By Brooke D. Prevedel

Faculty Mentor: Liane Houghtalin

Abstract

The Roman Empire is among the best-known empires in the world, renowned for unifying vastly different peoples and lands. The process of these unifications was, at times, something resembling peaceful, but other times, much more violent. Regardless of the method of acquisition, peoples brought into the Roman Empire always experienced some degree of cultural change. The modern study of this cultural change has most often been examined through the lens of Romanization, a mostly one-way transfer of Roman cultural practices onto the conquered territory and culture. Romanization, however, presents too narrow and too historically imperialist an approach to the cultural changes brought about by Roman influence. Accordingly, using a research framework heavily influenced by Indigenous Studies theory, this presentation examines the peoples of Late Iron Age Britain prior to the beginning of Roman occupation and after. Using such a framework and a definition of culture that includes both elites and non-elites, the cultural changes catalyzed in Late Iron Age Britain by the introduction of Roman influence can be shown to go beyond the limited focus of Romanization on mere cultural transfer. These cultural changes are explored within different aspects of culture in terms of the cultural loss, resistance, adaptation, and survivance experienced by the Britons at the Roman towns of Venta Icenorum and Aquae Sulis.