Roman towns of south-east Britain: Roman imperialism, British traditions, and the features of the provincial urbanization

 
PIIS032103910013043-0-1
DOI10.31857/S032103910013043-0
Publication type Article
Status Published
Authors
Affiliation: Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod, Nizhni Novgorod
Address: Russian Federation, Nizhni Novgorod
Journal nameVestnik drevnei istorii
EditionVolume 82 Issue 1
Pages101-116
Abstract

The paper considers the urbanization of South-East Roman Britain. It is focused on the so-called ‘major’ towns: Londinium, Camulodunum, Verulamium, Calleva, Noviomagus, Venta Belgarum and Durovernum. Despite some general features which one can detect in the urban development of the region, each town presents a special case in Romano-British urbanism, largely determined by a number of factors. Key factors can be labelled as ‘Roman’ (the activity of the provincial administration, the influence of migrants from the continent who settled down in towns), ‘British’ (the will and ability of local elites to participate in urbanization and urban life, the presence of local population retaining their identities and traditions in urban communities) and ‘geographical’ (the location of the settlement, its relation to the existing system of communication and trade, connections with the ‘old’, pre-Roman settlements and centres of religious activity). The pieces of the urban puzzle were laid out in different ways in every case in the south-east of Roman Britain, shaping the development and fate of each town.

KeywordsLondinium, Camulodunum, Verulamium, Calleva, Noviomagus, Venta Belgarum, Durovernum, urbanization, Romano-British urbanism, Roman imperialism
AcknowledgmentRussian Science Foundation, project no. 20-18-00374
Received25.03.2022
Publication date28.03.2022
Number of characters34908
Cite  
100 rub.
When subscribing to an article or issue, the user can download PDF, evaluate the publication or contact the author. Need to register.

Number of purchasers: 0, views: 452

Readers community rating: votes 0

1. Baryshnikov, A.E. 2012a: [History of Roman Britain without romanization: the concept of D. Mattingly]. Studia Historica 12, 284–295.

2. Baryshnikov, A.E. Istoriya rimskoj Britanii bez romanizatsii: kontseptsiya D. Mehttingli. Studia Historica 12, 284–295.

3. Baryshnikov, A.E. 2012b: [Roman Britain and the problem of Romanization: the crisis of the traditional concept and the discussion of new agendas in British classics]. Vestnik NNGU [Bulletin of Nizhny Novgorod State University] 6(3), 200–211.

4. Baryshnikov, A.E. Rimskaya Britaniya i problema romanizatsii: krizis traditsionnoj kontseptsii i diskussiya o novykh podkhodakh v an-glijskom antikovedenii. Vestnik NNGU 6 (3), 200–211.

5. Baryshnikov, A.E. 2015: [How many Togidubni are needed to conquer Britain?]. In: Drevnosti [Antiquities] 13. Kharkov, 38–48.

6. Baryshnikov, A.E. Skol'ko nuzhno Togidubnov dlya pokoreniya Britanii? V sb.: Drevnosti 13. Khar'kov, 38–48.

7. Baryshnikov, A.E. 2016a: Goroda yugo-vostoka rimskoy Britanii I−II vv. kak tsentry kul’turnogo vzaimodeystviya [The Towns of South-East of Roman Britain I−II AD as Centers of Cultural Interaction. Unpublished Thesis]. Kazan’.

8. Baryshnikov, A.E. Goroda yugo-vostoka rimskoj Britanii I−II vv. kak tsentry kul'turnogo vzaimodejstviya. Diss. … kand. ist. nauk. Kazan'.

9. Baryshnikov, A.E. 2016b: [A study of the towns of Roman Britain in contemporary British historiography]. Problemy istorii, filologii i kul’tury [Journal of Historical, Philological and Cultural Studies] 2, 128−144.

10. Baryshnikov, A.E. Izuchenie gorodov rimskoj Britanii v novejshej britanskoj istoriografii. Problemy istorii, filologii i kul'-tury 2, 128−144.

11. Baryshnikov, A.E. 2020: [Deconstructing imperialism: ‘Left turn’ and features of the contemporary Romano-British studies]. Vestnik NNGU [Bulletin of Nizhny Novgorod State University] 6, 9‒17.

12. Baryshnikov, A.E. Razbiraya imperializm: «levyj povorot» i osobennosti sovremennykh issledovanij rimskoj Britanii. Vestnik NNGU 6, 9‒17.

13. Biddle, M. 2020: Winchester: A city of two planned towns. In: A.J. Langlands, R. Lavelle (eds.). The Land of English Kin. Studies in Wessex and Anglo-Saxon England in Honour of Professor Barbara Yorke. Leiden−Boston, 26‒49.

14. Birley, A. 1980: The People of Roman Britain. Berkeley‒Los Angeles.

15. Booth, P., Simmonds, A., Boyle, A., Clough, S., Cool, H.E.M., Poor, D. 2012: The Late Roman Cemetery at Lankhills, Winchester: Excavations 2000–2005. Oxford.

16. Burton, P. 2019: Roman Imperialism. Leiden−Boston.

17. Creighton, J. 2001: Burning kings. Britannia 32, 401–404.

18. Creighton, J. 2006: Britannia. The Creation of Roman Province. London.

19. Crummy, P. 1997: City of Victory: Story of Colchester – Britain’s First Town. Colchester.

20. Cunliffe, B. 2005: Iron Age Communities in Britain: An Account of England, Scotland and Wales from the Seventh Century BC Until the Roman Conquest. 3rd ed. London–New York.

21. Forcey, C. 1998: Whatever happened to the heroes? Ancestral cults and the enigma of Romano-Celtic temples. In: C. Forcey, J. Hawthorne, R. Witcher (eds.). TRAC 97: Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, Nottingham. Oxford, 87−98.

22. Frere, Sh.S. 1987: Britannia: A History of Roman Britain. 3rd ed. London.

23. Frere, Sh.S., Fulford, M. 2002: The collegium peregrinorum at Silchester. Britannia 33, 167–175.

24. Fulford, M. 2008: Nero and Britain: the palace of the client king at Calleva and imperial policy towards the province after Boudicca. Britannia 39, 1–13.

25. Fulford, M. 2013: A Review of ‘Late Roman Towns in Britain. Rethinking Change and Decline’ by A. Rogers. Britannia 44, 423‒424.

26. Fulford, M. 2015a: The towns of south-east England. In: M. Fulford, N. Holbrook (eds.). The Towns of Roman Britain: The Contribution of Commercial Archaeology since 1990. London, 59–89.

27. Fulford, M. 2015b: Silchester: the town life project 1997–2014: reflections on a long term research excavation. In: T. Brindle, M. Allen, E. Durham, A. Smith (eds.). Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference 2014. Oxford, 114–121.

28. Fulford, M., Timby, J. 2000: Late Iron Age and Roman Silchester. Excavations on the Site of the Forum Basilica 1977, 1980‒86. London.

29. Fulford M., Timby J. 2001: Timing devices, fermentation vessels, ‘ritual’ piercings? A consideration of deliberately ‘holed’ pots from Silchester and elsewhere. Britannia 32, 293–297.

30. Garland, N. 2020: The origins of British oppida: Understanding transformation in Iron Age practice and society. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 39(1), 107−125.

31. Haverfield, F. 1923: The Romanization of Roman Britain. Oxford.

32. Hawkes C.F.C., Crummy, P. 1995: Camulodunum 2. Colchester.

33. Hill, J.D. 2007: The dynamics of social change in later Iron Age eastern and south-eastern England. In: C. Haselgrove, T. Moore (eds.), The Later Iron Age in Britain and Beyond. Oxford, 16–40.

34. Hingley, R., Unwin, C. 2006: Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen. London−New York.

35. Hingley, R. 2018: Londinium: A Biography. Roman London from its Origins to the Fifth Century. London.

36. Hoffmann, B. 2013: The Roman Invasion of Britain: Archaeology Versus History. Barnsley.

37. Hurst, H. 2016: The textual and archaeological evidence. In: M. Millett, L. Revell, A. Moore (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Britain. Oxford, 95–116.

38. Ingate, J. 2019: Water and Urbanism in Roman Britain: Hybridity and Identity. London−New York.

39. King, A. 2020: Venta Belgarum: What is in the name for Roman Winchester? In: A.J. Langlands, R. Lavelle (eds.). The Land of English Kin. Studies in Wessex and Anglo-Saxon England in Honour of Professor Barbara Yorke. Leiden−Boston, 13−25.

40. Mattingly, D. 2006: An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Empire, 54 B.C. – A.D. 409. London.

41. Mattingly, D. 2010: Urbanism, epigraphy and identity in the towns of Britain under Roman rule. In: V.E. Hirschmann, A. Krieckhaus, H.H. Schellenberg (eds.), A Roman Miscellany: Essays in Honour of Anthony Birley on His Seventieth Birthday. Gdansk, 53–71.

42. Mihajlović, V.D. 2019: Critique of Romanization in classical archaeology. In: C. Smith (ed.). Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_3115-1

43. Millett, M. 1984: Forts and the origin of towns: cause or effect? In: T.F.C. Blagg, A.C. King (eds.), Military and Civilian in Roman Britain. Oxford, 65‒75.

44. Millett, M. 2005: The Romanization of Britain. An Essay in Archaeological Interpretation. Cambridge.

45. Millett, M. 2016: Improving our understanding of Londinium. Antiquity 90 (354), 1692−1699.

46. Moore, T. 2011: Detribalizing the later prehistoric past: concepts of tribes in Iron Age and Roman studies. Journal of Social Archaeology 11 (3), 334–360.

47. Moore, T. 2017: Alternatives to urbanism? Reconsidering oppida and the urban question in Late Iron Age Europe. Journal of World Prehistory 30 (3), 281–300.

48. Morley, N. 2010: Roman Empire: The Roots of Imperialism. London−New York.

49. Niblett, R. 1999: R. The Excavation at Ceremonial Site at Folly Lane, Verulamium. London.

50. Niblett, R. 2001: Verulamium: The Roman City of St. Albans. Stroud.

51. Perring, D. 2011: Two studies on Roman London: A. London military origins – B. Population decline and ritual landscapes in Antonine London. Journal of Roman Archaeology 24 (1), 249–282.

52. Perring, D., Pitts, M. 2013: Alien Cities: Town and Country in Roman Essex. Portslade.

53. Pitts, M. 2010: Re-thinking oppida: networks, kingdoms and material culture. European Journal of Archaeology 13 (1), 32–63.

54. Pitts, M. 2014: Reconsidering Britain’s first urban communities. Journal of Roman Archaeology 27, 133–173.

55. Pitts, M., Perring, D. 2006: The making of Britain’s first urban landscape: the case of Late Iron Age and Roman Essex. Britannia 37, 189–212.

56. Redfern, R., Marshall, M., Eaton, K., Poinar, H.N. 2017: ‘Written in bone’: new discoveries about the lives and burials of four Roman Londoners. Britannia 48, 253–277.

57. Revell, L. 2009: Roman Imperialism and Local Identities. Cambridge.

58. Rogers, A. 2011: Late Roman Towns in Britain: Rethinking Decline and Change. Cambridge.

59. Rogers, A. 2013: Water and Roman Urbanism: Towns, Waterscapes, Land Transformation and Experience in Roman Britain. Leiden−Boston.

60. Rogers, A. 2016: The development of towns. In: M. Millett, L. Revell, A. Moore (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Roman Britain. Oxford, 741−766.

61. Sadovskaya, M.S. 1991: [Roman colony at Camulodunum. Towards the issue of Romanization of Britain in the first century AD]. Iz istorii antichnogo obshchestva [From the History of the Ancient Society], 75−86.

62. Sadovskaya, M.S. Rimskaya koloniya Kamulodun. K voprosu o romanizatsii Britanii v I v. n.eh. Iz istorii antichnogo obschestva, 75‒86.

63. Swift, E. 2016: The Development of Artefact Studies. In: M. Millett, L. Revell, A. Moore (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Roman Britain. Oxford, 63–94.

64. Tikhonova, O.S. 2005: Rimskiye goroda Britanii epokhi printsipata – Londiniy, Deva, Eborak [Roman Towns of Britain During the Principate – Londinium, Deva, Eboracum. Unpublished Thesis]. Moscow.

65. Tikhonova, O.S. Rimskie goroda Britanii ehpokhi printsipata – Londinij, Deva, Ehborak. Diss. … kand.ist. nauk. Moskva.

66. Tomlin, R.S.O. 2006: Was Roman London ever a colonia? The written evidence. In: R.J.A. Wilson (ed.), Romanitas: Essays on Roman Archaeology in Honour of Sheppard Frere on the Occasion of His Ninetieth Birthday. Oxford, 49–63.

67. Tomlin, R.S.O. 2016: Roman London’s First Voices. Writing Tablets from the Bloomberg Excavations, 2010–2014. London.

68. Tomlin, R.S.O. 2020: Inscriptions. Britannia 51, 471−525.

69. Wacher, J. 1975: The Towns of Roman Britain. Berkeley‒Los Angeles.

70. Wacher, J. 1995: The Towns of Roman Britain. 2nd ed. London.

71. Wallace, L. 2013: The foundation of Roman London: examining the Claudian fort hypothesis. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 32(3), 273–289.

72. Wallace, L. 2015: The Origin of Roman London. Cambridge.

73. Wallace, L., Mullen, A. 2019: Landscape, monumentality and expression of group identities in Iron Age and Roman East Kent. Britannia 50, 75‒108.

74. Webster, G. 1966: Fort and town in early Roman Britain. In: J. Wacher (ed.), The Civitas Capitals of Roman Britain, 31‒45.

75. Weekes, J. 2020: Excavations in Westgate Gardens, Canterbury, revealing the changing character of Roman Watling Street, and Durovernum’s evolving street layout. Archaeologia Cantiana 141, 260‒274.

76. Wilson, P. 2016: Romano-British archaeology in the early twenty-first century. In: M. Millett, L. Revell, A. Moore (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Britain. Oxford, 43–62.

Система Orphus

Loading...
Up