Durham E-Theses Iron Age and Roman landscapes in the East Midlands : a case study in integrated survey. Taylor, Jeremy How to cite: Taylor, Jeremy (1996) Iron Age and Roman landscapes in the East Midlands : a case study in integrated survey., Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1566/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 IRON AGE AND ROMAN LANDSCAPES IN THE EAST MIDLANDS: A CASE STUDY IN INTEGRATED SURVEY Jeremy Taylor (Two volumes) Volume 1 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Archaeology University of Durham 1996 10 MAR 1997 I, Jeremy Taylor, declare that no part of this thesis material has previously been submitted by me for a degree in this or any other university. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without prior consent from the author and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Abstract Iron Age and Roman Landscapes in the East Midlands: A Case Study in Integrated Survey Jeremy Taylor Primarily a theoretical and methodological study1 this thesis sets out to show the reasons for, and advantages of, landscape-based approaches to the Iron Age and Roman period. An initial discussion of the theoretical background to defining archaeological approaches to landscapes is followed by methodological essays on four common survey techniques. The insights gained from the theoretical and methodological discussions are then assessed within the context of a case study. Focused on the county of Northamptonshire, the case study first concentrates on detailed studies of three areas in the Nene and Welland Valleys. By linking excavation with survey data a contextual approach is used to analyse the development of landscapes in the region from approximately the eighth century BC to AD350. In particular the study highlights the changing character of focal places and the use of architecture to illustrate the organisation of social space across the landscape from the fourth century BC to fourth century AD. These detailed studies are then compared with further excavated and field- walked data from the county in order to discuss the wider regional significance of the perceived variations through time and space. Placing special emphasis on the interpretation of field-walked data as material correlates of some of the focal places of the past,this section looks at the possibility of regional trends in landscape forms through time. These studies are then concluded with a discussion of some themes in spatial social interaction during the Iron Age and Roman periods that may help to explain some of the wider changes described. LIST OF CONTENTS VOLUME I List of Contents List of Tables vi List of Figures VII PART I THEORY AND PRACTICE 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 2 1.1 BACKGROUND 3 1.2 SPACE, PLACE, LANDSCAPE AND REGION 6 1.3 SOME APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF LANDSCAPES AND REGIONS 13 CHAPTER 2: PLOUGHSOIL ARTEFACT ASSEMBLAGES 17 2.1 INTRODUCTION 17 2.2 THE DERIVATION OF PLOUGHSOIL ASSEMBLAGES 18 2.3 PLOUGHSOIL PROCESSES AND THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD 21 2.3.1 Major forms of Attrition 22 2.3.2 Displacement Processes 29 2.4 SURVEY DESIGN AND ARTEFACT RECOVERY 33 2.4.1 Collection Strategy 33 2.4.2 Biases in Visibility and Recovery 35 2.5 ASPECTS OF POTTERY ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 39 2.5.1 Ploughsoil Artefact Scatters and Interpretation 40 2.5.2 Quantification 42 2.5.3 Classification and Pottery Function 44 2.5.4 Pottery Distributions 46 II CHAPTER 3: AIR PHOTOGRAPHY AND LANDSCAPE ARCHAEOLOGY 48 3.1 INTRODUCTION 48 3.2 RECONNAISSANCE HISTORY AND ThE RELIABILITY OF AIR PHOTOGRAPHIC 51 EVIDENCE 3.2.1 Reconnaissance History 51 3.2.2 Archaeological Visibility 54 3.3 THE INTERPRETATION AND MAPPING OF AIR PHOTOGRAPHIC INFORMATION 58 3.3.1 Air Photography and Landscape Chronology 59 3.3.2 Landscape Architecture: Forms and Functions 66 3.3.3 Landscape Architecture: Synthesis and Regional Context 68 CHAPTER 4: GEOPROSPECTION AND LANDSCAPE ARCHAEOLOGY 70 4.1.1 A Model for Inference from Geoprospection Data 71 4.1.2 Geoprospection in Landscape Archaeology 72 4.2 RESISTIVITY SURVEY 73 4.2.1 Introduction and Principles 73 4.2.2 Anomalies and Interpretation 74 4.2.3 Resistivity in Landscape Survey 81 4.3 MAGNETOMETRY 83 4.3.1 Background and Principles 83 4.3.2 Archaeological Interpretation 83 4.3.3 Magnetometry in Regional Survey 86 4.4 MAGNETIC SUSCEPTIBILITY 87 4.4.1 Background and Principles 87 4.4.2 Interpretation 87 4.4.3 Magnetic Susceptibility and Landscape Survey 91 4.5 PHOSPHATE SURVEY 92 4.5.1 Introduction and Principles 92 4.5.2 Phosphate Detection and Interpretation 93 4.5.3 Phosphate Analysis and Regional Survey 96 III 4.6 INTEGRATED G EOPROSPECTION AND LANDSCAPE .RCHAEOLOGY 96 PART II: THE CASE STUDY 101 CHAPTER 5: CONTEXT, THEORY AND METHOD 102 5.1 CONTEXT 103 5.2 THEORY 109 5.3 METHOD 111 CHAPTER 6: THE LANDSCAPE SURVEYS 115 6.1 INTRODUCTION 115 6.2 THE MAXEY/BARNACK AREA 117 6.2.1 Maxey 117 6.2.2 Tallington 123 6.2.3 Barnack 127 6.2.4 Landscape Development in the Maxey/Barnack Area 130 6.3 THE WOLLASTON/ECTON AREA 135 6.3.1 Wollaston 136 6.3.2 Grendon 142 6.3.3 Earls Barton 145 6.3.4 Ecton 148 6.3.5 Great Doddington 150 6.3.6 Landscape Development in the WollastortlEcton Area 151 6.4 THE HUNSBURY/QUINTON AREA 155 6.4.1 Hunsbury 155 6.4.2 Quinton 158 6.4.3 Landscape Development in the Hunsbury/Quinton Area 160 6.5 DISCUSSION 163 6.5.1 ACtIVItY Foci and the Changing Character of Places 164 6.5.2 Locales and Landscape Architecture 174 iv 6.5.3 The Location of Places 180 CHAPTER 7: REGIONAL ANALYSES 185 7.1 INTRODUCTION 185 7.2 THE DATABASE 185 7.3 ASPECTS OF POSSIBLE POST DEPOSITIONAL BIASES 189 7.3.1 Fragmentation Studies 189 7.3.2 Survey and Excavated Assemblages Compared 193 7.4 INFERENCE FROM PLOUGHSOIL POTTERY: SOME QUESTIONS OF SUPPLY 196 7.4.1 Pottery and Time 197 7.4.2 Pottery and Space 200 7.5 POTTERY SCATTERS AS LOCALES: THE CHARACTERISATION STUDIES 205 7.5.1 Levels of Pottery Deposition 205 7.5.2 Additional Sources of Evidence 207 7.6 LOCALE PATTERNS IN TIME AND SPACE 210 7.6.1 Locale Patterns by Pottery Quantities and Area. 211 7.6.2 Other Evidence for Locale Forms 219 CHAPTER 8: INTEGRATING SURVEY AND LANDSCAPE 224 ARCHAEOLOGY 8.1 INTRODUCTION 224 8.2 THEORY METHOD AND PRACTICE: AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF DISSONANCE? 225 8.2.1 Ploughsoil Artefact Assemblages 225 8.2.2 Air Photographic Survey 227 8.2.3 Geoprospection 230 8.3 LANDSCAPE ARCHAEOLOGY AS THE SPATIAL EXPRESSION OF SOCIAL 231 RELATIONS: SOME THEMES FROM THE CASE STUDY BIBLIOGRAPHY 249 V VOLUME II CONTENTS OF VOLUME II xv FIGURES 282 APPENDIX 1: GAZETTEER OF EXCAVATED AND SURVEYED SITES 447 APPENDIX 2: THE CLASSIFICATION AND RECORDING OF THE FIELDWALKED 455 POTTERY APPENDIX 3: CALIBRATED C-14 DATES FROM THE REGION 458 APPENDIX 4: THE QUANTIFIED POTTERY DATA 475 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi List Of Tables 2.1 The Effect of Firing Temperature and Temper Type on Abrasion Resistance 24 2.2 Area coverage and Fieldwalking Intensity of Selected British Field Surveys 34 3.1 Crop mark Visibility Across the Soil Associations of Northamptonshire 56 3.2 Dating by Excavation of Morphologically Defined Enclosures 60 3.3 Crop mark Sites Formed by Studying the ESR of 14 6umbered Monuments in 65 Figure 3.8 7.1 Chronological Phasing of the Survey Pottery 188 7.2 Fabric Proportions for Six Early Excavated Assemblages and the Survey Mean 194 7.3 Fabric Proportions for Roman Period Excavations from Northamptonshire 195 7.4 The Frequency of scatters by Weight Through Time 199 7.5 Quartile Values for Each Period by Weight and Values After Correction for the 200 Approximate Length of Each phase 7.6 The Fabric Groups Assigned to Fine, Coarse and Storage Ware Categories for 209 Each Period 7.7 The Continuity and Discontinuity of Occupation in Areas 1 to 5 by Observed 217 and Expected Numbers. vii List of Figures 1.1 A Hypothetical model of the Structure of Space 282 2.1 The action of a) mouldboard ploughs, b) tine and chisel ploughs and c) 283 subsoilers on the soil 2.2 The derivation of a ploughsoil assemblage B for a hypothetical settlement site 284 A 2.3 The effect of temper type and firing temperature on abrasion resistance 285 2.4 Graph of the breakage rate of a group of trampled pottery through time 286 2.5 The percentage frequency distribution of three pottery assemblages of fabrics 287 A, C, and D, a) before trampling and b) after Trampling 2.6 The Frequency distribution by size category of a single group of sherds after 288 five successive trampling events 2.7 The changing frost resistance of different tempered ceramics with increased 289 firing temperature 2.8 Sirtace minimum temperatures at Butser Hill, Station 1, 1st November 1987 to 290 31st March 1988 2.9 Schematic diagram showing the variable effects of soil erosion on the surface 291 densities of artefacts from an area with an even initial distribution a), after common low intensity erosion b), and rare high level erosion c) 2.10 Surface collection results at BLG by sherd count.