Landscape and social change within the hinterland of Isurium Brigantum, the northernmost Civitas in Roman Britain

This thesis examines landscape and social changes within the hinterland of Isurium Brigantum (Aldborough). The research utilised a range of remote sensing and field-based techniques within the framework of a micro-archaeological approach. An extensive fluxgate gradiometer geophysical survey over 180 acres (73 ha) at Hundayfield Farm, located three kilometres south of Isurium Brigantum, and adjacent to the major Roman road Dere Street, identified a rich variety of pre-Roman and Roman landscape features that provided targets for a programme of excavation. A chronology of activity is provided by an extensive assemblage of pottery and other artefacts that document social changes over the period before and during the Roman Empire. An established Iron Age landscape rapidly adapted to the new dynamics of the Roman administration following the establishment of Isurium Brigantum around 70 AD, as evidenced by changes in the organisation of field boundaries and the on-site adoption of Roman cultural and social practices. The presence of a unique lead-lined coffin within a stone cist, containing a male likely raised at the centre of the Empire, who migrated to the study site, further testifies to a strong link between this rural landscape and the economic and social activities of the Civitas. A major landscape reorganisation is indicated by the rapid and broadly synchronous in-filling of boundary features in the middle of the 2nd century AD. This suggests further modification of boundaries associated with a more classical pattern of Roman landscape use, including their orientation to Dere Street. This research fills an important gap in our understanding of urban and rural relations in Roman Britain, with a particular focus on the role of the Civitas, which has previously been understudied.