Rural Settlement in Late Iron Age and Roman Britain: a Review of Three Recent Archaeological Fieldwork Reports and their Wider Implications

Britannia ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 397-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Local Area ◽  
Rural Settlement ◽  
Huge Amount ◽  
Roman Britain ◽  
Amount Of Information ◽  
Late Iron Age

All three well-produced reports, two excavation and one fieldwalking and magnetometry, deal with rural settlement in Iron Age and Roman Britain. They demonstrate the huge amount of information that can be gathered from such work with implications not only for our understanding of their local area but also many themes relevant to Iron Age and Roman Britain as a whole, as well as beyond. It is useful to review these reports not just in relation to the immense value that each site brings but also in terms of current knowledge and approaches taken to studying rural settlement.

An Unusual Imported Bronze Jug Handle from Late Iron Age Easton, Suffolk

Britannia ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 336-347
Author(s):  
Ruth Beveridge ◽  
Tom Woolhouse
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Rural Settlement ◽  
First Century ◽  
Late Iron Age

ABSTRACTDeveloper-funded excavation in Easton, Suffolk, investigated part of a long-lived Iron Age settlement and Roman farmstead. One late Iron Age pit contained an unusual bronze handle, most likely from a jug, the form of which appears to be unique in Britain. The closest parallels are products of Italian workshops in the late first century b.c. This paper describes the likely form of the vessel and discusses the significance of its presence at a rural settlement on the ‘border’ of the Iceni and Trinovantes/Catuvellauni.

scholarly journals Rural Life, Roman Ways? Examination of Late Iron Age to Late Romano-British Burial Practice and Mobility at Dog Hole Cave, Cumbria

Britannia ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 83-116
Author(s):  
Hannah J. O'Regan ◽  
Keith Bland ◽  
Jane Evans ◽  
Matilda Holmes ◽  
Kirsty McLeod ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Local Area ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
North West ◽  
Human Osteology ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
Burial Practice ◽  
Late Roman Period

ABSTRACTThe scarcity of Romano-British human remains from north-west England has hindered understanding of burial practice in this region. Here, we report on the excavation of human and non-human animal remains1 and material culture from Dog Hole Cave, Haverbrack. Foetal and neonatal infants had been interred alongside a horse burial and puppies, lambs, calves and piglets in the very latest Iron Age to early Romano-British period, while the mid- to late Roman period is characterised by burials of older individuals with copper-alloy jewellery and beads. This material culture is more characteristic of urban sites, while isotope analysis indicates that the later individuals were largely from the local area. We discuss these results in terms of burial ritual in Cumbria and rural acculturation. Supplementary material is available online (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X20000136), and contains further information about the site and excavations, small finds, zooarchaeology, human osteology, site taphonomy, the palaeoenvironment, isotope methods and analysis, and finds listed in Benson and Bland 1963.

The Introduction of Roman Ceramic Styles and Techniques into Roman Britain: A Case Study from the King Harry Lane Cemetery, St. Albans, Hertfordshire

1988 ◽  
Vol 123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian C. Freestone ◽  
Val Rigby
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Surface Coating ◽  
Roman Britain ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
Firing Techniques

AbstractSpecialised ceramics from Gaul were imported into late Iron Age Britain, and their forms copied in native techniques. Roman technology was introduced after the Conquest, and involved changes in paste preparation, surface coating and firing techniques that allowed increases in the scale, standardisation and quality of the production.

scholarly journals REGES, REGULI, DUCES: SOME REMARKS ON THE INDIVIDUAL AND POWER IN LATE IRON AGE PRE-ROMAN BRITAIN

2020 ◽  
pp. 78-92
Author(s):  
ANTON BARYSHNIKOV
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Comparative Studies ◽  
First Century ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Roman Britain ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
Material Sources ◽  
The Individual

The paper considers one of the most significant changes in late pre-Roman Iron Age in Britain—the emergence of individual power, usually labeled as kingship. The modern perception of this sociopolitical phenomenon has been largely determined according to texts from Greek and Roman authors. This paper argues that this image is distorted and says more about the ancient writers than it does about ancient political leaders, their status, or the essence of their power. Avoiding terms like king to prevent a general misunderstanding of the phenomenon is reasonable; nevertheless, coins from so-called dynasties and tribes as well as other material sources show the emergence of individual power from the first century B.C.E. to the first century C.E. This new phenomenon should be analyzed with new (and re-worked) theoretical frameworks. Additionally, comparative studies can play a significant role in exploring the nature of what is referred to as Iron Age kingship in Britain.

Cemeteries and Funerary Practice

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jake Weekes
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Spatial Separation ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Roman Britain ◽  
Mortuary Ritual ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Process Method

This chapter applies and attempts to contribute to the funerary process method of investigating late Iron Age and Roman period mortuary ritual in Britain. In this approach, evidence derived from archaeological contexts including tombstones and monuments, possible cemetery surfaces, cemetery boundaries, burials, pyre sites, and other features is reconsidered diachronically in relation to funerary schema. We therefore try to consider objects and actions in their correct funerary contexts, from the selectivity of death itself, through laying-out procedures, modification of the remains and other objects, degrees of spatial separation of the living and the dead, and types of deposition and commemorative acts. The development of tradition and diversity in funerary practice in Roman Britain is considered throughout, and the chapter concludes with a brief reconsideration of the multi-vocality of funerary symbolism.

The Movement of Ideas in Late Iron Age and Early Roman Britain: An Imported Rotary Quern Design in South-Western England

Britannia ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 393-402
Author(s):  
Ruth Shaffrey
Keyword(s):  
Thin Section ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Roman Britain ◽  
Isle Of Man ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Thin Section Analysis ◽  
Section Analysis ◽  
Made In

ABSTRACTIn 2012, a complete upper stone of a rotary quern with a projecting lug for a vertical handle was found at Hinkley Point in Somerset, south-western England. It is the first late Iron Age to early Roman period quern of this form to be found in England. This note describes its form in detail and discusses its closest parallels in north-eastern Ireland, south-western Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man and Spain. It shows how thin-section analysis demonstrates the quern to have been locally made in Somerset and discusses the movement of ideas about quern design during the late Iron Age to early Roman period.

The Plough in Roman Britain

1964 ◽  
Vol 54 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 54-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. H. Manning
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Peat Bogs ◽  
Roman Britain ◽  
Amount Of Information ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Available Information

The aim of this paper is to summarize the available information on the types of plough used in Roman Britain. There are a number of sources for such a study. Much of our knowledge of the basic structure of these early ploughs comes from the finely preserved Iron-Age examples which have been found in Scandinavian peat bogs. These also serve to supplement and clarify the most detailed surviving description of the Roman plough, which is given by Vergil in Georgics I. A few models of the Roman period have been found in Britain and Germany. Of major importance, of course, are the surviving parts of Romano-British ploughs (which are all, in fact, either shares or coulters), and material from Roman Europe can be used to amplify these. The Elder Pliny has a detailed, but difficult, section on the various types of share and occasionally he throws light on other aspects of the subject. Finally, a certain amount of information can be gained from comparisons with modern plough types.

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