The Making of Britain's First Urban Landscapes: The Case of Late Iron Age and Roman Essex (original) (raw)
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Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2014
Questions about the foundation and cultural make-up of Britain's first towns have been long debated. The creation of new cities was a crucial element in the economic and cultural assimilation of a new province, having ramifications for the trajectories of later generations as well as the immediate situation following the conquest. A dominant feature of the debate about urban origins in Britain is the interpretation of evidence relating to buildings and urban morphology, whereas the contribution of the evidence from finds has arguably been minimal. My intent here is to review the historical scenario of the foundation of Britain's first towns in light of artefactual evidence. I will focus on the evidence of Claudio-Neronian brooches and imported finewares (and their predecessors), which have already contributed to the debate as chronological indicators but perhaps offer more potential for new insights into cultural connectivity and social practice. 11 Creighton 2006, 130-35. 12 Creighton 2006, 94 and 125; cf. Millett 1994, 433. 13 Perring 2011, 250-51. The basis for Perring's theory is the discovery of an enclosure of c.24.5 ha defined by V-shaped double-ditches, rapidly constructed and dismantled in the late Claudian period, as well as dendrochronological dates for bridge structures on the Cornhill site of no later than A.D. 48, where a rectangular street grid was established before the revolt of A.D. 60/61. 14 Wallace 2013 presents a detailed counter-argument. 15 Aldhouse-Green 2007, 381; cf. Burnham et al. 2001, 71. 16 Goldsworthy and Haynes 1999.
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2013
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Bioarchaeology and Social Theory, 2020
The conquest of Britain by the Roman Emperor Claudius from AD 43, saw the introduction of urban settlements, associated infrastructure (e.g., roads, water supply), and Imperial governance to a territory characterized by small dispersed farming communities, organized into tribal confederacies. The integration of Britain into the Empire was marked by the imposition of entirely new, and often unfamiliar, economic and social practices, and ways of living, particularly those from the Mediterranean and more distant parts of Continental Europe. These developments are evidenced by changes in the patterns of diseases and mortality risks observed post-Conquest in Britain's population. However, research has shown that the bioarchaeological data are heterogeneous, revealing marked differences between towns, as well as between urban and rural settlements. This chapter seeks to understand the reasons for this heterogeneity, focusing on the theme of migration.
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Status, Power and Values: archaeological approaches to understanding the medieval urban community
This rapid survey of the material culture of Norwich explores the potential of the physical environment, and the products of excavation in the form of artefacts and ecofacts, to access the mentalities of town dwellers in the past. The richness of the historic environment of cities such as Norwich, both above- and below-ground, has long been self-evident. Antiquarian, art-historical and archaeological enquiry, however, has been slow to assess and synthesise the information beyond cataloguing and analogy. It is only in recent years, with the advent of new methodologies, together with increasingly sophisticated questioning of landscapes, sites, buildings and assemblages, that new insights into motives and intentions latent within the physical environment have become possible.
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This edited collection of papers studies the rural hinterland of the Roman forts and towns of North West England. The volume is in three sections. The first two deal with some theoretical approaches to settlement and the problems of site location and identification within the region. The final part contains four case studies looking at the two most-studied Iron Age and Romano-British enclosures in the region: Great Woolden Hall and Irby, and then the Castleshaw Valley, where research has revealed the tight economic control of the upland landscape of the southern pennies during the Roman period.
New visions of the countryside of Roman Britain, vol. 1: the rural settlement of Roman Britain
2016
Introduction 17 Classification of rural settlement 17 Farmsteads 20 Villas 33 Nucleated settlements: roadside settlements, military vici and villages 37 Summary 43 CHAPTER 3: BUILDINGS IN THE COUNTRYSIDE by Alexander Smith Introduction 44 The architectural dataset 45 Building form and material 47 Building function 54 An architectural continuum: building types 64 From national overviews to regional syntheses 74 CHAPTER 4: THE SOUTH by Martyn Allen The nature of the landscape 75 The South dataset 76 Roman rural settlement patterns 78 Buildings 102 Landscape context and infrastructure 114 Settlement hierarchies: the social and economic basis of settlements 121 Case studies: Middle Thames Valley and the Hampshire Downs Region summary CHAPTER 5: THE CENTRAL BELT by Alexander Smith The nature of the landscape The Central Belt dataset Roman rural settlement patterns Buildings Landscape context and infrastructure Settlement hierarchies: the social and economic basis of settlements Case study: the Cambridgeshire Fen edge Region summary CHAPTER 6: THE EAST by Alexander Smith The nature of the landscape The East dataset Roman rural settlement patterns Buildings Landscape context and infrastructure Settlement hierarchies: the social and economic basis of settlements Region summary CHAPTER 7: THE NORTHEAST by Martyn Allen The nature of the landscape The NorthEast dataset Roman rural settlement patterns Buildings Landscape context and infrastructure Settlement hierarchies: the social and economic basis of settlements Region summary CHAPTER 8: THE CENTRAL WEST by Tom Brindle The nature of the landscape The Central West dataset Roman rural settlement patterns Buildings Landscape context and infrastructure Settlement hierarchies: the social and economic basis of settlements. A case study from the Chester and Wroxeter hinterlands Region summary CONTENTS v Romanprelims.indd 5 15/09/2016 15:33:50 THE RURAL SETTLEMENT OF ROMAN BRITAIN vi CHAPTER 9: THE NORTH by Tom Brindle The nature of the landscape 308 The North dataset 309 Roman rural settlement patterns 311 Buildings 320 Landscape context and infrastructure 322 Settlement hierarchies: the social and economic basis of settlements 324 Region summary 329 CHAPTER 10: THE SOUTHWEST by Tom Brindle The nature of the landscape 331 The SouthWest dataset 332 Roman rural settlement patterns 334 Buildings 346 Landscape context and infrastructure 349 Settlement hierarchies: the social and economic basis of settlements 353 Region summary 357 CHAPTER 11: UPLAND WALES AND THE MARCHES by Tom Brindle The nature of the landscape 360 The Upland Wales and Marches dataset 360 Roman rural settlement patterns 363 Buildings 373 Landscape context and infrastructure 378 Settlement hierarchies: the social and economic basis of settlements 380 Region summary 383 CHAPTER 12: CONCLUSIONS: THE RURAL SETTLEMENT OF ROMAN BRITAIN by Alexander Smith and Michael Fulford Introduction 385 The regions 385 Chronological patterns 404 Rural population 416 Town and country 418 Roman rural settlement: reflections and future research 419 APPENDICES 1. Introduction and guide to the digital resource by Tim Evans 421 2. Kernel density 423 3. Finds categories 425 BIBLIOGRAPHY 426 INDEX (Peter Ellis) 455