The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

• 166 • Simon Esmonde Cleary
Other rural settlements
One of the many benefits of aerial
and other survey techniques has been
to end dependence on villas for our
view of the Romano-British
countryside and its society. Instead of
a number of isolated sites,
archaeologists can now discern a
landscape articulated into fieldsystems,
and crossed by tracks and
boundaries (Fulford 1990). It is now
clear that the great majority of
settlements were of the ‘native
farmstead’ type, that is enclosed
groups of structures, usually of the
prehistoric roundhouse tradition and
yielding relatively little Romanized
artefactual material (Hingley 1989).
Alongside these dispersed, small
settlements, perhaps the homes of
extended family groups, there are also
nucleated linear settlements,
somewhat reminiscent of medieval
village plans. These are best known
in Somerset (Catsgore), Wiltshire
(Chisenbury Warren, Nook) and
Hampshire (Chalton) (Figure 9.6).
Many non-villa settlements continue
on the same site from the Late Iron
Age, but there is increasing evidence
Figure 9.6 Settlement and landscape of the Roman period in the vicinity that through the 400 years of Roman
of Chalton, Hampshire.
Britain, there was much settlement
Source: Cunliffe, B.W., 1976, ‘A Romano-British village at Chalton, Hants’,
shift, boundary redrawing and the
Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club 33.
creation of new field-systems, so that
the agrarian landscape of the fourth century would often have been markedly different from that
of the first. Large-scale modern excavations in advance of gravel-extraction in the river valleys
of lowland Britain at sites in the upper Thames Valley such as Claydon Pike, Lechlade
(Gloucestershire), the Warwickshire Avon at Beckford (Hereford and Worcestershire) and
Wasperton (Warwickshire) have enabled detailed studies of the shifting pattern of settlements
within their contemporary landscapes.
It can seem at first sight that the majority of the rural population was little touched by the
Roman way of doing things, though archaeologists should not slide too easily into thinking that
there was no contact. Towns ‘large’ and ‘small’ would make available new products and new ideas.
Links up the social hierarchy to Romanized landowners would also introduce new ways. Moreover,
the ubiquitous demands of taxation, military supply and possibly military service would make
these people aware of the imperial system. Though in their day-to-day lives there might be little
direct evidence of Rome, the social, economic and mental frameworks within which those lives
were conducted would have changed.