Limes Congress

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The Limes Congress (in the English-speaking world Congress of Roman Frontier Studies or Limes Congress ) is an archeology congress , primarily of provincial Roman archeology , which deals with the borders of the Roman Empire (usually called "Limes"). The congresses have been held since 1949, usually every three years. The first congress took place in Durham , Northern England , the most recent in Viminatium near Kostolac in Serbia , 2018. The participants are made up of archaeologists, ancient historians , building researchers and natural scientists .

History of the Limes Congresses

In 1949 , around 20 scientists met at King's College , Newcastle upon Tyne , Great Britain , at that time part of Durham University , for a conference on the topic of "Borders of the Roman Empire". Eleven lectures mainly dealt with the north-western provinces of the Roman Empire . At the invitation of the initiator of the conference, Eric Birley , u. a. Franz Oelmann , Andreas Alföldi and Sir Mortimer Wheeler took part. The aim of the congress was to promote the exchange of British and foreign scholars. Birley had the idea for such a conference back in the late 1920s, when he was in close contact with Ernst Fabricius and his assistant Kurt Stade from the Reichs-Limes Commission . A date planned for 1940 failed because of the Second World War .

It was originally planned to hold a second congress in Algeria in 1954 to enable Jean Baradez to present parts of the Fossatum Africae (see Tebaga-Clausura ), but the death of Louis Leschi , director of the antiquities administration of Algeria, made it impossible to organize the congress . In April of the same year, only a few researchers were able to visit Beradez's excavations in Gemellae.

Limes congresses have been held in twelve different countries since 1949, with a congress held in Great Britain every ten years . In 1967 they met for the first time outside of Europe , the venue was Tel Aviv in Israel , and in 2000 they met in Amman , Jordan . The political situation in some countries was twice the reason for the conference to be postponed or canceled at short notice. It was not possible to hold it in Hungary in the early 1960s and in Serbia in the early 1990s . The 1983 congress held in Aalen reached a peak with 284 participants, which was only achieved in 2006 in León , Spain with almost 350 registered and ultimately 284 participants again. The number of lectures rose more and more, in 1949 there were only eleven lectures, so around 200 lectures were given at the Limes Congress in Ruse , Bulgaria .

The Limes Congresses are usually accompanied by an extensive program of excursions in order to familiarize the congress participants with the latest research in the host country and important archaeological and cultural sites.

Great Britain has hosted the Limes Congress six times, Germany four times.

Organization of the Limes Congresses

The idea for joint international congresses on Limes research came from Eric Birley and Kurt Stade , but the outbreak of World War II initially prevented it from being realized. Birley therefore organized the first congress in 1949 alone. In the period that followed, the tradition developed that those archaeologists who had already organized a Limes congress formed an informal working group that accepted proposals for future venues. At the end of each Limes congress, the general assembly of all participants voted on the venue for the following congress. The organization is then in the hands of the local organizers with the support of the international informal working group. This regulation carried the Congress successfully for over 70 years and still exists today.

The election of the international chair of the congress is also informal. For many years, Professor David Breeze and Professor Siegmar von Schnurbein led the Limes Congress together, after von Schurbein's retirement in 2006, Breeze alone. At the end of the 2015 Ingolstadt Congress, Breeze resigned and the general assembly of participants elected Rebecca Jones and Andreas Thiel as their successors.

Past Limes Congresses

The following congresses have taken place so far:

  1. 1949 Durham, UK
  2. 1955 Carnuntum , Austria
  3. 1957 Rheinfelden , Switzerland
  4. 1959 Durham , UK
  5. 1961 Zagreb , Yugoslavia
  6. 1964 Arnoldshain , Germany
  7. 1967 Tel Aviv , Israel
  8. 1969 Cardiff , UK
  9. 1972 Mamaia , Romania
  10. 1974 Xanten / Nijmegen , Germany / Netherlands / Belgium (excursion)
  11. 1976 Székesfehérvár , Hungary
  12. 1979 Stirling , Great Britain
  13. 1983 Aalen , Germany
  14. 1986 Carnuntum , Austria
  15. 1989 Canterbury , UK
  16. 1995 Kerkrade , Netherlands
  17. 1997 Zalau , Romania
  18. 2000 Amman, Jordan
  19. 2003 Pécs , Hungary
  20. 2006 Léon, Spain
  21. 2009 Newcastle , UK
  22. 2012 Ruse, Bulgaria
  23. 2015 Ingolstadt , Germany
  24. 2018 Kostolac, Serbia

Future Limes Congresses

The 25th International Limes Congress will take place in Nijmegen in the Netherlands in 2021. Details will follow depending on availability.

Congress reports

The responsibility for the publication of the congress contributions lies with the respective national organizers. The aim is to submit the contributions before the beginning of the next congress.

Published congress reports:

  1. Eric Birley: The Congress of Roman Frontier Studies 1949 , Durham 1952.
  2. Erich Swoboda: Carnuntina , Roman research in Lower Austria, Graz-Cologne 1956
  3. Rudolf Laur-Belart (ed.): Limes studies, lectures at the 3rd International Limes Congress in Rheinfel den / Basel 1957 , published by the Institute for Prehistory and Protohistory of Switzerland Rheinsprung 20, Basel 1959.
  4. unpublished
  5. Grga Novak (ed.): Quintus Congresses Internationalis Limitis Romani Studiosorum , Acta et Dissertationes Archaelogicae III, Zagreb 1963.
  6. Hans Schönberger (ed.): Studies on the military borders of Rome, lectures of the 6th International Limes Congress in South Germany , supplements of the Bonner Jahrbucher Volume 19, Bonn 1967.
  7. Shimon Applebaum (ed.): Roman Frontier Studies 1967 , Tel Aviv 1971.
  8. Eric Birley, Brian Dobson, Michael Jarrett (eds): Roman Frontier Studies 1969 , Cardiff 1974.
  9. DM Pippidi (ed.): Actes du IXe Congrès International d'études sur les Frontières Romaines , Bucuresti 1974
  10. Dorothea Haupt, Heinz Günter Horn (ed.): Studies on the military borders of Rome II, lectures of the 10th International Limes Congress in Der Germania Inferior , Cologne 1977.
  11. Jenö Fitz (ed.): Limes. Files of the XI. International Limes Congress , Budapest 1977.
  12. William Hanson, Lawrence Keppie (eds): Roman Frontier Studies 1979 , BAR, Oxford 1980.
  13. Christoph Unz (ed.): Studies on the military borders of Rome III. 13th International Limes Congress Aalen 1983 , Stuttgart 1986.
  14. Hermann Vetters, Manfred Kandler (ed.): Files of the 14th International Limes Congress 1986 in Carnuntum , Der Römische Limes in Osterreich issue 36/1 (Vienna 1990).
  15. Valerie Maxfield, Michael Dobson (eds.): Roman Frontier Studies 1989 , Exeter 1991.
  16. W. Groenman-van Waateringe, BL van Beck, Willem JH Willems, SL Wynia (eds.): Roman Frontier Studies 1995 , Oxford 1997.
  17. Nicolae Gudea (ed.): Roman Frontier Studies. Proceedings of the XVIIth International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies , Zalau 1999.
  18. Philip Freeman, Julian Bennett, Zbigniew T. Fiema, Birgitta Hoffmann (eds.): Limes XVIII Proceedings of the XVIIIth International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies held in Amman, Jordan (September 2000) , BAR International Series 1084, Oxford 2002.
  19. Zsolt Visy (ed.): Limes XIX. Proceedings of the XIXth International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies, Pécs, Hungary, September 2003 , Pécs 2005.
  20. Angel Morillo, Norbert Hanel, Esperanza Martin (eds.): Limes XX. Estudios Sobre la Fronters Romana. Roman Frontier Studies. Anejos de Gladius, Madrid 2009.
  21. Nick Hodgson, Paul Bidwell, Judith Schachtmann (eds.): Roman Frontier Studies 2009. Proceedings of the XXI International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies (Limes Congress) held at Newcastle upon Tyne in August 2009. Archaeopress Roman Archeology 25, Oxford 2017.
  22. Lyudmil Vagalinski, Nicolay Sharankov (eds.): Limes XXII. Proceedings of the 22nd International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies Ruse, Bulgaria, September 2012. Sofia 2015.
  23. C. Sebastian Sommer, Suzana Matesic (Ed.): Limes XXIII. Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies Ingolstadt 2015. Files of the 23rd International Limes Congress in Ingolstadt 2015. Contributions to the Limes World Heritage, Mainz 2018.
  24. in preparation

literature

  • Anthony R. Birley : Fifty years of Roman frontier studies. In: Ph. Freeman, J. Bennett, ZT Fiema, B. Hoffmann (eds.): Limes XVIII. Proceedings of the XVIIIth International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies held in Amman, Jordan (September 2000) (= BAR International Series. 1084). Oxford 2002, pp. 1-10.
  • Peter Henrich : 23rd International Limes Congress 2015 in Ingolstadt in Bavaria . In: Der Limes 7, 2013/1, pp. 36–37. ( Digitized version )
  • Simon Sulk: From Newcastle to Ingolstadt - The XXIII. International Limes Congress will take place in Bavaria in 2015 . In: Reports of the Bavarian Monument Preservation 54 , 2013, pp. 183–190.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eric Birley: Twenty Years of Limes Research . In: Eric Birley, Brian Dobson, Michael Jarrett (Eds.): Roman Frontier Studies 1969 . Cardiff 1974, p. 1-3 .
  2. ↑ See the list in Henrich, p. 37.