The Late Roman Transition in the North: Papers from the Roman Archaeology Conference, Durham 1999 9781841710631, 9781407319322

Table of contents :
9781841710631.pdf
Sgn 1, Tile 1 (A)
View->Fit Visible
Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Table of Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Preface
Transforming an Elite: Reinterpreting Late Roman Binchester
The late Roman transition at Birdoswald and on Hadrian's Wall
Cataractonium (Catterick): The end of a Roman town?
Coin Supply in the North in the late Roman period
The End of Roman Pottery in the North
The parts left over: material culture into the fifth century
Late Roman Transition in the North: the Palynological Evidence
How little we know, and how much there is to learn: what can animal and human bones tell us about the late Roman transition in northern England?
The Late Roman Transition in the North: a discussion
Summing Up

Citation preview

BAR 299 2000

The Late Roman Transition in the North WILMOTT & WILSON (Eds): THE LATE ROMAN TRANSITION IN THE NORTH

B A R

Papers from the Roman Archaeology Conference, Durham 1999 Edited by

Tony Wilmott and Pete Wilson

BAR British Series 299 2000

The Late Roman Transition in the North Papers from the Roman Archaeology Conference, Durham 1999 Edited by

Tony Wilmott and Pete Wilson

BAR British Series 299 2000

Published in 2016 by BAR Publishing, Oxford BAR British Series 299 The Late Roman Transition in the North © The editors and contributors severally and the Publisher 2000 Reconstruction of the timber buildings of Phase 6b at Birdoswald, drawn by Kate Wilson (English Heritage)

COVER IMAGE

The authors' moral rights under the 1988 UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act are hereby expressly asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be copied, reproduced, stored, sold, distributed, scanned, saved in any form of digital format or transmitted in any form digitally, without the written permission of the Publisher.

ISBN 9781841710631 paperback ISBN 9781407319322 e-format DOI https://doi.org/10.30861/9781841710631 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library BAR Publishing is the trading name of British Archaeological Reports (Oxford) Ltd. British Archaeological Reports was first incorporated in 1974 to publish the BAR Series, International and British. In 1992 Hadrian Books Ltd became part of the BAR group. This volume was originally published by Archaeopress in conjunction with British Archaeological Reports (Oxford) Ltd / Hadrian Books Ltd, the Series principal publisher, in 2000. This present volume is published by BAR Publishing, 2016.

BAR PUBLISHING BAR titles are available from: BAR Publishing 122 Banbury Rd, Oxford, OX2 7BP, UK E MAIL [email protected] PHONE +44 (0)1865 310431 F AX +44 (0)1865 316916 www.barpublishing.com

CONTENTS Figures and Tables

11

Preface Tony Wilmott and Pete Wilson

111

Transforming an Elite: Reinterpreting Late Roman Binchester Iain Ferris and Rick Jones

1

The late Roman transition at Birdoswald and on Hadrian's Wall Tony Wilmott

13

Cataractonium (Catterick): The end of a Roman town? Pete Wilson

25

Coin Supply in the North in the late Roman period R J Brickstock

33

The End of Roman Pottery in the North Jeremy Evans

39

The parts left over: material culture into the fifth century HEM Cool

47

Late Roman Transition in the North: the Palynological Evidence Jacqueline P Huntley

67

How little we know, and how much there is to learn: what can animal and human bones tell us about the late Roman transition in northern England? Sue Stallibrass

73

The Late Roman Transition in the North: a discussion Ken Dark

81

Summing Up Simon Esmonde Cleary

89

Figures and Tables Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig.

5 6 7 8 9

Fig. 10 Fig. 11 Fig 12 Fig. 13 Fig. 14 Fig. 15 Fig. 16 Fig 17. Fig 18. Fig 19. Fig 20. Fig 21. Fig 22. Fig 23. Fig 24. Fig 25. Fig 26.

Fig 27. Fig 28. Fig 29. Fig 30. Fig 31. Fig 32. Fig 33. Fig 34. Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table

Binchester, location plan The praetorium bath suite of Phase 8B. The underfloor of the first heated room Plan of the Phase 8D praetorium The flagged courtyard of Phase 8D, with the stone bases of the triple-arched entrance in the Foreground The interior of the northernpraefurnium with features and deposits of Phase 9 under excavation A keyhole furnace of Phase 9 inside a room in the former residential quarters of the praetorium The slaughterhouse of Phase 9 inside a room in the former residential quarters of the praetorium Detail of animal bones in situ in the Phase 9 slaughterhouse The flagstone working surface of Phase 9 overlying midden deposits in the area of the former northern praefurnium Map of Hadrian's Wall showing places mentioned in the text Outline plans of the two successive timber building phases adjacent to the principal west gate of Birdoswald. Periods 6a and 6b Plan of Period 6a buildings over the north granary of the fort Distinctive type of Fowler D7 penannular brooch categorised as sub-Roman Plan of the principal timber building of Period 6b. The principal timber building of Period 6. Long cist adjacent to Hadrian's Wall immediately east ofBirdoswald The location of Cataractonium (Roman Catterick) and the excavations mentioned in the text Late Roman Cataractonium The development of, and changes to, Building VI.8 Section through late deposits in the third bath house (Building 111.5c)(Rooms 1 and 2) Coin loss on Roman sites in the north east and on Hadrian' s Wall Areas in northern England with a strong tradition of ceramic use on rural sites The distribution ofBBl in the north in the early 4th century Location map of sites mentioned in the text The fall-off of East Yorkshire calcite gritted wares with linear distance from their probable production area Wards Method Clustan dendrograms ofNeutron Activation analysis trace element data for samples from the Knapton kiln site, 3rd to earlier 4th century calcite gritted ware samples from sites and later 4th century calcite gritted ware samples from sites Proportions of jars in northern assemblages from various types of site, showing the trend towards more jar dominated assemblages in the 4th century Map showing the fall-off of production of the standard East-Yorkshire calcite gritted ware, the production site is probably in the east of the Vale of Pickering Map showing the distribution oflate-Roman sandy burnished calcite gritted ware 45 Incidence of pottery spindle whorls through time A selection of previously unillustrated items from the Goldsborough signal station Radiocarbon dated pollen sites in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall Mathematical model of pollen dispersal after Jacobsen and Bradshaw (1981) Theoretical pollen source areas superimposed upon dated sites

1. Transition period indicators or possible indicators at forts on Hadrian's Wall 2. The mid-fourth century assemblages 3. The late fourth to early fifth century assemblages 4. The mid-fourth century personal ornaments 5. The late fourth to early fifth century personal ornaments 6. Knives, tools, handles and hones from the middle and late fourth century assemblages 7. Whorls appearing orange or red 8. Whorls appearing grey/black

ii

6 7 7

8 8 9 9

10 10 19 19 19 18 20 21 21 28 29 30 30 36 42 42 43 43

44 44 45 53 63 69 69 70 16 55 56 56 56 56 61 61

Preface This volume results from a half-day session which was held as part of the Roman Archaeology Conference at Durham University on 18th April 1999. When planning the session, the editors wished simply to bring together a number of individuals who had worked on evidence for the late Roman transition in north Britain in order to compare results, and to attempt to identify common ground, differences, and potential approaches for future research. It was not proposed to publish the results. On the day however, the audience for the session was gratifyingly large, and the response gratifyingly positive, including numerous enquiries as to whether it was intended to publish. An offer from David Davison of Archaeopress to include the collected papers in the BAR series prompted the production of the book, which therefore appears "by popular demand", and the editors would like to thank the contributors for goodhumouredly undertaking the unforeseen task of working up their papers for publication. In order to cover a range of views on the subject, the speakers included excavators (Ferris, Jones, Wilmott and Wilson), specialists in the areas of finds, ceramics, and environmental studies (Cool, Evans, Huntley and Stallibrass), and academics with a specialist interest in the late Roman transition (Dark and Esmonde-Cleary). The scope could have been considerably wider had a whole day been available, as this would have allowed the inclusion of perceptions from different sides of the period and geographical divisions between which the subject has historically (and uncomfortably) fallen. The area is bisected by a national boundary, on each side of which archaeological agendas with different emphases are pursued, and the subject has been seen either as the end of the concern of the Romanist or the beginning of the concern of the medievalist. It is only in relatively recent years that the transition has been recognised widely as a separate study in its own right for which it is necessary to deploy evidence from a great variety of specialisms. Fifteen years ago it would have been extremely difficult to conceive of a collection of papers with this title. This is simply demonstrated by the brevity of an important article written at that time by Margaret Faull (1984) on the fifth century in north-east England, in which she examined the very scanty evidence from both the late-Roman and earlyAnglian viewpoint. It is an extraordinary index of the volume of fieldwork, analysis and synthesis which has been undertaken during the 1980s and '90s, that we have arrived at a point where the present collection is seen as a necessary, and indeed overdue, contribution to this rapidly expanding sphere of research. The picture which Faull's article painted was of decline in town life and the abandonment of villas and forts. She stressed that it was "striking how seldom evidence is found for later occupation in the forts", citing Corbridge as one of the few forts where occasional Anglian finds suggest fifth century occupation in some form. A couple of years later Leslie Alcock (1987, 252) wrote that "the role which the late Roman forts may have had in determining the geography of power in the Dark Ages is one of the great unexplored problems of the transition from Roman to Dark Age England, Scotland and Wales". Though true then, it may now seem that the contents of this volume are rather heavily weighted towards the discussion of the role of the forts of the frontier and its hinterland. This is because excavation on such sites in the last decade and a half has been the most productive of evidence for the continuation of occupation into the fifth century, particularly at Binchester, Birdoswald and South Shields. Urban places have also produced evidence for continuity. Catterick is discussed here, but the position of Carlisle (McCarthy 1990; Keevil et al, 1989) and York (Phillips and Heywood 1995; other sites are conveniently summarised in Mongahan 1997, 1038-1142) as major sites for which there is accumulating evidence for the period should also be taken into account. For the countryside, in the north-west proven rural settlement of the Roman period, let alone of the fifth century, is exceedingly rare (Jones 1999), while continuity on the known Romano-British rural sites of the north-east in general remains elusive. As the papers presented here largely represent summaries of work in progress or overviews of work to date they are intended to provoke debate and hopefully act as a springboard for new work, both by the authors and others. Therefore we hope that they will stimulate, but also perhaps infuriate and challenge you, the reader, and we look forward to seeing the results of the ensuing debate. Tony Wilmott Pete Wilson

iii

Bibliography

Alcock, L, 1987 Economy, Society and Wa,fare Among the Britons and Saxons. Cardiff Faull, ML, 1984 Settlement and Society in North East England in the fifth century. In PR Wilson, RF J Jones and D M Evans (eds) 1984, Settlement and Society in the Roman North. Bradford, 49-56 Jones, GD B, 1999 Conclusion: marginality, their fault or ours; a warning from the Cumbrian evidence. In MN evell (ed) 1999, Living on the edge of Empire: Models, Methodology and Marginality. Manchester, 90-97 Keevil, GD, Shorter, D CA, and McCarthy, MR, 1989 A Solidus ofValentinian II from Scotch Street, Carlisle. Britannia, 20, 254-55 McCarthy, M R, 1990 A Roman, Anglian and Medieval Site at Blackfriars Street. Kendal: Cumberland and Westmorland Antiq Archaeol Soc Res Ser, 4 Monaghan, J, 1997 Roman pottery from York. York: Archaeol York 16/8 Phillips, D, and Heywood, B, 1995 Excavations at York Minster, Vol 1: From Roman fortress to Norman Cathedral. London

iv

Transforming an Elite: Reinterpreting Late Roman Binchester Iain Ferris Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit Rick Jones Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford

An old vision of the end of the northern frontier saw Roman soldiers packing up their bags and heading south, leaving their forts and their wives' hearts empty, at the mercy of the northern equivalent of tumbleweed blowing down the streets of a ghost town of the American West. Excavations at Binchester now contribute to the growing body of evidence that the Roman frontier in the north of Britain did not end this way. Understanding the changes on the frontier is critical to wider interpretations of the end of Roman administration in Britain and of the processes by which cultural and power relations were transformed over the Roman Empire as a whole. The idea that change in northern Britain was not a sudden catastrophic withdrawal has long been discussed by authors such as Kent (1951), Mann (1979) and Casey (1993). What is different about the new excavations is that they provide clear stratigraphic evidence for continuing occupation of military sites beyond the end of the fourth century. Tony Wilmott's publication of Birdoswald has set the initial agenda (Wilmott 1997). Binchester adds an even more fine-grained structural sequence, extending into the fifth century and the medieval period. The emerging picture has substantial implications for our understanding of society in the frontier region during the Late Empire.

with an impressive bath-suite. This is where most of our excavations have been concentrated, and is the focus of the current site display (Ferris and Jones 1980; 1991). From 1976 to 1981 and again from 1986 to 1991 our excavations in this guardianship area have revealed a long sequence of activity spanning more than a millennium. We have identified seven major phases from the first century up to the fourth-century construction and extended life of the house and bath-suite. This was followed by subsequent Anglo-Saxon and medieval activities. In places, two to three metres of stratigraphy survived, so that at Binchester we can map the changing functions of one part of a Roman fort interior throughout its lifetime. There was relatively little disturbance; the limited medieval activity meant that most of the Roman levels were affected only by occasional robbing. The late Roman walls stood in most places to more than a metre, protecting room interiors and what lay beneath their floors. More recent ploughing had no chance to penetrate deep into the archaeological deposits. This paper focuses only on the late and sub-Roman phases. They will also form the centre of the comprehensive publication of the excavation, based upon the post-excavation programme funded by English Heritage, a programme now in its final stages. The report will also include full accounts of the whole Binchester sequence, including important industrial phases, as well as major contributions to the study of pottery, glass, animal bones and small finds in northern Britain (Ferris and Jones,forthcoming).

In this paper we will summarise the sequence excavated at Binchester, then consider some of the technical problems of dating it, and finally discuss some of the implications.

The Site of Binchester Binchester, Roman Vinovia, is sited on a hilltop above the point where Dere Street crossed the River Wear, north of the modern town of Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham (Fig 1). It has long been known as a large fort, of more than three and a half hectares, garrisoned for at least part of its history by cavalry, the Ala Vettonum. Nineteenth-century excavations by Rev R E Hooppell also explored the vicus around it, which is now thought to cover up to 12 hectares. For many years the building plans Hooppell made at Binchester were the only ones available for a civilian settlement at a northern fort (Hooppell 1891). Excavations by Kenneth Steer in the 1930s showed that buildings lay over the line of the in-filled ditch on the south side of the fort (Steer 1938). This has been further confirmed by our geophysical survey, suggesting some late vitality in the vicus (cf Ferris and Jones 1991, fig 14.1).

The Fourth-century House In Phase 8A of the site sequence, a large courtyard house was built in the central part of the fort, with overall dimensions of some 45 x 65 metres. It was an imposing construction, with plastered and painted walls and opus signinum floors. It was clearly the residence of an important person - who was presumably the fort commander, making the house a praetorium. Such large houses have been recently recognised in the late periods at other north-eastern forts such as Piercebridge, South Shields and Chester-le-Street (Ellis 1988; Evans et al 1991). What distinguishes this one at Binchester is its late date. Beneath a primary concrete floor was sealed a coin of the House of Constantine minted between AD 335 and 345. The scale of re-planning in the fort to accommodate this building perhaps suggests a major functional or administrative change for the fort. There had been two

Inside the fort, Hooppell also exposed part of a large house

1

The Late Roman Transition in the North

previous stone buildings on the site which were probably also praetoria, but they were somewhat smaller and certainly less grand.

same Roman traditions. In the latest attested construction work, Phase 8E, some rooms in the house were sub-divided with walls made of unmortared sandstone rubble. The bathsuite continued in operation, with evidence for regular repair and maintenance in the northern praefurnium (Fig 5). But the sequence is very complex. A major rebuilding of the furnace flue and boiler platform was needed because of subsidence, and it was achieved using masonry rubble bonded with clay, not the mortared tile and well-faced sandstone blocks of the original structure. A smaller boiler was now serviced by a roughly-constructed water-channel, which itself seems to have gone out of use before the final firing of the furnace. This new construction bore signs of subsequent frequent renovation. Most strikingly, layers of ash and clay were allowed to build up within the furnace room, both on the floor and inside the flue. The levels rose. In the end the flue itself was completely filled with these deposits, and firing stopped. Why no-one thought of cleaning out these deposits is unclear. This type of sequence did not occur in the western praefurnium, where there was no build-up of debris between its final firing and the demolition of the walls and the start of rubbish dumping.

This 8A building went through many alterations and additions, but it provides the focus for continuing activity up to the mid-sixth century, when an Anglo-Saxon woman and her grave goods were buried in a shallow scoop cut into tufa and sandstone rubble collapsed from the roof and vault of the bath house. The house's stratigraphic sequence reveals continued intensive activities, but they run across the periods when dating from coins and pottery becomes problematic. These dating issues will be considered in more detail below. The first change to the design of the original house was the construction of a large new bath-suite in Phase 8B, the bathsuite on display at the site today (Fig 2). There had probably already been a number of hypocausted rooms in the 8A building, but these were now demolished. The new baths comprised three consecutive rooms, a warm room, a hot room, then another hot room with two plunge baths. A small furnace on the western side of the building served the first two rooms, with a larger praefurnium on the northern side for the hottest room and its plunge baths. The construction of this suite is dated by a securely stratified coin of Magnentius, minted between 350 and 360, and found in the backfill of the construction trench for the western praefurnium.

Whatever the reason that the ashy build-ups were not cleared out, the area of the main praefurnium continued in active use. Three successive small ovens were constructed with clay and lumps of plaster over the boiler platform, and the threshold entrance to the room was raised. After that, the roof tiles were stripped off the furnace room and its walls robbed down to ground level. The western praefurnium was likewise demolished in the same manner, probably at the same time. This was also probably the time when the internal structures of the hottest room and the plunge baths were smashed out, apparently to remove the metal piping and fittings.

Either at the same time as the bath-suite was built, or slightly later, Phase 8C comprised alterations made to the residential ranges of the house, with a number of the larger rooms being sub-divided by the insertion of new walls. Later again, in Phase 8D, the bath house was enlarged (Figs 3 and 4). Two cold rooms were added on its eastern side, entered from a new flagged exercise hall, from which a triplearched entrance (Fig 4) opened into a changing room and thence into the original suite of heated rooms. The effect was to create more lavish and complete bathing facilities. The latest coin associated with these constructions is again one minted between 350 and 360, the same as the coin associated with the first building of the bath-suite. However, the extent of building alterations and evidence for use of the bath-suite must make it likely that considerable time had elapsed between the loss and deposition of these two coins that had been minted in the same decade.

However, throughout this the main fabric of the bath-suite remained standing and people still continued to use the site. We have evidence for disparate activities which we have grouped into one phase, Phase 9. Most of the Phase 8 house was still standing too. Around its courtyard a room in the rear range became a smithy. Two furnaces (Fig 6) were cut through the floor in the centre of the room, with a drainage gully between them. If that was one sign of a change of use from a fine residence, what happened in a neighbouring room on the north side of the courtyard was more dramatic. It became a slaughterhouse (Figs 7 and 8). The outer wall of the room was partly demolished and the rubble laid to form a raised, rectangular platform with a stone drain (Fig 7). The upper surface of the platform and the area around were overlain by a green, cess-like deposit. A number of articulated cattle bones was also recovered from this horizon (Fig 8). This seems to have been where cattle were slaughtered and butchered.

Meanwhile, in the house itself, repairs and redecoration continued. There were clear distinctions between residential rooms and kitchen and service areas. New concrete floors were laid and walls were re-plastered. Both taste and technology in decoration continued much as before.

Similar deposits also mark where the waste was dumped. Some 15 metres to the north a midden was created that infilled and spread around the site of the former western praefurnium building and extended northwards as far as the main praefurnium. Much of the midden consisted of dumps

Change and Decline It was only with later changes that a gradually-weakening grasp was revealed of the ability to maintain the house in the

2

Ferris and Jones: Transfonning an Elite: Reinterpreting Late Roman Binchester

of green cessy material which matched those in the slaughtering area. They contained huge quantities of animal bone, including pole-axed cattle skulls and cattle limb bones that we have been able to re-articulate. Material in the midden also included other types of dump that produced large quantities of Roman pottery, coins and other finds, such as waste material suggesting that both bone and jet working had taken place nearby.

Escomb. Both suggest that whatever the changing fortunes of Binchester through these centuries, it remained a place of local significance through the early Medieval period.

Dating There can be no doubting the complexity of the history of activity at Binchester between the mid-fourth century and the mid-sixth. The general pattern of what happened is clear enough. A large building was maintained for a period, but eventually its inhabitants became unable to employ technologies such as the manufacture of mortar necessary to repair it, even though they sought to maintain the cultural practices embodied in the bath-suite. That process implies major changes of social and economic organisation. The beginning of the process is quite firmly fixed as having taken place at some time after the minting in the middle fourth century of the coins recovered. That in itself has significance by denoting large investment in the second half of the fourth century in the frontier region. Coins are obviously the first resort in trying to establish a chronology for the period, but they become more difficult to interpret as their supply declines towards the end of the fourth century and into the fifth. At Binchester it is also clear that there are further complexities introduced by the pattern of formation processes.

The pottery and coins provide some further dating conundrums. The pottery group dated to the later fourth century, the only distinctively later vessel being an Argonne roller-stamped bowl dated after 370. Of the one hundred coins in these deposits, none was minted later than 350-360. The production dates for these materials are clearly inconsistent with the long sequence of structural activity which began with structural events fixed in date by coins from the same period of issue. The best explanation may be that they represent the re-dumping of other materials, perhaps derived from earlier waste dumps in order to cover the rotting butchery waste. These deposits make an informative case study on archaeological formation processes and the appropriate interpretation of site finds. Whatever the exact date, the uppermost surface of the midden was subsequently levelled, and both praefurnia were now completely buried. There may have been a gap between the levelling and the next recorded events in this area, as the churned-up upper horizon of the levelled midden suggests plant root action and worm activity. Above the midden deposits over the northern praefurnium, a surface of flagstones was laid down and later repaired: it probably formed the floor surface of an ephemeral wooden structure (Fig 9). Fragments of sawn antler sitting directly on this stone surface attest to its use as a workshop.

Therefore it is important to take special care in observing what the distribution of coin finds was, and remembering that the coins only give a terminus post quem. Richard Reece's study of the coins shows that coins of the 350s and 360s were the latest to be found in Roman or sub-Roman contexts at Binchester. The dozen later coins that have been recovered came from Phase 11 Medieval deposits or from the topsoil. The overall coin list suggests changes in the nature of coin supply and political organisation in the late fourth century in the area, and could indicate a lack of coin supply to Binchester in the late fourth century, perhaps implying weakened integration into the Roman army command structure. However, there are some curiosities when the stratigraphic position of coin finds is considered. For example, the coins from the 350s which date the bath-suite's construction give only a terminus post quem. Had the bathsuite been first built in the 380s or 410, the coins would have been the same. Also coins minted in the 350s dominated the deposits laid down after the end of use of the baths. One key factor is that the excavated coins from Binchester come from a single concentrated part of the site, rather than from the site as a whole. The pattern may therefore be distorted by the particular formation processes of this area, although the sample of coins from Hooppell' s more extended excavations shows similar trends.

There are signs of how decay began to affect the main fabric of the bath house. On its west side a collapse of masonry resulted in a spread of both sandstone rubble and tufa blocks from the vault. Some time later, a grave was cut into this rubble spread. Though partially disturbed by modem gardening activity, the skeleton of a young woman was mostly intact, as were her accompanying grave goods. These consisted of a pottery vessel, a necklace of amber and glass beads, two bone and antler objects, and an S-shaped copper alloy brooch with bird's-head terminals, of a type dated to the mid-sixth century. This marks the end of the sequence directly associated with the buildings constructed in the mid-fourth century. However, two subsequent phases deserve brief mention. One is the location within the central area of the fort enclosure of an extensive inhumation cemetery, dated by radiocarbon to the Middle Saxon period. The other is the substantial robbing of major architectural elements, including arch stones, from the ruins of the bath-suite. The robbing is not directly dated, but we may speculate that it was related to the quarrying of Binchester for stones to build the nearby Saxon church at

If the date for the beginning of the Phase 8 house is imprecise, it is almost impossible to give any reliable chronological scaling to the rest of the process. How can we know for example when in this period the bath-house

3

The Late Roman Transition in the North

furnaces were last fired? This is a familiar problem for those struggling to date activities suspected to have happened in the fifth century. Whether at Birdoswald, Bath, Wroxeter or Verulamium, the structural sequence may be secure in suggesting activity into the fifth century, but the recognisably dateable finds were left over from the fourth century (cf Wilmott 1997; Cunliffe and Davenport 1985; Barker et al 1997; Frere 1983). Until recently there has been little alternative in establishing a chronology but to make the best of intelligent guesswork. However, the development ofhighprecision radiocarbon assessments has opened new possibilities. We are very fortunate at Binchester that our excavations have produced through a rigorous postexcavation sampling assessment enough charcoal and bone samples from a secure stratified sequence to enable such a dating programme to be undertaken, in a project being coordinated by Alex Bayliss for English Heritage. We await the results, but this project offers at least some more reliable dating to our sequence.

This is significant for addressing another thorny problem of the period, the definition of military and civilian. The architecture provides no support for substantive changes in the nature of the occupation at Binchester that might reflect change between mililtary and civilian. However, the coin record could be relevant here. As already mentioned, there are effectively no coins from the late Roman and sub-Roman deposits that were issued after 360. By equating coin supply with military status, this could be used to argue for an end to military status at that time. However, a more careful reading of the evidence suggests more caution should be exercised in interpretation. There is a small number of later coins, from medieval and post-medieval layers in our excavations, and from those ofHooppell. They reached Binchester somehow. There are also some key points about the formation processes which created the assemblage. There are very few finds of any sort associated with most of the occupation sequence of the Binchester residence, because the rooms were kept clean. A striking sequence of at least four successive concrete floors inside one room of the Phase 8 house included no finds. Each floor was laid on top of the clean surface of its predecessor. The sequence represents an intense level of use and activity in the house, but leaves no finds. It suggests, in effect, a negative correlation between periods of use and quantities of finds. Abundant finds came from periods of dumping, not occupation. This applies as much to coin finds as to pottery and animal bones. The evidence on the end of coin supply is by no means clear-cut, and nor is the nature of the organisation of power at Binchester at this time. The archaeological sequence in fact suggests much more continuation than abrupt change for the people living at Binchester.

Implications Work at Binchester has generated new ideas and questions about many issues, with significant implications for the Roman north. Firstly, the scale of building and investment in a large residence inside a fort in the second half of the fourth century is notable in itself. The evidence available from the apparently comparable buildings at the other north-eastern sites - Piercebridge, Chester-le-Street, South Shields suggests they were built somewhat earlier. Binchester too had a large praetorium at the end of the third century, but it was replaced by the Phase 8 building we have been discussing. However, as Simon Ellis has pointed out, all appear to have been designed and equipped in the manner of late Roman private residences throughout the Empire, arranged around a courtyard, with concrete floors and painted walls (Ellis 1988). Such buildings seem to reflect a common elite culture in the Empire, matching in architectural terms the pattern described by Peter Brown for the Eastern Mediterranean on the basis of written sources (Brown 1992). These buildings seem to represent something different from the commandant's houses of earlier periods, and are especially noteworthy at a time when the traditional command arrangements of the Roman army had changed radically. There is clearly reason to believe that the north-east of England was experiencing some new style of organisation towards the end of the third century. At B inchester the phenomenon represented in the architecture was substantially restated in the mid-fourth.

We only have sparse evidence for the rest of the site while changes were happening in the house. However, the scale of the external settlement, and hints of its late vitality, suggest that Binchester was an important part of the local social and economic landscape. The combination of evidence from the north-eastern sites demands the rejection of any notions that the late Roman northern frontier was moribund. It is more persuasive to see these changes as part of social and economic changes more generally in the late Roman north, with forts acting as local centres, closely related to their regions. Unfortunately the regional settlement evidence is too sparse to provide any convincing context for Binchester. The apparent vitality ofBinchester in the late Roman period helps to explain its continuation into the fifth century. The best northern parallels to the Binchester sequence now come from Birdoswald. In both cases, careful excavation of wellpreserved stratification has shown the continuing use of fort sites into the sub-Roman period. The success of the excavations comes from two factors: high quality survival of deposits and the recognition and interpretation of what was found. It is easier to understand Binchester if it is regarded as a long-term settlement rather than a Roman fort. The pattern appears to be one of a gradually-declining level of activity into the fifth century, but with some importance retained. For much of its life, the main outside influence on Binchester had

If the scale of the house's original construction suggests that it was built for people who saw themselves as part of a wider late Roman elite, its later development raises questions about who lived in it afterwards. The structural sequence shows an evolving use of the house, which maintained its Roman traditions for a considerable period. The various changes all kept intact the style of a late Roman residence, suggesting that the character of its occupants changed little too.

4

Ferris and Jones: Transfonning an Elite: Reinterpreting Late Roman Binchester

been the Roman Empire. This gradually shifted as local factors came to dominate. The scale of the Binchester Phase 8 house suggests an occupant of high status. Its development and maintenance implies a continuation of such status beyond the time when it can have been legitimated by the direct authority of the Empire. The best explanation seems to be that Binchester' s importance came to depend increasingly on locally-based power structures. In this way it offers a parallel in the north to the kind of transformation of a local elite apparent at Wroxeter (Barker et al 1997). Like Birdoswald, Binchester now forms a northern example of an evolving occupation and material culture across the sub-Roman period. Binchester and Birdoswald match Wroxeter in showing the retention of importance at Roman centres within what became British kingdoms.

We hope that setting a frontier fort in a longer diachronic context will contribute to understanding processes of change in the late Empire as a whole. The nature of the Binchester house suggests integration with wider influences in the Empire when it was built in the middle of the fourth century. The picture of its gradual change into the sub-Roman period denies catastrophic change at the political end of the Roman Empire, implying that a strongly-rooted, locally "Roman" culture had been established that sought to carry on the existing tradition. The fine rooms of the late Roman house at Binchester were not empty immediately after 410, nor for many more years after that. They continued to resonate with the sound of people living much as they had before. Recognising this leads to the reconfiguration of our understanding of the rhythm and pattern of change in power and society in the late-Roman to sub-Roman north.

5

The Late Roman Transition in the North

t

t 3km

BINCHESTER FORT AND VICUS

t

AREA OF FIELOWALKING

(

Fig. 1

Binchester, location plan (M Breedon)

6

Ferris and Jones: Transforming an Elite : Reinterpreting Late Roman Binchester

Fig. 2

The praetorium bath suite of Phase 8B. The underfloor of the first heated room (I Ferris)

Phase 8D Plan i:,oe 01N

--.-•= ~«)=,,.~Ii .~L,'r ~

~~~ -; r=w