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

• 130 • Colin Haselgrove
From 150 BC, southern Britain underwent a series of changes that mark a radical break from
the preceding centuries, with Roman power and influence eventually assuming a key role. An
early symptom was the circulation of Gallo-Belgic gold, and local cast bronze (‘potin’), coinage
in south-east England. Around 100 BC, changes intensify significantly: cremation burial and
wheel-thrown pottery appear, and widespread imitation of continental coinage and metalwork
occurs. Limited immigration from Belgic Gaul may have fostered closer cross-Channel social
and political ties. The Late Iron Age also witnessed the restructuring of settlement patterns in
Wessex and south-east England. Many new farmsteads in the latter area were associated with
agricultural innovations, and noticeably prospered after the Roman conquest compared to many
long-established sites.
During the first century BC, a clearer separation between ritual and everyday life is reflected in
the appearance of formal shrines and cemeteries (Hill 1995b). A new emphasis on individual
status and social ranking is evident in the increasingly differentiated burial rites—in which longdistance
ties are often stressed in preference to local ones—and in the greater numbers of personal
ornaments found. The conspicuous consumption of wealth through the ritual deposition of
valuables in both wet and dry locations rose sharply (Gwilt and Haselgrove 1997). At the same
time, coins legends and the emergence of royal sites like Colchester and St Albans suggest greater
centralization of political power. Growing Roman involvement in southern Britain—especially
after 20 BC—was a major factor in these developments. In return for imported Roman luxuries,
the Classical writer Strabo lists corn, cattle, hunting dogs, slaves and metals among exported
commodities.
Outside south-east England, the intensity of change during the Later Iron Age varies. In areas
such as the Severn Valley and the Vale of York, enclosed settlements were largely replaced by
open and aggregated settlements. Elsewhere, however, a tendency towards more massive enclosure
is apparent, as in Northumberland and south-east Scotland. Inevitably, the cultural changes in
south-east England impinged on neighbouring areas like the Cotswolds, East Anglia and the East
Midlands. Romanized material culture appears, for example in occasional rich female burials
accompanied by mirrors. These areas probably suffered military and economic predation by their
powerful south-eastern neighbours in search of booty and territory. In central-southern England,
the organization of the remaining developed hillforts broke down and most of their population
dispersed to establish smaller enclosures and field systems, perhaps implying partitioning of land
previously communally owned.
In western and northern Britain, the dominant picture is one of stability. Decentralized political
conditions appear to have persisted until the Roman advances into Wales, and subsequently
northwards. Differences in social and political structures are apparent through the failure of
these regions to adopt coinage and in the virtual absence of Roman imports. Some areas such as
south Wales, however, exhibit a marked increase in the number of settlements, while elsewhere
new settlement types developed, like the courtyard house clusters of Cornwall such as Carn
Euny, or Orcadian broch complexes like Gurness and Howe. This implies that some parts of
northern and western Britain were experiencing processes of settlement aggregation similar to
those that had occurred earlier in many lowland areas. The chronology of the more elaborate
brochs remains tentative, not least because of difficulties in relating radiocarbon dates to their
construction, but excavations at sites like Crosskirk (Caithness) suggest that their main period of
use began around the second century BC.