Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T00:44:55.290Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Military and Civilian: Reconfiguring the End of Roman Britain in the North

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

David Petts
David Petts*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Durham University, UK
*
email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study explores the impact of recent discoveries on our understanding of the transition from the Roman to early medieval periods in northern England. Using the Tees Valley as a case study, it shows how modern interpretations of this process have focused primarily on the afterlife of the military sites in the region. However, the increased identification of significant Roman civilian settlements forces us to reconsider the dominant narratives and rethink the underlying processes that influenced the move from Roman-controlled frontier society in the fourth century to a fifth century society comprising both culturally Anglo-Saxon social groups and sub-Roman successor polities. A wider consideration is also given to how the changing patterns in the use of space and in refuse disposal strategies can be used to shed light on wider patterns of changing social identity in the later fourth century AD.

Cet article examine les incidences des découvertes récentes sur notre compréhension de la transition des périodes romaines à celles du début du Moyen-âge en Angleterre septentrionale. En utilisant la Tees Valley comme étude de cas, on montre comment les interprétations modernes de ce processus se sont surtout concentrées sur l'évolution des anciens sites militaires de la région. Toutefois, suite à l'identification d'un nombre croissant d'implantations civiles romaines d'une certaine importance, nous sommes obligés de reconsidérer le discours dominant et de repenser les processus sous-jacents qui ont influencé le passage d'une société aux frontières contrôlées par les romains au 4e siècle à une société comprenant aussi bien les groupes sociaux de culture anglo-saxonne que les régimes politiques successeurs post-romains. Nous examinons également comment aborder les changements dans l'utilisation de l'espace et des stratégies d'élimination des déchets afin d'éclaircir plus généralement le changement de l'identité sociale à la fin du 4e siècle AD. Translation by Isabelle Gerges.

Zusammenfassung

Zusammenfassung

Dieser Beitrag untersucht den Einfluss jüngster Entdeckungen auf unser Verständnis des Übergangs von der römischen zur frühmittelalterlichen Periode im Norden Englands. Anhand des Tees-Tales als Fallstudie wird gezeigt, wie moderne Interpretationen dieses Prozesses vorrangig das Nachleben der Militärstandorte in der Region betont haben. Nichtsdestotrotz macht es die zunehmende Identifizierung bedeutender römischer Zivilsiedlungen notwendig, diese beherrschenden Schilderungen neu zu bewerten und die zugrunde liegenden Prozesse, die den Wechsel von einer Grenzgesellschaft unter römischer Kontrolle im 4. Jh. zu einer Gesellschaft des 5. Jhs., die kulturell gleichermaßen angelsächsische Gruppen wie auch Gemeinschaften in spätrömischer Nachfolge umfasste, zu überdenken. Eine umfangreiche Erörterung ist zudem der Frage gewidmet, wie die sich ändernden Merkmale der Raumnutzung und der Müllentsorgungsstrategien genutzt werden können, um die weiteren Parameter sich verändernder sozialer Identität im späten 4. Jh. AD zu beleuchten. Translation by Heiner Schwarzberg.

Keywords

roman civilian settlementsroman military sitesAnglo-Saxon settlementEnglandcultural changeimplantations civiles romainessites militaires romainsimplantation anglo-saxonneAngleterrechangement culturelrömische Zivilsiedlungenrömische Militärstandorteangelsächsische SiedlungenEnglandkultureller Wandel
Type
Articles
Information
European Journal of Archaeology , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , 2013 , pp. 314 - 335
Copyright
Copyright © European Association of Archaeologists 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Annis, R. 1996. Bonny Grove Farm and Dixon's Bank: Two Romano-British Settlement Sites in Cleveland. Durham Archaeological Journal, 12: 41–60.Google Scholar
Archaeological Services. 2005. Low lane, ingleby Barwick Archaeological Excavation (unpublished interim report, Durham University).Google Scholar
Archaeological Services. 2009. A64 Bedale, Aiskew and Leeming Bar Bypass, North Yorkshire. Archaeological Evaluation Works (unpublished interim report, Durham University).Google Scholar
Archaeological Services. 2010. The Binchester International Fieldschool: Interim Report 2009–10 (unpublished interim report, Durham University).Google Scholar
Archaeological Services. 2011. The Binchester International Fieldschool: Interim Report 2010–11 (unpublished interim report, Durham University).Google Scholar
Bell, H., Martin, V., Turner, E., Van Bercham, D. 1962. The Abinnaeus Archive: Papers of a Roman Officer in the Reign of Constantius II. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Bidwell, P. 1985. The Roman Fort of Vindolanda at Chesterholm, Northumberland. London: Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England.Google Scholar
Bidwell, P., Speak, S. 1994. Excavations at South Shields Roman Fort. Newcastle upon Tyne: Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne.Google Scholar
Bidwell, P., Hodgson, N. 2009. The Roman Army in Northern England. South Shields: Arbeia Society.Google Scholar
Birley, A. 2002. Garrison Life at Vindolanda. Stroud: Tempus.Google Scholar
Black, E.W. 1994. Villa-Owners, Romano-British Gentlemen and Officers. Britannia, 25: 99–110.Google Scholar
Bowman, A. 2003. Life and Letters on the Roman Frontier: Vindolanda and its People. London: British Museum.Google Scholar
Breeze, D. 2006. Handbook to the Roman Wall, fourth edition. Newcastle: Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne.Google Scholar
Breeze, D., Dobson, B. 2000. Hadrian's Wall. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Brewer, R. 1990. Caerwent-Venta Silurum: a Civitas-Capital. In: Burnham, B., Davies, J., eds. Conquest, Coexistance and Change: Recent Work in Roman Wales. Lampeter: Trivium, pp. 75–85.Google Scholar
Casey, P.J. 1993a. The End of the Fort Garrisons on Hadrian's Wall: A Hypothetical Model. In: Vallet, F., Kazanski, M., eds. L'Armée Romaine et les Barbares du IIIe au VIIe siècle. Rouen: l'Association Française d'Archéologie Mérovingienne et du Musée des Antiquités Nationales, pp. 259–68.Google Scholar
Casey, P.J. 1993b. The End of Garrisons on Hadrian's Wall: An Historic-Environmental Model. In: Clark, D., Roxan, M., Wilkes, J., eds. The Later Roman Empire Today. London: University College of London, Institute of Archaeology Publications, pp. 69–80.Google Scholar
Collingwood, R.G., Wright, R.P. 1965. The Roman Inscriptions of Britain – Vol. I Inscriptions on Stone. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Google Scholar
Collins, R. 2010. Brooch Use in the fourth- to fifth-Century Frontier. In: Collins, R., Allason-Jones, L., eds. Finds from the Frontier: Material Culture in the Fourth-Fifth Centuries AD. York: Council for British Archaeology. CBA Research Report 162, pp. 64–78.Google Scholar
Collins, R. 2011. Military Communities and the Transformation of the Frontier from the fourth to sixth Centuries. In: Petts, D., Turner, S., eds. Early Medieval Northumbria: New Visions and New Directions. Studies in the Early Middle Ages 24. Brepols: Turnhout, pp. 15–35.Google Scholar
Collins, R. 2012. Hadrian's Wall and the End of Empire: The Roman Frontier in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cool, H., Mason, D. 2008. Roman Piercebridge: Excavations by D.W. Harding and Peter Scott 1969–1981. Durham: Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland.Google Scholar
Dark, K.R. 1994. Civitas to Kingdom: British Political Continuity 300–800. Leicester: Leicester University Press.Google Scholar
Dark, K.R. 2000. Britain and the End of the Roman Empire. Stroud: Tempus.Google Scholar
Dobney, K. 2001. A Place at the Table: The Role of Zooarchaeology within a Roman Research Agenda. In: James, S., Millett, M., eds. Romans and Britons: Advancing an Archaeological Agenda. York: Council for British Archaeology. CBA Research Report 125, pp. 36–45.Google Scholar
Dobney, K., Kenward, H., Ottaway, P.J., Donel, L. 1998. Down, But Not Out: Biological Evidence for Complex Economic Organization in Lincoln in the Late Fourth Century. Antiquity, 72: 417–24.Google Scholar
ECUS. 2011. Kilton Lane, Brotton, Redcar Cleveland – Archaeological Evaluation Summary (unpublished interim report).Google Scholar
Esmonde Cleary, S. 1989. The Ending of Roman Britain. London: Batsford.Google Scholar
Faulkner, N. 2003. The Debate About the End of Britain: A Review of Evidence and Methods. Archaeological Journal, 159: 59–77.Google Scholar
Faulkner, N. 2004. The Decline and Fall of Roman Britain. Stroud: Tempus.Google Scholar
Ferris, I. 2010. The Beautiful Rooms are Empty: Excavations at Binchester Roman Fort, County Durham 1976–1981 and 1986–1991. Durham: Durham County Council.Google Scholar
Fox, A. 1940. The Legionary Fortress at Caerleon, Monmouthshire: Excavations in Myrtle Cottage Orchard 1939. Archaeologia Cambrensis, 95: 101–52.Google Scholar
Fox, C. 1959. The Personality of Britain: Its Influence on Inhabitant and Invader in Prehistoric and Early Historic Times, fourth edition. Cardiff: National Museum of Wales.Google Scholar
Fulford, M. 2011. The Impact of Commercial Archaeology on the UK Heritage. In: Curtis, J., Fulford, M., Harding, A., Reynolds, F., eds. History for the Taking? Perspectives on Material Heritage. London: British Academy, pp. 33–53.Google Scholar
Fulford, M., Holbrook, N. 2011. Assessing the Contribution of Commercial Archaeology to the Study of the Roman Period in England, 1990–2004. Antiquaries Journal, 91: 323–45.Google Scholar
Gardner, A. 2007. An Archaeology of Identity: Soldiers and Society in Late Roman Britain. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
Gardner, A. 2011. Soldiers and Spaces: Daily Life in Late Roman Forts. In: Lavan, L., Swift, E., Putzeys, T., eds. Objects in Context, Objects in Use: Material Spatiality in Late Antiquity. Leiden: Brill, pp. 657–85.Google Scholar
Harding, D.W. 2008. The Holme House Villa. In: Cool, H., Mason, D., eds. Roman Piercebridge: Excavations by D.W. Harding and Peter Scott (1969–1981). Durham: Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland. Research Report 7, pp. 127–58.Google Scholar
Härke, H. 2011. Anglo-Saxon Immigration and Ethno-Genesis. Medieval Archaeology, 55: 1–28.Google Scholar
Haselgrove, C. 2002. The Later Bronze Age and the Iron Age in the Lowlands. In: Brooks, C., Daniels, R., Harding, A., eds. Past, Present and Future: The Archaeology of Northern England. Durham: Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland Research Report 5, pp. 49–69.Google Scholar
Haselgrove, C., Fitts, R., Turnbull, P. 1991a. Stanwick, North Yorkshire, Part 1: Recent Research and Previous Archaeological Investigations. Archaeological Journal, 147: 1–15.Google Scholar
Haselgrove, C., Turnbull, P., Lowther, P. 1991b. Stanwick, North Yorkshire, Part 3: Excavations on Earthworks Sites 1981–86. Archaeological Journal, 147: 37–90.Google Scholar
Heslop, D. ed. 1987. The Excavation of an Iron Age Settlement at Thorpe Thewles, Cleveland 1980–2. London: Council for British Archaeology Research Report 65.Google Scholar
Higham, N.J. 1992. Rome, Britain and the Anglo-Saxons. London: Seaby.Google Scholar
Hind, J. 2005. The Watchtowers and Fortlets on the North Yorkshire Coast (Turres et Castra). Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 77: 17–24.Google Scholar
Hingley, R. 1989. Rural Settlement in Roman Britain. London: Seaby.Google Scholar
Hingley, R. 2000. Roman Officers and English Gentlemen. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hodgson, N. 1994. Courtyard House. In: Bidwell, P., Speak, S., eds. Excavations at South Shields Roman Fort. Newcastle: Tyne and Wear Museums/Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, pp. 35–44.Google Scholar
Hodgson, N., Bidwell, P.T. 2005. Auxiliary Barracks in a New Light: Recent Discoveries on Hadrian's Wall. Britannia, 35: 121–57.Google Scholar
Hooppell, R.E. 1891. Vinovia: A Buried Roman City. London: Whiting and Co.Google Scholar
Hopkins, K. 1980. Taxes and Trade in the Roman Empire (200 B.C.–A.D. 400). Journal of Roman Studies, 70: 101–25.Google Scholar
Howard-Davis, C. 2009. The Carlisle Millennium Project: Excavations in Carlisle 1998–2001, Volume 2: Finds. Lancaster: Lancaster Imprints.Google Scholar
James, S. 2001a. ‘Romanisation’ and the peoples of Britain. In: Keay, S., Terrenato, N., eds. Italy and the West: Comparative Issues in Romanization. Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp. 187–209.Google Scholar
James, S. 2001b. Soldiers and Civilians: Identity and Interaction in Roman Britain. In: James, S., Millett, M., eds. Romans and Britons: Advancing an Archaeological Agenda. York: Council for British Archaeology. CBA Research Report 125, pp. 77–89.Google Scholar
James, S. 2002. Writing the legions; the past, present and future of Roman military studies in Britain. Archaeological Journal, 159: 1–58.Google Scholar
Loveluck, C. 2002. The Romano-British to Anglo-Saxon Transition—Social Transformations from the Late Roman to Early Medieval Period in Northern England AD 400–700. In: Brooks, C., Daniels, R., Harding, A., eds. Past, Present and Future: The Archaeology of Northern England. Durham: Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, Research Report 5, pp. 127–48.Google Scholar
Mattingly, D.J. 2004. Being Roman: Expressing Identity in a Provincial Setting. Journal of Roman Archaeology, 17: 5–26.Google Scholar
Mattingly, D. 2007. An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Empire 54 BC-AD 409. London: Allen Lane.Google Scholar
Mattingly, D. 2011. Imperialism, Power and Identity: Experiencing the Roman Empire. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Miket, R., Pocock, M. 1976. An Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Greenbank, Darlington. Medieval Archaeology, 20: 62–74.Google Scholar
Millett, M. 1990. The Romanization of Britain: An Essay in Archaeological Interpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nolan, J. 2010. The Early Medieval Cemetery at the Castle, Newcastle upon Tyne. Archaeologia Aeliana, 39 (5): 147–287.Google Scholar
O'Brien, C. 2010. The Emergence of Northumbria: Artefacts, Archaeology and Models. In: Collins, R., Allason-Jones, L., eds. Finds from the Frontier: Material Culture in the Fourth-Fifth Centuries AD. York: Council for British Archaeology. CBA Research Report 162. pp. 110–19.Google Scholar
Ottaway, P. 2001. Excavations on the Site of the Roman Signal Station at Carr Naze, Filey. Archaeological Journal, 157: 79–199.Google Scholar
Ottaway, P. 2003. Roman Yorkshire: A Rapid Resource Assessment. In: Manby, T.G., Moorhouse, S., Ottaway, P., eds. The Archaeology of Yorkshire: An Assessment at the Beginning of the 21st Century. York: Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Occasional Paper 3, pp. 125–51.Google Scholar
Petts, D. 1998. Landscape and cultural identity in Roman Britain. In: Berry, J., Laurence, R., eds. Cultural Identity in the Roman Empire. London: Routledge, pp. 79–94.Google Scholar
Petts, D., Gerrard, C. 2006. Shared Visions: The North-East Regional Research Framework for the Historic Environment. Durham: Durham County Council.Google Scholar
Pitts, M. 2007. The emperor's new clothes: utility of identity in Roman archaeology. American Journal of Archaeology, 111: 693–713.Google Scholar
Pitts, M. 2008. Globalizing the local in Roman Britain: an anthropological approach to social change. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 27: 493–506.Google Scholar
Phillips, D., Heywood, B. 1995. Excavations at York Minster Volume I: From Roman Fortress to Norman Cathedral. London: Her Majesty's Stationary Office.Google Scholar
Proctor, J. 2012. Faverdale, Darlington. Excavations at a Major Settlement in the Northern Frontier Zone of Roman Britain. London: Pre-Construct Archaeology Monograph 15.Google Scholar
Ramm, H. 1978. The Parisi. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Richards, J.D., Naylor, J. 2011. Settlement Landscape and Economy in Early Medieval Nothumbria: The Contribution of Portable Antiquities. In: Petts, D., Turner, S., eds. Early Medieval Northumbria: Kingdoms and Communities AD 450–1100. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 129–50.Google Scholar
Richmond, I.A., Romans, T., Wright, R.P. 1944. A Civilian Bath-House of the Roman Period at Old Durham. Archaeologia Aeliana, 22 (4): 1–21.Google Scholar
Roberts, B.K. 2008. Landscapes, Documents and Maps: Villages in Northern England and Beyond AD 900–1250. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Roberts, B.K. 2010. Northumbrian Origins and Post-Roman Continuity. In: Collins, R., Allason-Jones, L., eds. Finds from the Frontier: Material Culture in the Fourth-Fifth Centuries AD. York: Council for British Archaeology. CBA Research Report 162, pp. 120–32.Google Scholar
Roth, R.E. 2007. Styling Romanisation: Pottery and Society in Central Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rowe, P. n.d. Roman Trumpet and Crossbow Brooches from Hartlepool (unpublished MS Tees Valley Historic Environment Record).Google Scholar
Sargent, A. 2002. The North-South Divide Revisited: Thoughts on the Character of Roman Britain. Britannia, 33: 219–26.Google Scholar
Sherlock, S.J., Welch, M.G. 1992. An Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Norton in Cleveland. CBA Research Report 82. York: Council for British Archaeology.Google Scholar
Speed, G. forthcoming. Excavations at Hollow Banks Quarry, North Yorkshire. Northern Archaeological Associates.Google Scholar
Symonds, M., Mason, D. 2009. Frontiers of Knowledge: A Research Framework for Hadrian's Wall. Durham: Durham County Council.Google Scholar
Taylor, J. 2007. An Atlas of Roman Rural Settlement in England. York: Council for British Archaeology.Google Scholar
Terrenato, N. 1998. The Romanization of Italy: global acculturation or cultural bricolage? In: Forcey, C., Hawthorne, J., Witcher, R., eds. Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference. Oxford: Oxbow, pp. 20–7.Google Scholar
Vyner, B.E., Daniels, R. 1989. Further Investigations of the Iron Age and Romano-British Settlement Site at Catcote, Hartlepool, Cleveland, 1987. Durham Archaeological Journal, 5: 11–34.Google Scholar
Webster, J. 2001. Creolizing the Roman Provinces. American Journal of Archaeology, 105 (2): 209–25.Google Scholar
White, R. 2007. Britannia Prima. Stroud: Tempus. Google Scholar
Wickham, C. 2009. The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Wilmott, T. 1997. Birdoswald, Excavations of a Roman Fort on Hadrian's Wall and Its Successor Settlements: 1987–92. London: English Heritage.Google Scholar
Wilmott, T. 2000. The Late Roman Transition at Birdoswald and on Hadrian's Wall. In: Wilmott, T., Wilson, P., eds. The Late Roman Transition in the North. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. BAR British Series 299, pp. 13–23.Google Scholar
Wilmott, T. 2010. The Late Roman Frontier: A Structural Background. In: Collins, R., Allason-Jones, L., eds. Finds from the Frontier: Material Culture in the Fourth-Fifth Centuries AD. York: Council for British Archaeology. CBA Research Report 162, pp. 10–16.Google Scholar
Wood, I. 2008. Monasteries and the Geography of Power in the Age of Bede. Northern History, 45 (1): 11–25.Google Scholar
Zant, J. 2009. The Carlisle Millennium Project: Excavations in Carlisle 1998–2001. Volume 1: Stratigraphy. Lancaster: Lancaster Imprints.Google Scholar