Congratulations to HCMH’s post-doc, Dr. Paolo Cimadomo, on his article titled “Dynamics of integration: Nomads and sedentary peoples in the Roman and Late Roman Southern Levant” published in the book Economy and Frontier in the Roman Empire.

This paper focuses on the relationships between nomads and sedentary peoples who lived in the ancient regions of Trachonitis and Auranitis, today between Southern Syria and Northern Jordan. The interactions and interdependence between nomads and agriculturalists are an important topic of world history. However, our knowledge of the nomads suffers from a lack of documentation. We have limited data on their early history, as they left few literary sources and often very shallow archaeological remains for historians to explore. Otherwise, sedentary societies do provide information about them, as those agricultural empires or states constantly engaged in both military conflicts as well as diplomatic, commercial, marital, and other interactions with their nomadic neighbours.
I aim to examine the classical vision of the relationship between nomads and sedentary people, that relates to ideas of conflict and war. Are we to believe that relations were always hostile? Although nomad pastoralists are usually considered yearning for the luxuriant plains cultivated by the agriculturalists and the richness they contained, evidence shows that they are in continual interaction with peasants. They did not compete for the same natural resources, but in many cases, they had to cooperate with in the same economic and social system in order to survive.