Congress of Roman Frontier Studies

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.

The idea of the Congress was the brain child of Eric Birley and Kurt Stade, but the first meeting was prevented by the start of the Second World War.

[2] Papers were presented by Andreas Alföldi, Jean Baradez, Antonio Frova, Albert Egges van Giffen, Ulrich Kahrstedt, Rudolf Laur-Belart, V E Nash-Williams, Hans Norling-Christensen, Franz Oelmann, Anne Strachan Robertson and Mortimer Wheeler.

The 89 participants came from Algeria, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United States and the UK, and included D. Baatz, E. Badian, J. Baradez, E. and A. R. Birley, J. E. Bogaers, C. M. Daniels, B. Dobson, E. Ettlinger, Lady Fox, A. Garzetti, J. P. Gillam, M. Gichon, C. Isings, T. Ivanov, M. G. Jarrett, G. Jobey, H-J.

Kellner, J. Kent, H. Klumbach, R. Laur-Belart, N. McCord, I. MacIvor, J. C. Mann (organiser), J. Mertens, J. Moreau, J. Morris, R. Nierhaus, H. von Petrikovits, H-G. Pflaum, C. W. Phillips, A. Piganiol, A. Radnoti, I.

There were 69 participants from Algeria, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Israel, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, the UK, and the USA.

The pre-Congress excursion (10-13 September), travelling by ship along the Rhine, included Mainz, Boppard, Koblenz, parts of the Limes, Bad Hönningen, Remagen and Neuss.

The post-Congress excursion (20-23 September) included Nijmegen, Utrecht, Amersfoort, Zwammerdam, Scheveningen, Valkenburg (Praetorium Agrippinae), Leiden and Amsterdam.

A handbook to the frontier in Lower Germany was produced to coincide with the Congress: J. E. Bogaers and C. B. Rüger (eds), Der Niedergermanische Limes (Bonn 1974).

A pre-Congress excursion ran from 27–29 August starting in Carnuntum in Austria and then moved into Hungary, visiting Sopron, Szombathely, Keszthely, Fenékpuszta, Tihany and Veszprém.

There was a public lecture on 2 September by Kenneth St Joseph on 'Aerial Reconnaissance and the map of Roman Scotland' accompanied by an exhibition of photographs from Cambridge University.

[28][29] The post-Congress tour ran from Stirling to Newcastle upon Tyne in England via Pennymuir Roman camps,[30] Woden Law hillfort[31] and High Rochester (Bremenium).

Seeking to counter-balance this trend, the organisers of the 1979 Congress invited specific colleagues to provide over-views of recent work in individual provinces.

Over 150 archaeologists attended with 77 papers published in three volumes and three languages (English, German and French) in 1980, arranged by Roman province with a general section at the end.

Tours during the congress included Heidenheim an der Brenz, Ellwangen Castle, various sites on the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes, Walldürn, Kastell Theilenhofen, Gunzenhausen and Weissenburg.

The post-Congress excursion visited Roman sites in the Bavarian Danube valley on 26–27 September, including Faimingen, Eining, Kelheim, Regensburg, Straubing and Passau.

The post-Congress excursion (22-24 September) went to western Slovakia and south Moravia, visiting sites around Bratislava, Rusovce (Gerulata), Iža (Celamantia), Nitra, Tren, Musov and Devín Castle.

The pre-Congress excursion went to NW Germany in 22–25 August, visiting early military activities in Germania including Anreppen, Haltern and Kalkriese.

During the congress, delegates visited the Rhine Limes in the Netherlands, including Nijmegen, Vechten (Fectio), Alphen aan den Rijn, Zwammerdam and Roman Valkenburg.

The handbook for the Congress was: T. Bechert and W. J. H. Willems, Die Roemische Reichsgrenze zwischen Mosel und Nordsee-Kueste (Stuttgart 1995) in the Theiss series of books on Roman frontiers.

The Chair of the Congress committee was David Breeze, working with Phil Freeman from the University of Liverpool with support from the Council for British Research in the Levant.

It was organised by the Department of Ancient History and Archaeology at the University of Pécs and the Patron was Dr Ferenc Mádl, President of the Republic of Hungary.

[39] The post-Congress excursion visited monuments of the Sarmatians on the Great Hungarian Plain and the Móra Ferenc Museum in Szeged, The handbook was edited by Zsolt Visy: The Roman Army in Pannonia (Pecs 2003).

[50] The 23rd Congress took place in Ingolstadt in Germany from 14–20 September 2015 and was organised by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Protection and the German Limes Commission.

The pre-Congress excursion took place on 12–13 September and included Künzing, the Römermuseum Boiotro in Passau, the Gäubodenmuseum and St. Peter's Church, Straubing and the Walhalla memorial in Donaustauf.

The opening session on the 21 August featured several papers giving an overview of the Lower German Limes, newly inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2021.

Grga Novak (eds) Quintus Congresses Internationalis Limitis Romani Studiosorum, Acta et Dissertationes Archaelogicae III (Zagreb 1963) 6.

Studien zu den Militärgrenzen Roms, Vorträge des 6 Internationalen Limeskongresses in Suddeutschland, Beihefte der Bonner Jahrbucher Band 19 (1967) 7.

Dorothea Haupt and Heinz Günter Horn (eds) Studien zu den Militärgrenzen Roms II, Vorträge des 10 Internationalen Limeskongresses in Der Germania Inferior (Cologne 1977) 11.

Internationaler Limeskongress 2015 in Ingolstadt in Bayern' Der Limes 7, 2013/1, S. 36–37[62] Simon James, Limesfreunde in Philadelphia: a snapshot of the State of Roman Frontier Studies.