An Imperial Possession, page 49
The heartlands of the Iceni in Norfolk, the Fenland and Suffolk were another territory blighted by the Boudican revolt. Roman reprisals were protracted and the Iceni will have borne the brunt of this. The amount of territory left in their direct control will have been only a fraction of the lands controlled by the Icenian elite at the height of their power. This conclusion is supported by the extremely small size of the civitas capital at Caistor-by-Norwich – the implication of the attenuated urban amenities being a meagre territory and a weak and small local elite.
The pre-60 heartlands of the Iceni were in western Norfolk, around sites such as Thetford and Saham Toney, so the move of the civitas centre to eastern Norfolk may in itself be indicative of punitive action against the western territory. The creation of imperial estates on Icenian lands is certain, given that the Iceni had tried to circumvent full annexation by offering half the kingdom of Prasutagus to Nero. After the revolt, Nero will have demanded at least as much territory to pass to his patrimonium. Other lands confiscated from dead or defeated Icenian nobles may have been put up for sale to private individuals, and the location known as Villa Faustini c. 40 km along the road south of Caistor-by-Norwich is suggestive of a major private estate of this kind.
There are very few certain villas in Norfolk and the most prominent sites are large nucleated centres, mostly located on or adjacent to Roman roads and engaged in a range of activities including pottery production, salt-making and metalworking. Four sites appear to have had a strong religious focus (Thetford, Hockwold, Walsingham and Wicklewood).
The Fenland around the Wash was an important wetland area. Settlement and salt-making were already well established on fen islands in the late Iron Age, and the Roman activity represents intensification rather than colonization of a virgin landscape. There are hints in the coin record that the Corieltavi had privileged access to the Lincolnshire Fens and the Iceni to the central and eastern Fens in the late Iron Age. The traditional view is that following the Boudican revolt all of this area was developed as an imperial estate. The role of the state in managing the expansion of settlement in some way is supported by the development of an extraordinary settlement focused on a great stone tower at Stonea Grange, a stone aisled building at Chatteris, also in the central fen area, and an atypically large villa complex at Castor by Water Newton on the fen edge. Several major dyke systems along the western edge of the Fens appear to be ancient in origin, most notably the Carr Dyke. Once interpreted as a navigation canal, this is now seen as first and foremost part of a major drainage system. Stonea Grange was clearly an important and highly unusual site, with large masonry buildings constructed in the second century as part of a planned urban settlement, though it never seems to have fully established itself and was radically scaled down after 200. By contrast, most fen settlements were very conservative in layout, types of building (roundhouses and simple rectangular structures), construction materials used and material culture present.
Although Roman imperial power played an important role in shaping the Fenland landscape, the active contribution of indigenous social groupings should not be overlooked. The indigenous inhabitants made status displays that differed in important respects from those of communities on the fen edge. Rather than view the lack of villa development and eventual abandonment of settlements like Stonea as a sign of innate failure of the populace to rise to the ‘opportunities’ offered to them by the state, this can be read as a transcript of resistant adaptation and rejection of Roman norms. Although villas are absent, changes in building type and in the occurrence of ‘elite’ material culture markers hint at specific local patterns of adaptation to Roman rule. For instance, among the settlements on the silt fens, where drainage was dramatically improved in Roman times, we can identify two distinct groupings of sites with elite cultural markers – in the northern Fens this mainly takes the form of changed architectural elements (such as the construction of tiled roofs), while to the south, it is the presence of portable wealth that distinguishes a number of sites amidst the generally poor background material culture. Below the level of the potential control sites, such as Stonea, Chatteris and Grandford in the central Fens, settlement on the silt fens and on the islands within the peat fen was concentrated as a series of clusters, each of which was linked to the fen edge by a main trackway or canal.
An attractive alternative to the ‘imperial estate’ model is that some part of the region was retained as ager publicus, with native Britons allowed occupancy in return for rents and taxes levied in terms of products that the state required. Apart from salt, wetlands may have been important sources of other commodities required in quantity by the state, including animal products (meat, hides). The meat that was raised in the Fenland could have been exported in salted form in barrels to the frontier zones.
Close by to the west, the fen-edge landscape was very different, with the successful development of the small town of Water Newton and a villa-dominated landscape, revealing the construction of distinctive rural identities, suited to population groups with different relationships with the Roman state.
The south-eastern counties
The civitas of the Cantiaci was centred on Canterbury, though studies of the canton have tended to assume that the territory covered the whole of Kent and perhaps eastern Sussex. This seems unlikely for a number of reasons. The main Roman ports of entry into Britain lay on the Kentish coast, and the land between the provincial capital at London and these ports was prime real estate for investment by incomers to Britain – whether speculators from Italy and Gaul or imperial agents. There were also natural resources to consider. In Kent, for instance, there is a dense pattern of villa development north of the Weald, but a virtual absence of such structures within the zone of Wealden iron production. This suggests that the territory of the Cantiaci as defined by Rome focused on northern Kent, with the southern zone organized in some different way. In the northern area, most villas lay some distance to the west of Canterbury, clustered in the main river valleys (Darent, Medway) or the creeks of the Thames estuary. A minimalist reading of the evidence would limit the civitas of the Cantiaci to north-eastern Kent only, with the iron- and timber-rich Weald under some form of imperial control and the north-western sector leased or sold to private landholders. It is also possible that some land in Kent was assigned to the town of London or run as imperial estates (as in the case of Ickham villa between Canterbury and Richborough).
The largest and richest villas in the area thus may not have been connected with the Cantiacian elite. This seems certain of the palatial villa constructed in the second century close to Folkestone, which utilized stamped tiles produced by the classis Britannica, though the identity of the person for whom it was constructed remains uncertain. The most extensive and earliest villa in the Medway Valley at Eccles is another candidate for outside influence and capital investment. The first stone building here dates to c.65, with several rooms possessing tessellated floors and a separate bath-house also of early date. A further major villa at Darenth extended over 1.5 ha and comprised at least six main building complexes, including a winged corridor main range, with two near-symmetrical annexes and two large aisled buildings. The lifespan of this villa ran from c. 100 to the end of the fourth century. The most famous Kentish villa is that at Lullingstone, though the main house was quite modest in scale, even if well appointed, in some of its phases. It was first constructed around the end of the first century and underwent a complex series of expansions and modifications, before a final phase starting c.385 under Christian owners.
There are numerous smaller villas of simpler morphology – primarily winged corridor houses and aisled buildings – and several examples of large villages or small towns (Charlton, Westhawk Farm). However, the largest category of rural site comprised roundhouses within simple ditched enclosures. Only in the late Roman period did larger numbers of the houses within these sites take on a more rectilinear form, but by then many rural sites in east Kent were contracting or being prematurely abandoned.
The primary focus of late Iron Age and Roman settlement in Sussex comprised the light soils of the South Downs and the Chichester coastal plain. To the north, the heavy clays of the Weald, with iron and timber resources, again constituted a separate region, whose exploitation followed a different trajectory. The civitas of the Regni with its capital at Chichester represented a Roman rationalization of one part of the large client kingdom ruled by Togidubnus. There are a number of exceptionally early elaborate villas in the region (Fishbourne, Angmering, Eastbourne, Pulborough and Southwick) and a crucial question is whether these early villas pre-dated the incorporation of the client kingdom into the province, or whether they were a consequence of that upheaval – perhaps as a palliative to the leading indigenous families. At any rate, it is clear from the unusual architecture and materials utilized – including Mediterranean-style plans, mosaics, marble floors and other marble components – that these were special commissions dependent on skills and materials that were provided from external sources. At Fishbourne itself, a sequence of development has been recognized, starting with the so-called ‘proto-palace’, subsequently greatly enlarged in the later first century into one of the best-known, but least typical, villa plans in Britain. The occurrence of identical flue tiles at Angmering, Eastbourne and Fish-bourne links these sites as a group. Pulborough and Southwick share other architectural similarities and peculiarities with Fishbourne. The dramatically enlarged palace at Fishbourne has been variously interpreted as a retirement home for Togidubnus or for his direct family, or as a suitable base for Roman administrators sent to oversee the transition of the kingdom to provincial territory. Fishbourne would certainly have appealed to aristocratic Roman tastes in its late first-century form, but the family of Togidubnus had also been exposed to the high life at Rome.
Although the region saw considerable villa development in later centuries, this was generally much more modest in scale and in many cases seems to represent gradual transformation of indigenous settlements into Roman-style houses. Several examples are known of villas where the main building took the form of an aisled hall, a pattern also common in Hampshire. At some sites there was a sequence of rectangular timber buildings, before the appearance of the first stone house in the third century or later.
A feature of many of the Sussex and Kent villas was the decline and abandonment of sites near the coast during the fourth century. This has been variously ascribed to the impact of Saxon raids or of the military garrisons of the Saxon Shore forts. At any rate, both regions are notable for the relative lack of wealthy villas in the fourth century, with Bignor being a singular exception in Sussex. This villa was situated beyond the north slope of the South Downs, close to Stane Street linking Chichester and London, and seems to have originated as a rectangular timber structure by the late second century at latest. It was upgraded to a simple stone row house in the early third, and further embellished with a corridor and simple projecting corner rooms. The transformation of this modest villa into one of the largest and most elaborate villas in southern Britain in the fourth century is unexpected and highly atypical of this region. The final form of the villa focused on three extensive ranges of luxurious apartments around a large inner court, with additional structures constructed around a large secondary yard. The entire complex covers an area of 1.5 ha and comprises at least seventy rooms, many with mosaic or tessellated pavements. While Bignor stands comparison with some of the select group of larger villas of the West Country, it is unique for south-east England at present.
Most of the Sussex villas cluster along the coastal plain, some at the heads of creeks and inlets, or in the fertile south-facing valleys of the South Downs, or on the Greensand formation that lies just to the north of the South Downs. Large numbers of non-villa settlements are also attested in these same preferential areas of the landscape. On the Downland, many settlements appear to have evolved directly from late Iron Age antecedents, with a gradual shift towards rectilinear structural forms in preference to the earlier roundhouses. Many of the sites represent isolated farmsteads, but there were some larger settlements. An example at Park Brow consisted of five small rectangular houses, one with a tile roof, window glass and red-painted plaster on its wattle-and-daub walls.
The central southern counties
Much of the territory of the northern Atrebates has vanished under the dormitory belt of London’s western commuters. The plans of the excavated villas show considerable variation, with relatively few of winged corridor type. Only two sites have been suggested as early villas – Ashstead and Walton Heath. The distribution of Roman sites shows a concentration along the springlines at the edge of the Downs and along the Greensand and Gault beds, but a few villas are also known on claylands. In a generally sparse settlement distribution, there were slight concentrations of sites close to Stane Street within 10 km of the small town of Ewell and in the area of the Alice Holt pottery production in the Farnham area. The hinterland of the civitas centre at Silchester has demonstrated strong continuities with late Iron Age dispersed settlements, but few villas of any note.
The civitas of the Belgae appears to have been artificially created by Rome, with its capital at Winchester. The core territory of the Belgae was evidently in Hampshire and southern Wiltshire, representing the south-western portion of the southern kingdom. The settlement of Hampshire has many similarities with that of West Sussex, although lacking evidence for early sumptuous villas. Most villas were comparatively modest in scale, with many exhibiting signs of evolution on preexisting native sites. Land divisions and field systems of demonstrably pre-Roman date were commonly maintained in active use through centuries of Roman rule. The gradual embellishment of the British farms with the trappings of the villa estate has been traced in some detail at a series of villas (Grateley South, Houghton Down, Fullerton, Werwell). One interesting feature is the prevalence of the aisled hall at many of these sites, sometimes as an ancillary building, but occasionally developed as the main residence and aggrandized with baths, mosaics and underfloor heating.
A particular feature of the distribution map of Roman-period settlement in this region is the absence of villas from the geographically extensive area of Salisbury Plain, although eleven villages of Iron Age and Roman date are known there. Some of the villages were on a considerable scale, such as the most famous example at Chisenbury Warren – a 6-ha site containing about eighty buildings flanking a curving lane and linking to extensive field systems covering at least 80 ha. There has been much debate about the reasons for the absence of villas here, with many commentators favouring the idea that this was an imperial estate. That the land was held in some different form of arrangement from villa estates can be readily admitted, though whether imperially or state-owned, or assigned as communal lands to a British sub-grouping, cannot be determined. Similar settlements have been recorded elsewhere on the Downland of Hampshire, around Chalton, for example, where a detailed survey of c.20 sq km revealed no fewer than three villages, fourteen ‘farmsteads’ and four masonry buildings, set within a dense pattern of regular fields.
The East Midlands
The heavy clay soils of the East Midlands were for long thought to have been thinly populated, as were its flood-susceptible valleys and fenlands. More recent research has shown a high density of Roman-period settlement, the majority comprising dispersed farmsteads and settlements of roundhouses (Fig. 13). This map is an excellent example of the high densities of non-villa settlement now attested in many regions. The foundation of a legionary fortress and then a veteran colonia at Lincoln perhaps indicates punitive action against some elements of the Corieltavi, and effectively created a new focus of power in the eastern part of the region. The extent of Corieltavian land and authority was thus probably limited under Rome to the western sector, focused on the civitas centre at Leicester. The predominance of heavy clay soils around Leicester could indicate that the civitas was established
Figure 13. Rural settlement of Roman date in the East Midlands. Note the relative paucity of villas and the dense areas of non-villa settlement, as in the Fens
on less favourable land in the western sector of the Iron Age territory. A further complication was the presence of significant iron ore deposits in southern districts, and these were evidently exploited on a large scale in the Roman period. Some degree of imperial control or financial interest is perhaps to be expected, especially in the initial stages.
About 100 villas are known in the northern East Midlands, but few were medium to large villas (Southwell, Scampton, Winterton, Thistleton and Mansfield Woodhouse) and none was of really palatial scale. An interesting aspect of these larger villas is that they are mostly outside the probable territory of the Corieltavi – several are beyond the Trent or up near the Humber. Winterton is one of the most fully excavated, at its greatest extent comprising a U-shaped arrangement of buildings focused on a main villa range flanked by perpendicular aisled buildings. These early third-century structures had succeeded a series of stone-footed circular buildings and a simple rectangular timber building of second-century date. The prominence of the circular elements in the early architecture of the site and of the aisled halls stresses the continuity with British vernacular traditions here, though the evidence of a series of extensive rectilinear boundary ditches around the villa suggests the systematic demarcation of a landed estate. At a number of other villas in the region the main buildings lay within a double-ditched rectangular enclosure (Cromwell, Lockington), perhaps again an indication that these sites sought to differentiate themselves visibly from the more typical sub-rectangular or curvilinear enclosures employed at the majority of rural settlements.
