Romano-British Communities at Colne Fen, Earith: An Inland Port and Supply Farm

Regan, Roddy, Lucy, Sam, Appleby, Graham, Evans, Christopher

ISBN 10: 0957559208 / ISBN 13: 9780957559202

Published by Cambridge Archaeological Unit, 2013

About this Item

minor wear and creasing.

Seller Inventory # mon0003694216

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Romano-British Communities at Colne Fen, Earith: An Inland Port and Supply Farm
• Publisher: Cambridge Archaeological Unit
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0957559208
• ISBN 13: 9780957559202
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

Charting a decade of intensive fieldwork along a 2km stretch of the Colne Fen, Earith fen-edge, the scope of these books is formidable and together they include the work of 65 contributing specialists (with a foreword by Ian Hodder). The fieldwork involved innovative methodologies, and groundbreaking scientific and micro-sampling studies are presented within the volumes. Portions of text are, moreover, avowedly experimental (e.g. intertextuality and antiquarian-informed perspectives) and it explores the long-term interplay of landscape process and (proto-) historicism. Appropriate to the practice of a comparative archaeology and the ‘challenge of numbers’, throughout emphasis is given to multiple-scale settlement and spatial/distributional analyses.
The scale of Volume II — the ‘Roman book’ — is even more daunting. Aside from including reports of earlier local excavations, it is primarily concerned with two major ‘set-piece’ sites. The one, Langdale Hale, was a mass-production supply farm; the other, The Camp Ground, a great inland barge-port settlement linked to the Car Dyke canal. Both reflect upon the potential role of the state and address crucial issues of ‘Romanization’, with facets of their sequences markedly contrasting with the Stonea-engendered Fenland Imperial Estate model. Besides uniquely detailing the character of the settlements’ Late Roman usage (involving terpen-like mounds and raised ‘platformed’ structures) and trade connections, the port-site’s aftermath is also discussed as an important assemblage of Anglo-Scandinavian bonework was recovered. To provide further immediate-landscape context, the results from neighbouring sites also
feature, including an important Late Roman cemetery at Knobbs Farm, Somersham.

About the Author

Christopher Evans is executive Director of the Cambridge Archaeological unit based in the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge.

Grahame Appleby is a Senior Research Officer at the Cambridge Archaeological Unit with special responsibilities for post-excavation analysis and publication. His research specialisation is in prehistoric and Roman metalwork.

Sam Lucy is in charge of post-excavation and publication at the Cambridge Archaeological Unit. Her research interests are mainly in Anglo-Saxon material culture and funerary archaeology.