Congress of Roman Frontier Studies

The Congress of Roman Frontier Studies or Limes Congress is one of the most important conferences on Archaeology in Europe. The conference takes place on a triennial basis, although there have been some exceptions. The first congress was held in Durham; the most recent one took place in Ingolstadt, Germany, in 2015.

History of the Congress of Roman Frontier Studies

On the initiative of Eric Birley, about 20 archaeologists and historians assembled at Durham University in 1949. Speakers included famous archaeologists like Sir Mortimer Wheeler, Andreas Alföldi or Franz Oelmann. Plans to establish regular meetings of British and international academics were developed as early as the late 1920s, when Birley met Ernst Fabricius and his assistant Kurt Stade from the German Reichs-Limeskommission. World War II, however, prevented a realisation a planned meeting in 1940. Since 1949, the congress has been hosted by 12 different countries including the non-European countries of Israel (1967) and Jordan (2000). In terms of size, the Limescongress has developed from about 20 participants and 11 papers in 1949 to about 300 participants presenting 200 papers in the year 2012, when the 22nd conference was held in the city of Ruse in Bulgaria. Great Britain hosted the Congress of Roman Frontier Studies six times. The 2015 congress was the fourth in Germany. There were plans to meet in Morocco in 2018. Due to security reasons, Serbia will host the congress in 2018. Nijmegen in the Netherlands will follow in 2021.

Bibliography

Anthony Birley, Fifty years of Roman frontier studies. In: Ph. Freeman, J. Bennett, Z. T. Fiema, B. Hoffmann (Hrsg.), Limes XVIII. Proceedings of the XVIIIth International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies held in Amman, Jordan (September 2000). BAR International Series 1084 (Oxford 2002) 1-10.

Simon James, Limesfreunde in Philadelphia: a snapshot of the State of Roman Frontier Studies. Britannia XXXVI, 2005, 499-502.