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Clues for Romanisation: Material Evidence from Southern Pannonia

Several new archaeological sites have been discovered in the Vinkovci area recently, yielding a significant number of finds dated to the late La Tène and early Roman periods. While late La Tène period finds point to the existence of settlements, early Roman finds, especially militaria and horse harness fittings, come as bit of a surprise. While these new finds certainly offer clues, they also raise many questions. The most important ones concerns the find context: what does the presence of both late La Tène and early Roman (i.e. Augustan and Tiberian) artefacts imply? Were those late La Tène settlements where life simply continued into the early Roman period? Or does the appearance of Roman artefacts - lot of them being certainly related to military activities - imply an early presence of Roman army units? The final answer to these questions may only be provided by systematic archaeological research, but for the time being these finds of early Roman artefacts, especially militaria, give us the basis to discuss the Romanisation process in southern Pannonia at the beginning of the 1st century AD with more certainty. This process must have been a two-way development, with the autochthonous population and Roman newcomers mutually influencing each other in every aspect of life, material life to start with, but also as far as cultural and identity matters are concerned. Since archaeology only provides material evidence, one has to use this evidence to presume and deduce what cultural changes may have occurred.

South Pannonia; early Roman finds; Romanisation; autochthonous population; continuity and cultural change

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