Abstract

Late prehistoric Britain underwent rapid economic transformation when the island was invaded and colonised by Roman from AD 43 . A key economic change was in who people traded goods with – from local family-based exchange networks in the later Iron Age, to trade networks which spanned the Roman province and linking hundreds of settlements. The rapid expansion of distribution networks had knock on-effects in the scale of British settlements; the appearance of specialised manufacturing; and the creation of an integrated agricultural sector. This talk will illustrate the transformations of this period by drawing on several recent ‘big data’ archaeology projects. It will start with the basic economic system of the later Iron Age in Bedfordshire, then explore the effects of the Roman road network on the distribution of manufactured goods and writing across Roman Britain, and conclude with the transformation of agriculture in Cambridgeshire.

Rob Wiseman is a project officer with the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, as well as a member of the McDonald Institute and Coalition for Archaeological Synthesis.