| Abstract: |
Papers from a conference held in March 1979 to investigate the impact of the Roman invasion on pre-Roman Iron Age communities of England, with the help of contributors working on more recent colonial periods. The aim was to stimulate fresh approaches to an over-compartmented subject. Two papers (R A Oliver and D Birmingham) discuss the effects of white colonization in Africa to suggest lines of approach. In Section 2, on the impact of a standing army, W Kirk offers a model of frontier progression from the NW Frontier in India; P S Middleton discusses army supply in Roman Gaul and its relevance to Roman Britain; and G D B Jones analyses the Roman occupation in its phases of infiltration and revolt, formative years on the N Frontier (especially the Carvetii) and the defence-in-depth of late RB. K Greene shows that in Spain, Germany and Britain local pottery was used by the army whenever possible; the military played little active part in changing potting traditions or marketing patterns, though potters did sometimes follow the troops. Section 3 covers the impact of an invasion on industrial and trading patterns, with W H Manning considering metalworking and J P Wild textile technology; in both instances economic effects were probably more important than technological changes. W R Rodwell gives a detailed survey of salt making on the Essex coast, and G B Dannell reviews the samian and amphora trade in the period Caesar to Claudius and its effects on eating and drinking habits. Section 4, the impact of an invasion on currencies, demonstrates the potential of this study for illuminating the development of a market economy in the Empire as a whole. I Hodder applies the concept of the 'embedded economy' (in which exchange is a social act) to Britain for the pre-Roman stage; he sees a slow development of commercial exchange even after the invasion, whereas R Reece suggests a fairly rapid and complete replacement of British by Roman coinage soon after AD 43. C Haselgrove examines the significanceof the pre-Conquest coinage, identifying six phases of coin possession and production c 100 BC-AD 43. Section 5, the impact of an invasion on urban development, has an introductory paper by B W Hodder on European urbanization in W Africa. J Collis argues that the main difference between oppida and Roman towns in Britain lies in the amount of nucleation, ultimately for reasons of defence. However, M W C Hassall examines, from a classicist's viewpoint, the documentary and archaeological evidence for Mediterranean urbanization on British nucleated centres/oppida, with emphasis on administrative functions and physical appearance. B C Burnham adopts an explanatory (and depolarizing) approach via function and structure, considering the common elements in RB and pre-RB urban settlements and showing how Roman administrative and communications needs tended to override extant patterns. S S Frere considers the Verulamium evidence in relation to the surrounding countryside; the adaptation took 10-15 years. In Section 6 the Roman impact on rural settlement is covered regionally: by A H A Hogg (Wales), C O'Brien (Trent Basin), M Jones and D Miles (Thames Valley with the Claydon Pike project), K Rodwell (Trinovantes), and D R Rudling (E Sussex downland). Concluding, B Cunliffe welcomes the impending dissolution of artificial and damaging barriers between prehistorians and Romanists. |
