About

Rob is a Senior Lecturer (equiv. Assoc. Prof.) in Archaeology in the School of History, Classics & Archaeology at Newcastle University. Prior to joining Newcastle, Rob was a Finds Liaison Officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

Education


2008            PhD, Dept. of Archaeology, University of York


2001             MA Medieval Archaeology (with Distinction), Dept. of Archaeology, University of York


2000            BA Anthropology (cum laude), Dept. of Anthropology, SUNY Geneseo

Other Publications


Monographs & Edited Volumes


Collins, R. 2012. Hadrian’s Wall and the End of Empire: The Roman Frontier in the 4th-5th Centuries, NY: Routledge


Collins, R. et al. 2020. Living on the Edge of Empire: The objects and people of Rome’s Northern Frontier, Pen & Sword


Ivleva, T. & Collins, R. (eds.) 2020. Un-Roman Sex: Gender, Sexuality, and Lovemaking in the Roman Provinces and Frontiers, Routledge


 

Collins, R. & Symonds, M. 2019. Hadrian’s Wall 2009-2019, Kendal: Soc. of Antiquaries of Newcastle on Tyne & Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Soc.


Collins, R, Symonds, M. & Weber, M. (eds.) 2015. Roman Military Architecture on the Frontiers: Armies and their Architecture in Late Antiquity, Oxford: Oxbow


Haarer, F, Collins, R, Fitzpatrick-Matthews, K, Moorhead, S, Petts, D. & Walton, P. (eds.) 2014. AD 410: The History and Archaeology of Late and Post-Roman Britain, London: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies Monograph


Collins, R. & McIntosh, F. (eds.) 2014. Life in the Limes: Studies of the people and objects of the Roman frontiers presented to Lindsay Allason-Jones, Oxford: Oxbow


Collins, R. & Symonds, M. F. A. (eds.) 2013. Breaking Down Boundaries: Hadrian’s Wall in the 21st Century, JRA Supplementary Series 93, Portsmouth: JRA


Collins, R. & Allason-Jones, L. (eds.) 2010. Finds from the Frontier: Material Culture in the 4th-5th Centuries, York: CBA


Collins, R. & Gerrard, J. (eds.) 2004. Debating Late Antiquity in Britain, AD 300-700, BAR 365


Articles and Notes


2020       ‘The Phallus and the Frontier: The Form and Function of Phallic Imagery Along Hadrian’s Wall’, in R. Collins & T. Ivleva (eds.), Un-Roman Sex, London: Routledge, 274-309


2019        ‘Hadrian’s Wall: Current Research and Future Directions’, in Wall to Wall: Conservation, Management, and Interpretation for the Public on Hadrian’s Wall and the Great Wall of China, CACH/Historic England/Newcastle University, 220-231


2019        Stocks, C, Birley, B. and Collins, R. ‘Stories from the Frontier: Linking Past and Present at Vindolanda through Digital Gameplay’, Thersites 8: 97-109


2019       ‘Roman Britain in 2018: 3. Hadrian’s Wall; 4. Northern England’, Britannia 50: 416-428


2019       ‘Stone-carved phalli: A typology’, Roman Finds Group Datasheet 10, Roman Finds Group


2018       ‘Roman Britain in 2017: 3. Hadrian’s Wall; 4. Northern England’, Britannia 49: 342-355


2018       Collins, R. and Ivleva, T. ‘Session 20 – Introduction: Sex on the Frontiers. Textual and Material Representations of Human Sexuality at the Edge of Empire’, in C.S. Sommer and S. Matešić (eds.), Limes XXIII. Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies Ingolstadt 2015. Beiträge zum Welterbed Limes Sonderband 4, Mainze,1035-1038


2018       Collins, R., Davis, N., and Hardy, S. ‘The ‘Virtual’ Wall: Building global interest in Roman frontiers through digital outreach’, in C.S. Sommer and S. Matešić (eds.), Limes XXIII.Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies Ingolstadt 2015. Beiträge zum Welterbed Limes Sonderband 4, Mainze, 387-391


 

2018        ‘Landscapes of the Limitanei at the Northern Edge of Empire’, in N. Christie and P. Diarte-Blasco (eds.), Interpreting Transformations of Landscapes and People in Late Antiquity, Oxford: Oxbow, 149-161 


2018        Collins, R. and Turner, S. ‘The Eslington Sword and the Kingdom of Northumbria’, Medieval Archaeology


2018        Dolfini, A. and Collins, R. ‘Modelling Physical and Digital Replication: Bridging the gap between experimentation and experience’, in B. Malloy (ed.), Open Archaeology 4: Topical Issue on Exploring Advances in the Use of 3D Models of Objects in Archaeological Research, 36-49 [https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2018-0002]


2017        ‘The frontier foundations of Anglo-Saxon Northumbria’, in S. Semple, C. Orsini and S. Mui (eds.) Life on the Edge: Social, Political and Religious Frontiers in Early Medieval Europe, Neue Studien zur Sacshenforschung, 45-54


2017      ‘Soldiers in Life and Death: Material Culture, the Military, and Mortality’, in A. van Oyen and M. Pitts (eds.), Materialising Roman Histories. Beyond Instrumentalism and Representation, Oxford: Oxbow, 31-45


2017      ‘Power at the Periphery: Military Authority in Transition in Late Roman Britain,’ in R. Varga and V. Rusu-Bolindet (ed.), Official Power and Local Elites in the Roman Provinces, London: Routledge, 127-144


2017      ‘Decline, collapse, or transformation? The case for the northern frontier of Britannia,’ in N. Roymans, S. Heeren, and W. Clerq (eds.) Social Dynamics in the Northwest Frontiers of the Late Roman Empire: Beyond Decline or Transformation, Amsterdam: University Press, 203-220


2015      ‘Economic reduction or military reorganisation? Demolition and conversion of granaries in the northern frontier of Britannia in the later 4th century’, in R Collins, M. Symonds & M. Weber (eds.), Roman Military Architecture on the Frontiers, Oxford: Oxbow, 18-31


2015      with M. Weber, ‘Late Roman military architecture: An introduction’, in R Collins, M. Symonds & M. Weber (eds.), Roman Military Architecture on the Frontiers, Oxford: Oxbow, 1-5


2015      ‘The nature and understanding of frontiers in the later Roman Empire’, in D. Breeze, B. Jones & I. Oltean (eds.), Understanding Roman Frontiers, Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd, 101-110


2015      ‘After the Auxiliaries: Veterans in 4th century Britain’, in L. Vaglinski et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the 22nd International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies, 471-475


2014      (with D. Breeze) ‘Limitanei and Comitatenses: Military Failure at the End of Roman Britain?’ in Haarer et al. (eds.), AD 410, 61-72


2014      ‘Penannular Brooches from the northern granary at Birdoswald: A reappraisal’, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society 14: 286-291


2014      ‘Lost and Found: Casual loss and (re)discovery of Roman objects from the northern frontier’, in Collins and McIntosh (eds.), Life in the Limes, 166-171


2013      ‘Metal-detecting and geophysical survey at Great Whittington, Northumberland’, Archaeologia Aeliana, 5th series, 42: 235-267


2013      ‘A new Romano-British sculpture from Benwell’, Archaeologia Aeliana, 5th series, 42: 129-131


2013      ‘Pleading the Fifth (Century): Patterns of Coin Use at the End of Empire’, in Collins and Symonds (eds.), Breaking Down Boundaries: Hadrian’s Wall in the 21st Century, JRA Suppl. Ser. 93: 123-137


2013      with Symonds, M. F. A. ‘Approaching the Wall: An Introduction’, in Collins and Symonds (eds.), Breaking Down Boundaries: Hadrian’s Wall in the 21st Century, JRA Suppl. Ser. 93: 9-16


2013      ‘Soldiers to Warriors: Renegotiating the Roman Frontier in the Fifth Century’, in F. Hunter & K. Painter (eds.), Late Roman Silver: the Traprain Treasure in context, Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries Scotland, 29-43


2012      ‘Social Spaces at the End of Empire: The Limitanei of Hadrian’s Wall’, in D. Totten & K. Lafrenze Samuels (eds.), Making Roman Places, Past and Present, Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary Series 89: 65–80


2011      ‘Military Communities and the Transformation of the Frontier from the 4th–6th Centuries’, in D. Petts & S. Turner (eds.) Early Medieval Northumbria: Kingdoms and Communities, 450–1100, Studies in the Early Middle Ages 24, Turnhout: Brepols: 15–34


2010      ‘Portable Antiquities in the Roman Frontier’, in S. Worrell et al. (eds.), A Decade of Discovery: Proceedings of the Portable Antiquities Scheme Conference 2007, BAR 520: 135–142


2010      ‘Recent Discoveries of Early Anglian Material Culture in the North East’, Medieval Archaeology 54: 386–390


2010      ‘Brooch Use in the Frontier from the 4th–5th Centuries’, in R. Collins & L. Allason-Jones (eds.), Finds from the Frontier: Material Culture in the 4th–5th Centuries, York: CBA: 64–77


2010      with Allason-Jones, L. ‘Material Culture at the End of Empire’, in R. Collins & L. Allason-Jones (eds.), Finds from the Frontier: Material Culture in the 4th-5th Centuries, York: CBA: 133–138


2009      ‘Finds recorded through the Portable Antiquities Scheme’, in N. Hodgson, Hadrian’s Wall Pilgrimage Handbook, 1999-2009, Kendal: CWAAS and SANT: 57–59


2009      ‘Hadrian’s Wall and the Collapse of Roman Frontiers’, in A. Morillo, N. Hanel, & E. Martín Hernández (eds.), Limes XX: Estudios Sobre la Frontera Romana (León), Anejos de Gladius 13, Madrid: 181–197


2008      ‘The Latest Roman Coin from Hadrian’s Wall: A small 5th Century Purse Group’, Britannia 39: 256–261


2008      ‘Identity in the Frontier: Theory and Multiple Community Interfacing’, in C. Fenwick et al (eds.), TRAC 2007: Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, London 2007, Oxford: Oxbow: 45–52


2006      ‘Late Roman frontier communities in north Britain: a theoretical context for the ‘end’ of Hadrian’s Wall’, in B. Croxford et al (eds.), TRAC 2005: Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, Birmingham 2005, Oxford: Oxbow: 1–11


2004      ‘Before ‘the End’: Hadrian’s Wall in the fourth century and after’, in R. Collins & J. Gerrard (eds.), Debating Late Antiquity in Britain, AD 300-700, BAR 365: 123–132

Blog Posts

    Projects

    WallCAP – Hadrian’s Wall Community Archaeology Project

    Memberships

    Society of Antiquaries (London), elected 2013

    Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

    Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle on Tyne

    Roman Northern Frontiers Seminar

    Rob Collins

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    @duxbritanniarum

    Active 1 year, 6 months ago