| Abstract: |
The Bradford 1985 symposium focused on aspects of continuity and was introduced by R F J Jones (1-2) and Richard Reece (3-9), 'How to study the millennium' (on the concept of 'myth' as a perfectly palatable and helpful way to present the material facts of the past as currently known). Richard Hingley (73-98) borrows Collingwood's Cranborne Chase model to approach 'The influence of Rome on indigenous social groups in the upper Thames valley', stressing the potential of dynamic regional models for understanding settlement organization and development. M van der Veen (99-107) in 'Romans, natives and cereal consumption - food for thought' analyses carbonized plant remains to trace Roman food supplies in NE England. (Other papers in this section deal with natives and Romans in Gaul, Germany, and the Netherlands.) S L Dyson (145-6) introduces the next section, The end of the Ro1nan countryside, containing papers discussing the collapse or transformation of systems in Italy, Iberia, the Eastern Empire, Late Antique Gaul, and the Dutch delta. Section 3, Authority and continuity, is introduced by M Biddle (257-8) who defines four areas where continuity or discontinuity must be examined with scrupulous care: the nub may lie in the continued use of territory. Glenn Foard (259-72) seeks continuity of Roman administrative centres via royal estates into the med period in 'A framework for Saxon evidence from Northamptonshire', and Margaret L Faull (273-8) adumbrates a reassessment of social, economic, and political affairs with particular reference to Domesday Book in 'From Anglo-Saxon to Norman Yorkshire'. Philip Rahtz (295-301) examines 'The end of Roman Wharram Percy' and Lloyd Laing (303-7) looses an avowed ballon d'essai on 'Celts, Romans and the great divide', seeing the seeds of change as early as 2nd century with quickening in 3rd. F B/Ed |
