Bird David - Agriculture and Industry in South-Eastern Roman Britain

Published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by
OXBOW BOOKS
10 Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford OX1 2EW

and in the United States by
OXBOW BOOKS
1950 Lawrence Road, Havertown, PA 19083

Oxbow Books and the individual contributors 2017

Paperback Edition: ISBN 978-1-78570-319-5
Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-78570-320-1 (epub)
Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-78570-321-8 (kindle)
Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-78570-322-5 (pdf)

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Bird, D. G. (David G.), editor of compilation.

Title: Agriculture and industry in south-eastern Roman Britain / edited by David Bird.

Description: Oxford; Philadelphia: Oxbow Books, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016044907 (print) | LCCN 2016047110 (ebook) | ISBN 9781785703195 (paperback) | ISBN 9781785703201 (ePub) | ISBN 9781785703201 (epub) | ISBN 9781785703218 (mobi) | ISBN 9781785703225 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH: Weald, The, Region (England)--Antiquities, Roman. | Kent (England)--Antiquities, Roman. | Surrey (England)--Antiquities, Roman. | Sussex (England)--Antiquities, Roman. | Romans--England--Weald, The--History. | Agriculture, Ancient--England--Weald, The, Region. | Industrial archaeology--England--Weald, The, Region.

Classification: LCC DA147.W532 A47 2016 (print) | LCC DA147.W532 (ebook) | DDC 338.09362/2--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016044907

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Front cover: Stylised mosaic of agricultural and industrial activity based mostly on representations from the 2nd and 3rd centuries in the north-western Roman provinces. Illustration by Lyn Spencer.

Contents

Michael Fulford and Martyn Allen

Petra Dark

David Bird

Paul Booth

David Rudling

David Bird

Gill Campbell

Chris Green

Mark Maltby

Edward Biddulph

Jackie Keily and Quita Mould

Nina Crummy

Jeremy Hodgkinson

Ian Scott

Justine Bayley

Louise Rayner

Ian M. Betts

List of Figures

.

List of Tables

Contributors

MARTYN ALLEN, PhD, Department of Archaeology, School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, Whiteknights, PO Box 227, Reading RG6 6AB; .

JUSTINE BAYLEY, BSc, MSc, PhD, FSA, Howcroft, High Street, Harmondsworth, Middx UB7 0AQ; .

IAN BETTS, PhD, Museum of London Archaeology, Mortimer Wheeler House, 46 Eagle Wharf Road, London N1 7ED; .

EDWARD BIDDULPH, BA, MA, FSA, MCIfA, Oxford Archaeology, Janus House, Osney Mead, Oxford, OX2 0ES; .

DAVID BIRD, BA, PhD, FSA, 14 Kings Road, Guildford, Surrey, GU1 4JW; .

PAUL BOOTH, BA, FSA, MCIfA, Oxford Archaeology, Janus House, Osney Mead, Oxford OX2 0ES; .

GILL CAMPBELL, MSc, Historic England, Fort Cumberland, Portsmouth, PO4 9LD .

NINA CRUMMY, MA, 2 Hall Road, Copford, Colchester, Essex, CO6 1BN; .

PETRA DARK, MA, DPhil, Department of Archaeology, School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, Whiteknights, PO Box 227, Reading RG6 6AB; .

PROFESSOR MICHAEL FULFORD, CBE, FBA, Department of Archaeology, School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, Whiteknights, PO Box 227, Reading RG6 6AB; .

CHRIS GREEN, FSA, 44 Blandford Rd St Albans, Herts UK AL1 4JR; .

JEREMY HODGKINSON, MA, FSA, 3, Saxon Road, Worth, Crawley, RH10 7SA; .

JACKIE KEILY, MA, FSA, Department of Archaeology Collections, Museum of London; .

MARK MALTBY, MA, PhD, FSA, Faculty of Science and Technology, Bournemouth University, Christchurch House, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, BH12 5BB; .

QUITA MOULD, MA, FSA, Barbican Research Associates, 51 Whin Common Road, Denver, Downham Market, Norfolk, PE38 0DX; .

DAVID RUDLING, BSc, MA, PhD, FSA, MCIfA, Sussex School of Archaeology, Mays Farm, Polegate, East Sussex, BN26 6TS; .

LOUISE RAYNER, BA, MSc, FSA, Archaeology South-East, 2 Chapel Place, Portslade, BN41 1DR; .

IAN R SCOTT, BA, Oxford Archaeology, Janus House, Osney Mead, Oxford OX2 0ES .

Editors Foreword

David Bird

This book offers an up-to-date assessment of our knowledge of rural settlement, agriculture and industry in and around the three counties to the south of Roman London. It had its origins in a series of conferences set up by the Roman Studies Group of Surrey Archaeological Society, one of several active groups and committees in that Society. The Group was established in 2004, since when it has been responsible for a successful fieldwork programme that has added a great deal to our knowledge of Surrey in the Roman period.

The biennial conferences were initiated by Edward Walker, starting with the subject of water in southern Roman Britain in 2008. Thanks to Edwards hard work and persistence, the event was a great success and set a high standard of well-qualified speakers, which has been continued in subsequent meetings. Two of these conferences, also organised by Edward, tackled the themes first of food and agriculture, and then industry. It was felt appropriate to publish the proceedings and the talks given at these two meetings form the core of this book. Additional specialist papers were commissioned to tackle subjects not covered in the original programmes.

The merest glance at countrywide distributions of Roman rural settlement (e.g. Taylor 2007, 24, fig. 4.1, 34, fig. 4.9) shows how at this scale the broad sweep of British geology is instantly apparent. It should be abundantly clear that Britain has regions that are essentially the result of the underlying geology and other factors such as climate. Yet this is not always seen as an important contributor to the recognisably different communities in Roman Britain which are becoming more obvious through recent studies of the distribution of categories of finds (see e.g. Crummy and Eckardt 2003 and other papers mentioned therein).

The aim of the conferences has always been to focus where possible on the South-East, by which is meant here especially the ancient counties of Kent, Surrey and Sussex (nowadays split into East and West Sussex), the counties surrounding the Weald. They have a strongly marked character of their own that has survived remarkably well in the face of ever-increasing population pressure. Nevertheless, the region is of course not isolated and there are strong links into nearby counties, including across the Thames estuary and indeed much further by sea. The nature of the subsoils and other factors often affects the survival of environmental evidence in the region and therefore some of our papers have also had to range more widely to aid discussion.