Embedded Histories: Belonging in the Maghreb from 1st c. BCE - 4th c. CE

This dissertation addresses long-held debates about identity and provincial culture – how people living under Roman imperialism constructed lives for themselves and thought about their own identities in relation to the empire. These debates have often used the paradigm of Romanization to argue that individuals resisted or assimilated into imperial ideology, but my project moves beyond the model of Romanization and instead adopts a model of belonging. Drawing on theoretical models from fields like race studies and indigenous studies, it investigates attestations of identity throughout the Maghreb from the first century BCE up to the early fourth century CE. Next, it defines ancient identity as a tool individuals used to facilitate belonging within a community. Each subsequent chapter employs different evidence for historical analysis including landscape archaeology and burials, epigraphic data, and the literary records. For each source, I investigate how the evidence suggests a multi-layered identity, not one that simply aligns with traditional Roman, Greek, or Punic culture. These sources indicate that people living in the Maghreb during this period had access to a variety of communities to which they might wish to belong and they would leverage particular identities in specific times and circumstances. The conclusions of this project invite new ways of considering ancient Mediterranean identity – not as simply responding to Rome, but as embedded within a centuries-old historical context.

Author dc:creator

• Perry, Danielle, Jillian

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Grey, Campbell

• Arts and Humanities
• History

Language dc:language.iso

en

Repository record dc:identifier.uri

https://repository.upenn.edu/handle/20.500.14332/61637

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.upenn.edu:20.500.14332/61637