Revisiting Roman-Period Eastern South Caucasia. (Revisiting the Roman-Period eastern South Caucasus: Entanglements past and present. Annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Austin, TX. 2014). (original) (raw)

2014

Abstract

The Roman-period history of eastern South Caucasia remains very poorly understood from both archaeological and textual perspectives. The only known kingdom from the region in this period, Caucasian Albania, has been at the center of a highly politicized and heated discourse about ethnic identity and national boundaries in the modern South Caucasus, thus discouraging nuanced archaeological scholarship both in the Soviet period and more recently. However, a growing body of archaeological material combined with more sophisticated models of Roman borderland interactions provide a compelling argument for revisiting the region. In the liminal space between the Roman and Parthian empires, local material cultural reflects the overlapping and intersecting identities and agendas of residents, regional authorities and outside actors. Interestingly, this picture of diversity is echoed also in textual references and representations produced by Hellenized and Romanized authors, which, from the early days on, stress the region’s flexible diversity. In stark contrast to modern totalizing conceptions of Caucasian Albania, then, this paper argues that both archaeological and textual evidence for the period in question suggest profound regional complexity and fragmentation and a wide variety of mediatory strategies.

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