The study of the frontiers of the Roman empire represents one of the oldest branches of European archaeology. Their study has traditionally complimented explanations of Roman history and therefore the foreign policies of the various imperial dynasties. The discipline of Roman Frontiers Studies has, however, tended to be subservient to an interpretative framework initially derived from historical sources. Today the archaeology of the subject is now sufficiently self-confident to stand independent scrutiny. In turn more recent scholarship on the subject of the frontiers of the empire have focused on them as zones and regions rather than simply as linear barriers. This fresh outlook has, in turn, occasioned a greater awareness of the evidence of life, military and non-military, in frontier situations.