Power from Below in Premodern Societies

This Element volume provides an up-to-date synthesis of the archaeology of the Roman conquest, combining new theoretical and methodological approaches with the latest fieldwork results. Recent advances in conflict archaeology research are revolutionising our knowledge of Rome's military campaigns in Western and Central Europe, allowing scholars to reassess the impact of the conquest on the indigenous populations. The volume explores different types of material evidence for the Roman wars of conquest, including temporary camps, battlefields, coinage production, and regional settlement patterns. These and other topics are examined using four case studies: Caesar's Gallic Wars, the Cantabrian and Asturian Wars, the Germanic Wars of Augustus, and the Roman conquest of Britain. By focusing on the 'dark sides' of the Roman expansion and reclaiming the memory of the conquered, the Element aims to contribute to a more holistic understanding of the processes of incorporation and integration into the Roman Empire.

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The ‘Mesopotamian trap’: from the ‘first’ international to dynamic multiplicity

Powel

2024

Int. Theory

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Building on studies of historical non-Westphalian world orders, this article challenges desires to identify a ‘first’ international. The question ‘when was the first international?’ is fundamental to defining disciplinary boundaries and the ontologies that shape them. Such quests are substantialist rather than relational, limiting our understanding of the relations and diversity of agents involved in world ordering. Existing approaches to the ‘first’ international are caught in a ‘Mesopotamian trap’: a combination of social evolution conceptual models grounded in colonial epistemologies, analytical presentism, and the surviving propaganda of ancient urban rulers. This article proposes ‘dynamic multiplicity’ as a new framework to account for the diversity, complexity, dynamism, and relationality of world orders in past and present. Dynamic multiplicity emphasizes: a quantitative and qualitative multiplicity of actors; never-ending and always unfolding relations; the instability and permeability of social actors; the diachronic nature of social action; hierarchical and heterarchical power relations; the multi-scalar spatiality of the social; and sustained and critical interdisciplinarity. It applies dynamic multiplicity to the case of Sumer and ancient West Asia, a so-called ‘first’ international, to reveal a diversity of durable relational actors and contradict assumptions that international relations necessarily lead to world orders of homogenous unit-types.

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Power from Below in Premodern Societies

Cited by 10 publications

References 433 publications

Wari: Imperialism, Low Power, and Globalization in the Middle Horizon Central Andes

Wari: Imperialism, Low Power, and Globalization in the Middle Horizon Central Andes

Archaeology of the Roman Conquest

The ‘Mesopotamian trap’: from the ‘first’ international to dynamic multiplicity

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