Britons and Romans in an East Yorkshire Landscape, UK
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Peter Halkon Britons and Romans in an East Yorkshire Landscape, UK Introduction According to Ptolemy ( Geographia 2.3.17) the tribe living in what is now East Yorkshire were the Parisi. Superficially their name alone would fit with Julius Caesar’s (Gallic Wars V.12) 1 statement that: “The interior of Britain is inhabited by people who claim, on the strength of an oral tradition, to be aboriginal: the coast by Belgic immigrants who came to plunder and make war – nearly all of them retaining the names of the tribes from which they originated – and later settled down to till the soil”. The Parisi of Roman Yorkshire have been equated with the Parisii of Gaul after whom the French capital is named, also recorded by Caesar and there has been debate concerning the extent to which the two tribes are related. There has been much discussion about their origins in recent years, as invasion hypotheses have come in and out of fashion as an explanation for cross-cultural connections between Britain and the European continent in the Iron Age (c. f. Collis 2, James 3 and Cunliffe 4). To Hawkes 5 and Dunning, and Hodson 6 the people of the Arras culture, named after the farm where its “signature” burial type was first excavated, were amongst the most obvious manifestations of migration, particularly due to their mode of burial, consisting of inhumation surrounded by a square ditch and covered with a low mound which became known as square-barrows. This burial technique, despite major aerial surveys undertaken over large areas of England, still has its greatest concentration in the historic county of the East Riding of Yorkshire and is most obviously paralleled in the Ardennes and Champagne regions of northern France. These similarities led to the major campaigns of research by Stead 7 on both sides of the channel. Within some of the square barrows, the dead were accompanied by two wheeled vehicles, which some authorities regard as chariots for war, others as a more prosaic piece of high status transport. Whatever their purpose, the chariot burials are also found in their biggest concentration in East Yorkshire and in the present countries of France and Belgium. There are, however, subtle differences in burial rites as the majority of the 1 CAESAR (translated by S.A. Handford) 1982, 110. 2 COLLIS 2003, 114. 3 JAMES 1999. 4 CUNLIFFE 1995, 11–26. 5 HAWKES , DUNNING 1930, 150–336. 6 HODSON 1964, 99–110. 7 STEAD 1979. Bollettino di Archeologia on line I 2010/ Volume speciale E / E10 / 3 Reg. Tribunale Roma 05.08.2010 n. 330 ISSN 2039 - 0076 www.archeologia.beniculturali.it/pages/pubblicazioni.html 24 XVII International Congress of Classical Archaeology, Roma 22-26 Sept. 2008 Session : Roman and Barbarian East Yorkshire chariots were dismantled, whilst most of continental examples were interred intact and upright as if ready for use. The strong regionality of both square barrows and chariot burial distribution has been outlined above. Another remarkable localised ritual was the throwing of spears into often quite prestigious graves during the process of interment, found in cemeteries at Rudston and Garton Station 8 and Wetwang 9. With this in mind it is interesting to note that the tribal name may be interpreted as “the spear people”, as par is the Welsh for spear 10 . A further artefact clustered within the East Yorkshire region are figurines of sword bearing warriors carved in chalk, some of which appear to have been “decapitated” 11 . All in all the Iron Age people of East Yorkshire seem, to some extent, to have followed the violent stereotype often given of “Celtic” people, a view endorsed by James 12 , though criticised by Collis 13 who would prefer to use the term “burial with weapons” rather than “warrior burial”. Whether they were warlike or not, the swords and sheaths accompanying the dead such as those from Wetwang 14 and Kirkburn 15 were often highly decorated providing evidence for a strong tradition and expertise in metalworking in Iron Age East Yorkshire. The Foulness Valley 16 , is one of the most extensive iron production industries of Iron Age Britain 17 . The overall settlement pattern of Iron Age East Yorkshire has been plotted from major aerial surveys especially that undertaken on the Yorkshire Wolds 18 . The settlements themselves were much the same as elsewhere in Iron Age Britain, although there is a greater density of linear enclosures or “ladder settlements” in which the strings of enclosures and fields flanking a central droveway resemble the rungs of a ladder. Some of these extend over several kilometres. Houses were almost exclusively round unlike their continental counterparts, which were mainly rectilinear. Excavation and palaeoenvironmental analysis shows evidence for both arable and pastoral agriculture, though analysis of carbon and nitrogen isotopes from 62 individuals from Wetwang revealed a high animal protein intake with little evidence for the consumption of sea-food. 19 By the later Iron Age there is evidence of greater influence from the south in terms of material culture. In the later first century BC/first century AD, wheel thrown pottery arrives in the region which closely resembles vessels from the large settlement at Dragonby in the present county of North Lincolnshire 20 , augmenting the rather unprepossessing coarse straight sided jars which remained virtually unchanged throughout the Iron Age 21 . Further evidence of cross-Humber contact is the growing number of single finds and hoards of inscribed gold coins of the Corieltauvi, occupants of what are now the counties of Lincolnshire and Leicestershire. It is interesting to note that the coins to the north of the Humber are generally to be found on the best farmland within easy reach of the major watercourses, particularly in the valleys of the rivers Foulness and Hull. There is a concentration of coins and Dragonby type cordoned carinated vessels near Brantingham, which was ideally positioned to exploit both the Humber lowlands and the Yorkshire Wolds. Brooches with continental affinities have also been found in the vicinity (fig. 1). There may also have been a change in burial rite in parts of the region, as in addition to or instead of square barrows, large-scale geophysical survey undertaken between the modern villages of Sherburn and East Heslerton has revealed “barrowlets” or small circular ditches, which on excavation, were found to 8 STEAD 1991, 209, Fig 114, Fig 124. 9 DENT 1985, 85–92. 10 FALILEYEV 2007, 164. 11 STEAD 1988, 9–29. 12 JAMES 2007, 160–173. 13 COLLIS 2004, 573. 14 DENT 1985, 85–92. 15 STEAD 1991, 66–70. 16 HALKON 1997, 12–16. 17 HALKON 2007, 151–163. 18 STOERTZ 1997. 19 JAY , RICHARDS 2006, 653–662. 20 ELSDON 1989, 37. 21 RIGBY 1991, 94–118. Bollettino di Archeologia on line I 2010/ Volume speciale E / E10 / 3 Reg. Tribunale Roma 05.08.2010 n. 330 ISSN 2039 - 0076 www.archeologia.beniculturali.it/pages/pubblicazioni.html 25 P. Halkon – Britons and Romans in an East Yorkshire Landscape, UK Abb. 1 – Iron Age in East Yorkshire. (Helen Woodhouse). enclose cremation burials associated with an extensive ladder settlements 22 . The move from inhumation to cremation parallels changes in burial practice in southern Britain exemplified at such sites as Westhampnett near Chichester in Sussex 23 . It is not clear the extent to which this represents changes in population or simply the adoption of new traditions, or the mechanism by which they took place. After the conquest of Britain in AD 43, the relationship of the Parisi to the invaders is uncertain. A site at the Redcliff, North Ferriby first recognised in the 1930s and excavated in the 1980s 24 may provide some clues, as a larger than usual assemblage of imported tableware and other artefacts dating from the period AD 43–70, such as Terra Nigra, Terra Rubra and early decorated samian pottery was found. It has been suggested by the excavators that Redcliff served as a place through which prestige goods were traded with the as yet unconquered lands north of the Humber. 22 POWLESLAND 2003, 275–293. 23 FITZPATRICK 1997. 24 CROWTHER ET ALII 1990, 172–182. Bollettino di Archeologia on line I 2010/ Volume speciale E / E10 / 3 Reg. Tribunale Roma 05.08.2010 n. 330 ISSN 2039 - 0076 www.archeologia.beniculturali.it/pages/pubblicazioni.html 26 XVII International Congress of Classical Archaeology, Roma 22-26 Sept. 2008 Session : Roman and Barbarian It may even be possible that “luxury” products of pottery and glassware found at the extensive settlement at Stanwick, North York- shire, interpreted by Haselgrove 25 as belonging to Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes and ally of Rome, arrived by this route. In AD51 Cartimandua handed British resistance leader Caratacus over to the Romans (Tacitus Annals XII, 36) and until AD 71 enjoyed client status. The early South Yorkshire military installations such as Rossington Bridge, near Doncaster AD 52–726 and Templeborough near Rotherham 27 could originate from this time. Eventually the break-up of Cartimandua and her consort Ve- nutius led to civil war and a pretext for the Roman armies to move north and take control. Because of the Redcliff finds and the Abb. 2 – The South Cave weapons cache under excavation. (Photo: courtesy York Archaeological Trust). proximity of the Parisi to the client Brigantes, they have usually been regarded as pro- Roman 28 , however forts were constructed at Brough, Hayton and Malton and a temporary camp at Buttercrambe Moor 29 , all in what is thought to have been Parisian territory. Furthermore the remarkable cache of five swords in decorated scabbards and 33 spearheads found near South Cave 30 may provide further indication that not all the inhabitants of East Yorkshire were as compliant to Roman rule as supposed.