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The Roman site of Stonea, Cambridgeshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

T. W. Potter  and
R. P. J. Jackson
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Extract

The East Anglian Fenland comprises some 1,300 sq. miles (205 ha) of flat and monotonous terrain which is today cultivated on an intensive scale. Beneath this rich farmland lies a complex sequence of post-glacial deposits, reflecting periods of marine and fresh-water flooding, interspersed with phases of relative dryness (Godwin, 1978). During the Iron Age, the sea covered the northern Fenland with a thick blanket of silt, accounting for the dearth of finds of this time; but by c. AD 50 the sea was receding and the land had begun to dry out. Settlement soon followed. It is likely that a fort of the post-Boudiccan period was briefly in garrison at Grandford, north-west of March, but the principal remains are those of salt-making sites and of small farms. During the reign of Hadrian, however, both the scale and the nature of settlement changed dramatically. AS the authoritative survey of the region makes clear (Phillips, 1970), the 120s and 130s witnessed a sharp increase in the number of sites, including the foundation of many villages. At the same time a network of canals, designed to disperse water at times of flood, was constructed (Simmons, 1979), as well as a series of straight-line roads and drove-ways. Although there was no formal division of the land by centuriation, as had been customary in areas reclaimed earlier for the settlement of veteran—the Po Valley and Lake Velinus near Rieti provide obvious Italian examples—the hand of government is nevertheless explicit in the size of the undertaking. While we lack direct evidence, there can be little real doubt that the Fenland was taken over as Imperial land and placed in the charge of a procurator (Salway, 1970).

Type
Articles
Information
Antiquity , Volume 56 , Issue 217 , July 1982 , pp. 111 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1982

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