Dear colleagues,

We cordially invite you to the 19th International Colloquium on Roman Provincial Art!

Location and time:
Frankfurt (Archaeological Museum; Goethe University; Roman-Germanic Commission of the German Archaeological Institute), Mainz (Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie) and Saalburg Roman Fort, June 1–7, 2026

The conference venues in Frankfurt and Mainz are easily accessible by public transportation. A bus transfer will be provided for the day at the Saalburg.

Key topics:
The conference will focus on the stone monuments of the Roman provinces in their various forms, as two- and three-dimensional objects, as carriers of image and text information, and as components of sculptural and architectural ensembles. The aim is to explore the range of meanings conveyed by these monuments as far as possible and to contextualize them in terms of cultural history.

Participants are invited to base their presentations and discussions on one of the following key topics:
- Social mobility
- Dating parameters / questions of chronology
- New discoveries and current topics

On the key topic of ‘social mobility’:

The Roman conquest brought about some fundamental changes for the local provincial population. In addition to geographical mobility, e.g. through new settlement patterns, trade, and military dislocation, this also affected social mobility. Old elites had to reposition themselves in order to assert themselves, and new elites emerged, especially in the context of political-military conflicts. However, the granting of civil rights and opportunities for economic networking also offered members of lower social groups opportunities for advancement, for example through military service. In the northern provinces in particular, the new Mediterranean media of image, writing and architecture, as well as their combination, opened up new, often ostentatious forms of expression for social positioning. These could be used equally to articulate innovations and traditional values. Grave and dedication monuments in particular, but also representative residential furnishings, open up far-reaching possibilities for analysis in this regard. They are often a means of social communication for newly constituted provincial societies. The aim of the 19th International Colloquium on Roman Provincial Art is to examine how the social processes mentioned above are reflected and discussed in the medium of stone monuments.

Type of posts:
Lecture, duration 20 minutes + 10 minutes discussion
Short lecture, duration 10 minutes
Poster contribution, duration 10 minutes

Languages:
German, English, French, Italian, Spanish