Settlement hierarchies in Roman Essex

English Heritage summaries. 2006/2007

This project, which builds on the conclusions of the Urban Hinterlands Project (Perring 2002), involves a study of the economic and social impact of Iron Age and Roman towns on the settlement landscape of south-east England.  The research will unite data from a variety of sources in the comparative analysis (using both GIS and statistical analysis) of incompletely published finds assemblages, excavated by different teams working to different standards.  Its principal aims are to:
• develop new approaches to the use and management of archaeological data
• promote collaborative research between archaeologists from different sectors within the profession, raising standards and improving the consistency of reporting
• publish reports on a series of key ‘backlog’ assemblages that have not individually warranted attention in past programmes of post-excavation study
• enhance previously published data in the light of more recent research
• use new methodologies and data to make a major contribution to our understanding of the relationship between town and country in the ancient world – putting to test assumptions about the nature and role of urban markets and exploring the extent to which differences in patterns of production & consumption within settlement landscapes be explained in terms of changing socio-economic forces.
• advance the research agenda for the study of late Iron Age and Roman landscapes, both within the study landscape and beyond. 
• provide training in  Roman finds research, addressing a real gap in skills and knowledge in the sector.
Study will involve comparing patterns of consumption - as evidenced of pottery, animal bone, small-finds and coins – from a variety of late Iron Age and early Roman assemblages within the ‘hinterland’ of Roman Colchester (the study area is bounded by the Thames, North Sea, Fens and the line of ‘Ermine Street’).   The sample includes assemblages from the ‘urban core’ (Camulodunum/Sheepen/Colchester), smaller nucleated sites (‘small towns’ and ritual sites) such as Harlow, Chelmsford, Stansted and Heybridge and a variety of rural sites (both high-status and low-status).
A key feature of the research is the test it provides of assumptions about the eventual value of archaeological data recovered in rescue and contract archaeology.   Can significant research results be obtained from re-interrogation of data obtained from developer funded projects?  The project will confront the problems of working with data recovered to variable standards, and will build databases and descriptive terminologies to facilitate comparative research within the region.  In the process it will identify strengths and weaknesses in present approaches to the collection and use of archaeological data from Cultural Resource Management projects, and establish some directions for future work with such data. 
This is a three-year project (starting mid 2007) based on a partnership between University College London (Archaeology South-East), Essex County Council and the University of Cambridge.

This page was published on 06/11/2007