At a meeting in Cambridge this week (6 to 8 December), experts in widely differing areas will look at life on the frontiers and peripheries of some of history’s greatest empires with a particular focus on the periods when these empires were imploding.
The conference, which takes place at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, is titled The End of Empire: life on the frontiers of imperial polities. It represents a chance for speakers to challenge perceived thinking of frontiers as impermeable barriers and explore the ways in which the drawing of lines affected and shaped local populations, sometimes with legacies that have proved extraordinarily deep-seated.
The event has been organised by Dr Susanne Hakenbeck from the McDonald Institute, an archaeologist whose own research focuses on the nomads and farmers along the Danube frontier following the demise of the Roman Empire. Recent interpretations of archaeological evidence suggest that interactions between the populations of the Carpathians were complex and led to the development of a hybrid identity along the frontier zone.
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Image: Varosha, Cyprus, where an abandoned resort has become a tourist attraction
Credit: Michael Kirian (Flickr Creative Commons)
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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