Newsletter Issue 22 - Association for Roman Archaeology

G0071,ARA Newsletter22 01/11/2009 18:43 Page 10Fig. 5.St. Bertrand-des-Comminges. Forum baths and temple with the late Roman walls on the hilltopbeyond.Photo: courtesy of Jason Wood.distinguish between decline of townsand decline in wealth orsophistication, particularly in thewestern and south-west regions ofBritain. Elite landowners remain butp e rhaps take over the role ofbishops. The church is a sign of status,but is more akin to a house church –perhaps in the villa complex itself,e.g. the possible Baptistery atBradford-on-Avon. These differencesmay be due perhaps to the different‘invaders’ and / or indigenousresidents. Towns do not developthemselves, but are developed bypeople to reflect their needs andtraditions. Future research shouldfocus on how changing socialprocesses led to different histories,rather than on league tables ofphysical characteristics and modernexpectations of a town.semi-abandoned villages. Powerwhich had been exercised from villas,moved to adjacent defensible hillforts especially in the south-west, e.g.South Cadbury (Fig. 6). Local élitesretreat into their own ‘gated’ estates,or in some areas to rural palaces, e.g.Yeavering. In Britain, towns had tobe later either rescued or re-inventedas a symbol of religion – Canterbury,or as trading centres – Hamwic.leaves the question of what is a realtown, and which term can be usedfor other settlements. We need toRebecca Newman.PERSONAL CONCLUSIONSThe weekend provided some newevidence to revise the conventionalpictures of either continuity or acatastrophic sudden disappearanceof towns. Perhaps we need torecognise gradual changes infunctions which lead to significantchanges in character. There wasconsiderable abandonment inBritain, but this process could havetaken nearly two centuries – from asearly as AD 300, and continuing wellafter AD 410.Simon noted that many Fre n c harchaeologists do not consider evenGallic centres to be real towns. ThisFig. 6.Proximity of villas and hillforts in south-west England. Hillforts with confirmed post-Romanactivity (red) and probable activity (pink). For names request Rebecca’s fuller report.Image courtesy of Mark Corney.A MAGNIFICENT STRETCHOF ROAD AND GRANARIESFOUND AT VINDOLANDAA superb section of the viaprincipalis, the central road linkingthe fort with the vicus outside, hasbeen uncovered at Vindolanda onH a d r i a n ’s Wall. Constructed ofmassive flagstones it survives virtuallyintact and has been described as thefinest stretch of Roman road to beseen in the north of England.Flanking it are the 1.5m high remainsof two beautifully built stonebuildings. Initial thinking places theiroriginal construction at aro u n dAD213 followed by demolition at theend of the century and rebuilding atthe beginning of the next. One seemsto have been intended from the startas a granary but the other appears tohave been a warehouse, mostprobably for foodstuffs. Both had along history and were finallydestroyed by a great fire in the latef o u rth century, but were againoccupied and were still in use in someform, until at least the ninth century.Vindolanda 2008 Excavations.www.vindolanda.com10