The Celtic Project

Confronting Empire – Celts and Romans, Conquest & Resistance

Monday, February 13, 2012, 6:30 p.m.

Houston Museum of Natural Science, 5555 Hermann Park Drive

General Admission – $18.00, AIA and HMNS Members – $12.00

Dr. John Soderberg, Department of Anthropology, The University of Minnesota

Cosponsored by The William J. Flynn Center for Irish Studies, University of St. Thomas,             Houston and by The Houston Museum of Natural Science

How do conquered peoples experience empires? In the course of a century, Roman legions invaded and conquered Gaul, southern Germany, and Britain. Roman soldiers may even have come to Ireland. Roman goods and ideas certainly did. Julius Caesar, Tacitus, and others tell their story about the conquest. But, archaeologists can provide another story, one of how northern peoples reacted. From their settlements and houses, their pottery and ornaments, we see that the Celts continued to assert their own identities throughout the centuries of Roman rule and well into the Middle Ages as Rome became a center of Christianity. The larger lesson is that we need to dig deeper than official accounts to understand how indigenous peoples fare in empires. Through study of the materials that the Celts crafted, used, and left, we can let them speak for themselves and tell us about their experiences confronting the Roman Empire.

John Soderberg is the Managing Director of the Anthropology Laboratories at the University of Minnesota and President of the American Society of Irish Medieval Studies. He has excavated sites in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. His main research interest is the development of large religious centers in Ireland from the Iron Age into the Middle Ages. Dr. Soderberg also directs a project making three-dimensional scans of rock art at Jeffers Petroglyphs in Southwestern Minnesota. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and M.A. from the Irish Studies Program at Boston College.