Description:
The Archaeology of the Roman Provinces is a young discipline. As an academic subject, it has rapidly achieved great successes in the field of excavation and research and has increased our knowledge to a degree that barely keeps pace with the theoretical mastery of the results. The rapid development of scientific methods has contributed significantly to the self-assurance of the subject and opened up new perspectives for future research. Now and again it has been noted that Provincial Roman archeology has neglected its scientific foundations, methods and theories by omitting a reflection of their concepts and the validity of their findings. In the everyday research and teaching process we seldom worry about the meaning of terms such as analogy and hypothesis, chronology and periodization, or other abstract concepts. This volume deals with the basics of scientific theory, sources, methods and research aims of the subject in 140 articles. The reference book helps students to orient themselves in the language and thinking of science; but also the archaeologically interested will benefit from reading the manual.
Review Quotes: "Der Nutzen dieses Handbuchs besteht darin, dass es die theoretischen und methodischen Grundlagen sowie die Ziele des Faches gesammelt und kompakt in den Fokus rückt. Czysz erklärt, wie die Archäologie der Römischen Provinzen "funktioniert"; damit bietet er eine gute Wissensressource für die fachinterne Reflexion, die - wie bereits oben ausgeführt - bislang eine untergeordnete Rolle spielte. Zum anderen leistet er auch einen beitrag zur Sichtbarmachung und Legitimierung der Eigenständigkeit des Fachs nach außen. Das Werk ist nicht nur Fachstudenten und Außenstehenden zu empfehlen, auch "alte Hasen" sollten einen Blick hineinwerfen."
Von Jutta Zerres
In: Archäologische Informationen 43
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"To sum up, the author's profound knowledge and experience of German-speaking Roman provincial archaeology and his ambition to anchor the subject within the humanities make for an enriching and engaging read. Synthesising and condensing almost 40 years of work experience into a structured publication isn't an easy undertaking, and Czysz should be commended and congratulated for taking this task upon himself. Czysz deserves credit for elegantly and explicitly articulating concepts and terms which often go unexplained or undefined in Roman provincial literature, but whose definitions are significant for our scientific discourse (e. g. "Argument", "Befund", "historisches Ereignis" to name a few). (...) the publication at hand contains a very useful and wide-ranging collection of definitions and terms from the fields of archaeology and the humanities. Its strength lies in the clarity and intelligibility of the entries; although all stemming
from the same pen and thus exuding a somewhat individual flavour, they are well written and coherently structured, thus making it a welcome contribution to German-speaking Roman provincial literature."
Von Andrew Lawrence
In: Germania 98 (2020), 1.-2. Halbband, S. 359-363