Cardiff University project revealing Roman army supply strategies awarded €2m grant

A researcher at Cardiff University’s School of History, Archaeology and Religion has been awarded funding to lead a project explaining how the Roman army was supplied with food and the impact this had on landscapes and economies across Europe.

The €2m European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant, awarded to Professor Richard Madgwick, will enable the project, Feeding the Roman Army, Making the Empire (FRAME) to uncover the strategies that supported the hundreds of thousands of Roman soldiers across frontiers in Europe, from the Black Sea to Hadrian’s Wall.

Researchers will establish how the Roman administration overcame the key challenges of feeding the army across expansive frontiers that were ecologically and topographically diverse.

The project will answer fundamental questions on the success and longevity of the Roman Empire, targeting food remains in 5 frontier regions. By combining cutting-edge multi-isotope and organic residue analysis with archaeological and historical evidence, the project will reconstruct the military diet across frontiers, address how food was produced, the networks that supplied it and the impact this had on frontier landscapes and economies.

Key project members Dr Peter Guest (Vianova Archaeology and Heritage), Dr Amy Styring (University of Oxford) and Dr Lucy Cramp (University of Bristol) will facilitate a multi-faceted, integrated approach to evidence.

Professor Richard Madgwick said:

"I’m really excited about the prospect of addressing longstanding questions about the Roman Empire using FRAME’s novel methodology with collaborators across Europe. I’m certain it will be a challenging but rewarding journey.”

The project’s key objectives surround reconstructing the Roman military diet in different frontier regions, identifying production strategies, establishing the supply networks delivering food to each frontier, and ultimately providing a blueprint method for studying food supply in the past.

The large comparative datasets, new mapping data and integrated methodology will have legacy benefits well beyond Roman archaeology.

Professor Madgwick added: “The Leverhulme Trust funded Feeding the Roman Army in Britain project was key in demonstrating the potential of this approach, but FRAME does much, much more including a far wider geographical scope and assesses production, supply and local impact more holistically, including analysing plant remains and ceramics.”