Presents the major findings of a project focusing on the characterisation, mapping and assessment of late prehistoric and Roman rural settlement. This volume highlights directions for research in the discipline and provides a framework for utilisation of a crucial archaeological resource. It is a useful reading for scholars of Roman Britain.
Based on a version published in 2007 by the Council for British Archaeology - Research Report series RR 151(ISBN: 978 1 902771 66 3).This book outlines the results of a two-year project supported by English Heritage and the Leverhulme Trust into the characterisation, mapping and assessment of later Iron Age and Roman rural settlement across England. Utilising data from every local authority in England, it outlines a framework for the study of Iron Age and Roman rural settlement. Rural landscapes, where the majority of the population lived, were a key arena of social change in Roman Britain, but previous research has been focused principally on high-status villas, which form only a small fraction of the known sites. This has led to major biases and gaps in our understanding of the complex rural societies of the period. Mapping the information from a systematic national survey of the evidence, this volume provides a guide to major regional and chronological trends in rural settlement pattern, form and function. This book is aimed primarily at students and practitioners of archaeology and heritage management at all levels. Based on extensive academic research, it is envisaged as a book with wide appeal to readers interested in Roman Britain, regional landscape history, heritage management and in approaches to the early evolution of agricultural landscapes.A catalogue record for the original version is available from the British library.
Within the colonial history of the British Empire there are difficulties in reconstructing the lives of people that came from very different traditions of experience. The Archaeology of Roman Britain argues that a similar critical approach to the lives of people in Roman Britain needs to be developed, not only for the study of the local population but also those coming into Britain from elsewhere in the Empire who developed distinctive colonial lives. This critical, biographical approach can be extended and applied to places, structures, and things which developed in these provincial contexts as they were used and experienced over time. This book uniquely combines the study of all of these elements to access the character of Roman Britain and the lives, experiences, and identities of people living there through four centuries of occupation. Drawing on the concept of the biography and using it as an analytical tool, author Adam Rogers situates the archaeological material of Roman Britain within the within the political, geographical, and temporal context of the Roman Empire. This study will be of interest to scholars of Roman archaeology, as well as those working in biographical themes, issues of colonialism, identity, ancient history, and classics.
This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online. Roman Britain is a critical area of research within the provinces of the Roman empire. Within the last 15-20 years, the study of Roman Britain has been transformed through an enormous amount of new and interesting work which is not reflected in the main stream literature.
Late Iron Age and Early Roman Britain has often been homogenised by models that focus on the resistance/assimilation dichotomy during the period of transition. Complex Assemblages examines the rural settlements of this period through the lens of Cultural Theory in order to tease out the more nuanced and diverse human landscape that the material suggests. This approach develops new ways of thinking about the variability observed in rural settlements from the end of the Middle Iron Age (MIA) to the early 2nd century AD; the selected study area is the Upper and Middle Thames Valley. This book uses the grid/group designations of Mary Douglas’ Cultural Theory as a tool to produce a more multifaceted picture of the period, exploring the assemblages of these rural settlements to understand the nature of the socio-political structures of the region, beyond the anonymity of tribal affiliation and the faceless economic dichotomy of high and low status.
The focus of this book is to draw together still scattered data to chart and interpret the changing nature of life in towns from the late Roman period through to the mid-Anglo-Saxon period. Did towns fail? Were these ruinous sites really neglected by early Anglo-Saxon settlers and leaders?
Research for and the writing of this book was funded by the award of a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship. The period c. AD300—1050, spanning the collapse of Roman rule to the coming of the Normans, was formative in the development of Wales. Life in Early Medieval Wales considers how people lived in late Roman and early medieval Wales, and how their lives and communities changed over the course of this period. It uses a multidisciplinary approach, focusing on the growing body of archaeological evidence set alongside the early medieval written sources together with place-names and personal names. It begins by analysing earlier research and the range of sources, the significance of the environment and climate change, and ways of calculating time. Discussion of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries focuses on the disintegration of the Roman market economy, fragmentation of power, and the emergence of new kingdoms and elites alongside evidence for changing identities, as well as important threads of continuity, notably Latin literacy, Christianity, and the continuation of small-scale farming communities. Early medieval Wales was an entirely rural society. Analysis of the settlement archaeology includes key sites such as hillforts, including Dinas Powys, the royal crannog at Llangorse, and the Viking Age and earlier estate centre at Llanbedrgoch alongside the development, from the seventh century onwards, of new farming and other rural settlements. Consideration is given to changes in the mixed farming economy reflecting climate deterioration and a need for food security, as well as craft working and the roles of exchange, display, and trade reflecting changing outside contacts. At the same time cemeteries and inscribed stones, stone sculpture and early church sites chart the course of conversion to Christianity, the rise of monasticism, and the increasing power of the Church. Finally, discussion of power and authority analyses emerging evidence for sites of assembly, the rise of Mercia, and increasing English infiltration, together with the significance of Offa's and Wat's Dykes, and the Viking impact. Throughout the evidence is placed within a wider context enabling comparison with other parts of Britain and Ireland and, where appropriate, with other parts of Europe to see broader trends, including the impacts of climate, economic, and religious change.
"The authors consider the siting of 'thorps' and 'throps' in relation to the landscape and to soil types in particular. Amply demonstrating the value of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of early medieval settlement in England, the authors are able to draw important conclusions about the changes in farming that swept the country during this period and by association the process of village nucleation. By examining both the chronology of place-names in 'thorp' and 'throp' and their qualifying elements (notably the presence or absence of personal names), it appears possible to chart both the speed at which arable enterprises farmed in severalty converted to communal cultivation as well as the direction in which the changes spread. There is a sense of real excitement as many fresh insights are revealed in the course of the book"--P. [4] of cover.
The Archaeology of Britain is the only concise and up-to-date introduction to the archaeological record of Britain from the reoccupation of the landmass by Homo sapiens during the later stages of the most recent Ice Age until last century. This fully revised second edition extends its coverage, including greater detail on the first millennium AD beyond the Anglo-Saxon domain, and into recent times to look at the archaeological record produced by Britain’s central role in two World Wars and the Cold War. The chapters are written by experts in their respective fields. Each is geared to provide an authoritative but accessible introduction, supported by numerous illustrations of key sites and finds and a selective reference list to aid study in greater depth. It provides a one-stop textbook for the entire archaeology of Britain and reflects the most recent developments in archaeology both as a field subject and as an academic discipline. No other book provides such comprehensive coverage, with such a wide chronological range, of the archaeology of Britain. This collection is essential reading for undergraduates in archaeology, and all those interested in British archaeology, history and geography.
