a staggering increase in the amount of evidence available. Large-scale aerial photographic work revealed literally thousands of new sites with a wide range of different forms, and excavations in advance of gravel extraction and road building revolutionized our understanding of the diversity of rural settlement forms, showing that unpretentious farmsteads were far more typical than the more showy villas. Equally, fieldwork in areas like the fens of East Anglia illustrated how nucleated villages were dominant in some regions. Major large-scale excavations in advance of urban redevelopment at places like London, Lincoln, and Colchester have greatly enhanced knowledge of the patterns of urban development while also providing entirely new insights into the conditions of life, the diet of the inhabitants, and their changing productive and trading economies. In particular, the excavation of well-preserved waterlogged material at sites in London, york, and Carlisle has added a new dimension to the material available.

The investigation of religious sites at Bath, Uley, and Hayling Island provided entirely new understandings of religious rituals. Such new understanding was especially the result of the discovery at Bath of a large number of defixiones (or inscriptions), which record “contracts” made between believers and the goddess of the spring. Although the bulk of the new information came from excavations away from the frontiers, there has been one exception, for at Vindolanda in the hinterland behind Hadrian’s Wall, excavations uncovered the well-preserved archive of a fort dating to around a.d. 100. The deciphering of the ink texts on these wooden writing tablets provided insight into the life and organization of a unit of the Roman army that is only paralleled by finds in Roman Egypt.

The information from excavations conducted in advance of development has been complemented by information drawn from pure research. Some of this work has continued the tradition of research excavation, and through this medium, sites like the palace at Fishbourne have become better known. There has been a growth in field survey and artifact research, the latter incorporating a geographical dimension and producing a series of studies of manufacture and distribution of pottery and other artifacts that contribute to our understanding of the economy of the province. The widespread deployment of metal detectors in the hands of amateur treasure hunters has also resulted in a series of spectacular finds, most notably the hoard of fourth-century Christian silver plate found at Water Newton, Cambridgeshire, in 1975.

Along with the growth in information, the last decades of the twentieth century saw wide debate about the nature of social change within the Roman province. The idea that social change, or Romanization, was almost certainly brought about by Rome’s “civilizing mission” was dominant until the 1970s. There was then a shift toward explanations that sought to explain the success of Rome’s conquest through its creation of an identity of interest with the indigenous leaders. Most recently, some people have laid greater stress on the resistance of indigenous peoples to Roman power and the emergence of a diverse range of societies that sought to subvert it. The characteristics of research at the end of the twentieth century were a diversity of approach and a willingness both to contest accepted ideas and to present new interpretations.

Martin Millett

See also

Britain, Classical Archaeology; Britain, Prehistoric Archaeology

References

Birley, E. 1961. Research on Hadrian’s Wall. Kendal, England: T. Wilson.

Freeman, P.W.M. 1997. “Momsen to Haverfield: The Origins of Studies of Romanization in Late 19th Century Britain.” In Dialogues in Roman Imperialism, 27–20. Ed. D.J. Mattingly. Portsmouth, RI: JRA.

Frere, S.S. 1987. Roman Britain since Haverfield and Richmond: A Lecture Delivered at All Souls College, 23 October 1987. Oxford.

Hobley, B. 1975. “Charles Roach Smith (1807–90): Pioneer Rescue Archaeologist.” London Archaeologist 2: 328–333.

Jones, R.F.J. 1987. “The Archaeologists of Roman Britain.” Bulletin of the University of London Institute of Archaeology 24: 85–98.

MacDonald, G. 1924. Biographical notice. In The Roman Occupation of Britain. Ed. F. Haverfield and G. MacDonald. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.