‘Are You Local?’ Indigenous Iron Age and Mobile Roman and Post-Roman Populations: Then, Now and In-Between

Hingley, Richard; Bonacchi, Chiara; Sharpe, Kate

doi:10.1017/s0068113x18000016

‘Are You Local?’ Indigenous Iron Age and Mobile Roman and Post-Roman Populations: Then, Now and In-Between

Hingley, Richard; Bonacchi, Chiara; Sharpe, Kate

Authors

Professor Richard Hingley richard.hingley@durham.ac.uk
Emeritus Professor

Chiara Bonacchi

Dr Kate Sharpe kate.sharpe@durham.ac.uk
Research Assistant/Associate

Abstract

The Iron Age and Roman periods are often defined against each other through the establishment of dualities, such as barbarity–civilisation, or spiritual–rational. Despite criticisms, dualities remain prevalent in the National Curriculum for schools, television, museum displays and academic research. Recent scientific studies on human origins, for example, have communicated the idea of an ‘indigenous’ Iron Age, setting this against a mobile and diverse Roman-period population. There is also evidence for citizens leveraging dualities to uphold different positions on contemporary issues of mobility, in the UK and internationally. This paper discusses values and limitations of such binary thinking, and considers how ideas of ambiguity and temporal distancing can serve to challenge attempts to use such dualities to map the past too directly onto the present, reflecting on recent social media debates about Britain and the European Union.

Citation

Hingley, R., Bonacchi, C., & Sharpe, K. (2018). ‘Are You Local?’ Indigenous Iron Age and Mobile Roman and Post-Roman Populations: Then, Now and In-Between. Britannia: A Journal of Romano-British and Kindred Studies, 49, 283-302. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0068113x18000016

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Oct 2, 2017
Online Publication Date	Mar 8, 2018
Publication Date	Nov 1, 2018
Deposit Date	Oct 3, 2017
Publicly Available Date	Oct 4, 2017
Journal	Britannia
Print ISSN	0068-113X
Electronic ISSN	1753-5352
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	49
Pages	283-302
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1017/s0068113x18000016

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Copyright Statement
This article has been published in a revised form in Britannia https://doi.org/10.1017/s0068113x18000016. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. © The Author(s) 2018. Published by The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies.