Feminists at the gate: Feminist approaches to Roman frontiers

Traditionally, Roman frontier archaeology acquired a reputation as a field led by brilliant men. Research by woman has broadly tended to focus on topics such as analysis of finds assemblages, study of literary sources, approaches to leisure on the frontier and, more recently, the study of environmental material. Gendered differences in the choice of subjects studied often mirrored the division of roles during the excavation of archaeological sites. Conversely, the voices leading on tackling the 'bigger picture' questions, addressing issues of frontier systems, structural archaeology of frontier installations and tackling chronology and phasing of individual sites has mostly been accomplished by male scholars. The purpose of the 'Feminist' session at the 25th Limes Congress was to provide an opportunity to reflect on the work by female scholars in our discipline.