ABSTRACT
The negative view of the Late Roman period that has long dominated scholarly accounts is rapidly disappearing. Rather than being compared with the High Empire of the 1st and 2nd centuries, resulting in an interpretation of decline, the 3rd to 5th centuries are now increasingly understood as a period of transformation between the Roman era and the kingdoms of the Early Middle Ages. Although the present study shares this general view, the province of Germania Inferior witnessed widespread depopulation in the late 3rd century, and it is therefore hard to avoid a negative view of developments there during that time. Furthermore, immigration followed depopulation about a century later, and migration is another complex subject for archaeologists, with longstanding beliefs and negative judgements playing a role.The aim of this article is simple – to describe and interpret the archaeological habitation history of Germania Inferior, later called Germania Secunda.The approach adopted is more complex, however, because several existing debates on migration and burial archaeology have to be elucidated before developments in this province in the 3rd to 5th centuries can be described.
