Course Transport Infrastructure in the Roman Near East: Roads, Forts, Caravanserais, and Harbours

Course description
In its heyday, the Roman Empire covered a vast area of land, and, to maintain communication and connectivity throughout the Empire, the Romans constructed a complex road network, often improving and incorporating pre-existing local infrastructure. This vast network of transport infrastructure has long been studied by scholars, though the true potential of studying the Roman road network is now being increasingly recognised. Instead of seeing land, maritime, and riverine transport as separate, it is now being acknowledged how viewing them as part of an interconnected infrastructural system will aid our understanding of the role of Roman transport infrastructure. 
Ancient transport infrastructure has the potential to provide insight into the historical development of local-global interactions. In this course, we will explore different approaches to studying Roman transport infrastructure and thus enhance our understanding of how local territories and economies were affected by the changing infrastructural designs of the region. The course focuses on the Roman Near East in the first three centuries CE.

Key questions include (but are not limited to):

• How did the Romans’ investment in transport infrastructure affect life in the Near East?
• What was the role of the military? For instance, in the construction, administration, or use of the improved transport infrastructure.
• What was the nature of local trade? And did it change following the infrastructural development of the Romans?
• How were local territories and economies affected by changing infrastructural designs?

The one-day course will be hosted at the Centre for Urban Network Evolutions (UrbNet). Guest lecturers are addressing the above-mentioned topics, trying to build a more complex understanding of the role, and functioning of transport infrastructure. 
Students are expected to provide a case study that they will present at the course. The exact format of this will be adjusted according to the number of participants. The PhD students will thus actively contribute to the course by presenting their research. In doing so, the course aims to provide the participants with a forum to discuss their work with peers and specialists to receive feedback.

Aim
The aim is to encourage students from archaeology, history, and related disciplines to consider and discuss the potential of studying Roman transport infrastructure from a wide range of perspectives.
The course will offer research-led teaching on case studies, methods, and techniques for the study of Roman transport infrastructure.

Literature and preparation 
Required readings will be provided by the lecturers and distributed beforehand.

Once the participation to the course has been confirmed, each participant has to submit the following by 1 October 2024 to Mette Lang, mette.lang@cas.au.dk 
A case study of 3-4 pages (including bibliography), which deals with the topic of the course. The cases can relate to an own project, previous experience, or a case inspired by academic literature. These will be pre-circulated among the guest speakers before the course.
During the course, the participants will be required to present their case study. The presentation will last approximately 10 mins (depending on the number of participants) and will be followed by a Q&A session in which the students will receive feedback by the lecturers and their peers.

Target group/Participants
PhD students at all stages.

Language

English

Form
Lectures by senior scholars and presentations by participants followed by Q&A sessions.

ECTS credits
1 ECTS

Lecturers
Julia Hoffmann-Salz
Leif Scheuermann, 
Maria Coto Sarmiento 
Matthew Cobb 

Venue
Aarhus University - Campus Moesgaard

Centre for Urban Network Evolutions

Moesgård Allé 20, 8270 Højbjerg. Building 4230, room 230.

Course dates:

• 11 October 2024 09:00 - 16:30