Sussex Archaeological Collections: Relating to the history and antiquities of the counties of East and West Sussex
Sussex Archaeological Society, 2000. (updated 2022) https://doi.org/10.5284/1000334. How to cite using this DOI
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- ADS Collection: 285
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1000334
- How to cite using this DOI
Dialogues in deposition
A Reassessment of Early Roman-Period Burials at St Pancras, Chichester, and other related sites.
by GORDON HAYDEN
This article focuses on the social dynamics underpinning change and continuity during the Iron Age-Roman transition period in the area of Chichester and its immediate hinterland. Although the primary data is derived from a reassessment of selected burial groupings from the St Pancras cemetery, data from other sites has been used to put St Pancras into a wider context. Though it is generally accepted that the arrival of Roman power and the establishment of a post-Conquest client kingdom in this area influenced cultural change, the reassessed data suggests that external influences more probably merged with local traditions. As individual and social group identity is partly expressed through manipulating material culture, this article examines the social dynamics of those further down the social scale, by re-evaluating specific 1st-century AD indigenous pottery types and their significance as indicators of change and continuity. It places indigenous pottery in a wider context by examining the nature of sub-regional social preferences and the relationship between the Chichester area and the peripheral environment. The results suggest there was an initial degree of resistance to change amongst certain social groups, whilst others were in constant dialogue and renegotiation over what types of material culture could be perceived as culturally acceptable. This indicates the active role of the existing population in fashioning their own particular lifestyles.
