The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Roman <strong>Britain</strong>: civil and rural society<br />
• 171 •<br />
distinction at the expense <strong>of</strong> new, Roman-derived ones. Thus command over people or livestock<br />
may have been what mattered, and traditional means <strong>of</strong> display such as gift giving or ritualized<br />
feasting may have been preferred to building a villa with Roman-style dining room and using<br />
pottery. This may also hold good for some <strong>of</strong> the villa-less areas <strong>of</strong> the south and east such as the<br />
West Midlands.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re were, however, ines<strong>ca</strong>pable links between the military garrisons and the civilian population<br />
<strong>of</strong> the north and west through the needs <strong>of</strong> the former for supplies <strong>from</strong> the latter. <strong>The</strong> Roman<br />
army was, in part, fed, clothed and supplied through taxation, and there is evidence that in frontier<br />
provinces such as <strong>Britain</strong> this was <strong>of</strong>ten rendered in kind rather than coin. Over and above this,<br />
military units could purchase supplies, as could individual men. For convenience’s sake, much <strong>of</strong><br />
this would have been obtained <strong>from</strong> the regions in which the army was based, thus the army<br />
would have been an attractive market for lo<strong>ca</strong>l agriculturalists. <strong>The</strong> apparent peak in rural settlement<br />
in this period might in part result <strong>from</strong> this stimulus, for instance the Roman army ate meat and<br />
used huge quantities <strong>of</strong> leather, which would suit regions <strong>of</strong> pastoralism. In the previous chapter,<br />
a rather different perspective on these potential impacts is <strong>of</strong>fered. Also vital was a supply <strong>of</strong><br />
recruits. Once the army settled on permanent frontier systems, lo<strong>ca</strong>l recruitment would increasingly<br />
have been the <strong>ca</strong>se; but balancing this drain <strong>of</strong> young men would have been the soldiers’ input<br />
into the lo<strong>ca</strong>l demography through their families, mainly resident in the vici. Thus economic and<br />
social links would undoubtedly have existed between military and civilian, even if they were not<br />
<strong>of</strong> a type that leaves much trace in the archaeologi<strong>ca</strong>l record.<br />
AGRICULTURE, INDUSTRY AND TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS<br />
Farming and foodstuffs<br />
For a long time it was believed that the impact <strong>of</strong> a major civilization on <strong>Britain</strong> must have<br />
included substantial changes and improvements to the productive <strong>ca</strong>pacity and technology <strong>of</strong><br />
the island. By far the most important single ‘industry’ in Roman <strong>Britain</strong> was agriculture, and<br />
modern work on archaeologi<strong>ca</strong>l evidence for the arable and pastoral regimes suggests that in fact<br />
there was considerable continuity <strong>from</strong> the Iron Age (Jones 1989). <strong>The</strong> principal grain crops<br />
remained spelt wheat (with some emmer in the north and west) and barley and oats. <strong>The</strong> Roman<br />
period did see a wider use <strong>of</strong> bread wheat, perhaps initially under military influence, though its<br />
rise to dominance was to be a post-Roman trend. If the staple crops changed little, there is<br />
evidence that the ‘relish’ plants—vegetables, herbs and spices—did see <strong>introduction</strong>s in the Roman<br />
period, <strong>from</strong> cucumber to coriander, presumably reflecting Romanization <strong>of</strong> the cuisine. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
is now good evidence for Roman-period viticulture in <strong>Britain</strong>. <strong>The</strong>re is also some evidence for<br />
developments in the technology <strong>of</strong> crop production and processing, with the <strong>introduction</strong> <strong>of</strong> the<br />
coulter to speed the plough, the mould-board to turn the soil and the water-mill.<br />
Likewise, the main domestic animal species remained the same: <strong>ca</strong>ttle, sheep and pigs (Grant<br />
1989). <strong>The</strong>re is, though, evidence for changes in their raising and consumption. Over time, there<br />
was a trend towards <strong>ca</strong>ttle at the expense <strong>of</strong> sheep, showing first at forts and ‘large’ towns, then<br />
spreading to villas and ‘small’ towns, again probably suggesting a change in dietary preference<br />
and cuisine. This is supported by evidence for changes in butchery practice between the Iron Age<br />
and the Roman period. <strong>The</strong> kill pattern <strong>of</strong> <strong>ca</strong>ttle and sheep tends, broadly, to be bi-modal, with a<br />
number killed young, presumably for meat, but many kept into maturity. In the <strong>ca</strong>se <strong>of</strong> <strong>ca</strong>ttle, this<br />
was probably for energy, reproduction, as a wealth-store and for the many products <strong>of</strong> the eventual<br />
<strong>ca</strong>r<strong>ca</strong>ss, and, in the <strong>ca</strong>se <strong>of</strong> sheep, for their wool.<br />
Even if the basic crops and animals <strong>of</strong> British agriculture remained pretty stable through the<br />
Roman period, there are grounds for believing that the ways in which they were used changed