fringe of North Africa seem to be such an area of resistance: in the Late Roman and Byzantine period, the Atlas Mountains and the Tripolitanian Sahara were epicentres of indigenous revolt against the Roman state, particularly during the Moorish Wars c. 533-548 AD. The question is whether the physical geography truly determined a cultural antagonism between inland zones and the Mediterranean coast. Using evidence from survey archaeology, epigraphy and literary sources, this paper tests models on connectivity and resistance, disputing the simple opposition between an inland, indigenous world on the one hand, and a cosmopolitan , Mediterranean and Roman world on the other. Instead, evidence shows that the relationship between "Roman" and "native" was much more complex, entangled and ambivalent, despite the peripheral nature of the inland landscapes. The cultural landscape was determined as much by historical factors as environmental. Available open-access at: https://www.sidestone.com/books/a-human-environment