BRITAIN

Much of Britain lies outside the area for which urbanism might be claimed (Cunliffe

1991). Though defended sites with concentrations of population are not uncommon, by continental standards they are small, and excavation generally reveals only a small range of building types as well as limited evidence for trade and industry. This points to a relatively simple economic and social structure, and more recent analogies with over-nucleated societies suggest an inefficient agricultural production which would have inhibited growth and development.

Only along the southern and eastern coasts and their hinterlands can any sites be found which warrant the epithet ‘urban’, even though most of these sites seem very different from contemporary continental or later, Roman, urban settlements. Contemporary with continental sites, only one site can seriously be put forward, Hengistbury Head (Cunliffe 1987). Even so, in its major period as a port at the end of the local Middle Iron Age (late second - early first century BC), its fairly standard round-houses hardly distinguish it from other contemporary settlements. Apparently contemporary with these buildings (it is not clear from the report), an extensive range of foreign goods was being imported - ceramics and coins from northern Brittany and Normandy, Italian wine and, reportedly, figs. Glass and bronze were worked, and probably iron. However, as has been suggested for equally industrialized ‘villages’ at Meare in Somerset, occupation may have been seasonal; indeed this can be suggested for other evidence for industrial production at this period, like the coastal salt production, or the chariot construction at Gussage All Saints. The later phases at Hengistbury, with palisaded enclosures (also known at Gleavel Point in Poole Harbour, Woodward 1987), are more reminiscent of continental oppida, but trade and industry are less in evidence at that period in the late first century BC, early first century AD.

The nature of British ‘oppida’ which appeared in eastern England at the end of the first century BC has been the subject of much debate. They are very different from the similarly labelled continental sites, first in their valley or lowland situation and their discontinuous dykes, which seem non-defensive and more for prestige; and second in their vast scale, usually enclosing several square kilometres, but with only localized nuclei of population within them. Their associations with dynastic leaders has led to suggestions that they may have been royal estates. Both St Albans (Verulamium) and Golchester (Gamulodunum) have produced burials which deserve the epithet ‘royal’, with a range of imported goods that transcends the normal range of imported bronze and silver vessels and wine amphorae found in other rich burials. The Lexden tumulus, for instance, produced bronze statuettes and silver ears of corn which were apparently originally sewn on to a cloak or some such garment (Eoster 1986). The names of these major settlements also appear alongside the names of the rulers on their inscribed coins.

The earliest of these sites which can claim a large agglomeration of settlement is

Braughing, perhaps the royal residence of Tasciovanus (Partridge 1981). Though it has an exceptionally rich range of imported continental pottery and amphorae for wine and garum (fish paste) from Italy and Spain, it lacks the prestigious dykes found elsewhere. As on later sites, one of the nodal points is a subrectangular enclosure which may mark the royal residence. In the case of Gosbecks at Colchester there is a temple site immediately adjacent. The major centres of population were elsewhere within the enclosed area, but most of these sites are badly eroded or excavated in only a limited way, so their true nature is unclear; the supposed industrial activity is more assumed than demonstrated.

In addition to these top-level ‘royal’ sites there are secondary centres, of which Baldock is the most extensively explored. It too has a dyke system, and rich burials, with buckets, chain mail, etc., but certainly not of the highest class. Similar centres seem to have existed along the Thames, as at Dorchester on Thames or Abingdon. In Wessex even smaller agglomerations are now being identified which seem to ape on a small scale the eastern oppida - sites like Gussage Hill in Dorset with its short lengths of dykes and ditched burial enclosure. But the larger sites are also found in the west (Bagendon in Gloucestershire) or in the north (Stanwick in North Yorkshire).

Many of these sites were subsequently to develop into Roman towns. Colchester was initially selected as the capital of the new province, though it was quickly eclipsed by London. St Albans rose rapidly to the status of municipium Braughing became a ‘small town’. Other towns such as Leicester or Canterbury have more shadowy iron age origins. To what extent this was a natural outcome of an already developing process, or rather the imposition of an entirely new system from outside, is still a matter of discussion.