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Population Change in Roman London

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

Peter Marsden  and
Barbara West
Peter Marsden
Affiliation:
Museum of London, EC2Y 5HN
Barbara West
Affiliation:
Museum of London, EC2Y 5HN
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Extract

There has been a considerable amount of discussion of the apparent lack in London of later Roman evidence of all kinds compared with earlier Roman evidence, and there is general agreement that this probably represents a substantial decline in the urban population. If this interpretation is true, it has fundamental implications for the understanding of the economic and political status of the Roman city and of all structures, public, domestic, commercial, and industrial; and it would not be an exaggeration to say that this is one of the most important research topics associated with the archaeology of Londinium.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 23 , November 1992 , pp. 133 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © Peter Marsden and Barbara West 1992. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Waddington, Q., ‘Recent light on London's past: a few remarks on the results of excavations in the City in the years 1924 to 1929’, Journ. British Arch. Ass. (new ser.) xxxvi (1930), 68–9Google Scholar; Sheldon, H., ‘A decline in the London settlement A.D. 150–250?’, The London Archaeologist 2 no. 11 (1975), 278–84Google Scholar; but see Morris, J., ‘London's decline A.D. 150–250’, The London Archaeologist 2 no. 13 (1975), 343–5Google Scholar; P. Marsden, Roman London (1980), 148, 213; R. Merrifield, London City of the Romans (1983), 140–8; Yule, B., ‘The ‘dark earth’ and late Roman London’, Antiquity Lxiv (1990), 620–8; D. Perring, Roman London (1991), 76–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Yule, op. cit. (note 1), 626–7.

3 Waddington, op. cit. (note 1), 68–9.

4 Sheldon, op. cit. (note 1), 278–84.

5 Marsden, op. cit. (note 1), 213.

6 Yule, op. cit. (note 1), 627.

7 Guildhall Museum Excavation Notebooks, Museum of London.

8 Marsden, op. cit. (note 1), 213.

9 It seems unnecessary to give the detailed site addresses here, since these can be found for the site codes in the archives at the Museum of London.

10 Guildhall Museum Excavation Notebooks, Museum of London.

11 ibid.

12 Some wells from the City are described in T. Wilmott, ‘Excavations at Queen Street, City of London, 1953 and 1960, and Roman timber-lined wells in London’, Trans. London and Middx. Arch. Soc. xxxiii (1982), 1–78.Google Scholar

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17 Although different quantification methods, such as weight and fragment numbers, are used by different researchers, the general patterns can still be usefully compared.

18 M. Maltby, The Animal Bones from Exeter, Exeter Arch. Rep. 2 (1979).

19 S. Stallibrass, ‘Animal bones from excavations at Annetwell Street, Carlisle, 1982–4’, Ancient Monuments Laboratory Report (1990); D.J. Rackham, ‘The vertebrate remains and the mollusc shells’, in M.R. McCarthy, A Roman, Anglian and Medieval Site at Blackfriars Street, Cumberland & Westmorland Antiq. & Arch. Soc. Res. Ser. 4 (1990), 320–9; D.J. Rackham, S.M. Stallibrass and E.P. Allison, ‘The animal and bird bone’, in M. McCarthy, The Roman Waterlogged Remains at Castle Street, Carlisle: Excavations 1981–2, Cumberland & Westmorland Antiq. & Arch. Soc. Res. Ser. 5 (1991), 73–88.

20 K. Dobney, pers. comm.

21 R.M. Luff, A Zooarchaeological Study of the Roman North-Western Provinces, BAR Int. Ser. 137 (1982).

22 J. Cartledge, ‘Chester Roman sites’, Grosvenor Museum unpubl. archive rep. (1990); B. West, ‘The animal bones from Northgate Brewery, Chester’, Grosvenor Museum unpubl. archive report (1979).

23 Luff, op. cit. (note 21).

24 G. Jones, ‘The animal bones from Cowbridge’, Glamorgan-Gwent Arch. Trust unpubl. archive report; G. Jones, ‘Caerleon 1982: the animal bones’, in H.N. Mason, ‘Excavations on the defences at the south corner of the legionary fortress at Caerleon’, Arch. Camb. (forthcoming); G. Jones, ‘The animal bones’, in K. Blockley, Prestatyn 1984–5: An Iron Age Farmstead and Romano-British Industrial Settlement in North Wales, BAR British Ser. 210 (1989), 211–21.

25 T.P. O'Connor, Bones from the General Accident Site, Tanner Row, Archaeology of York 15/2 (1988).

26 Cartledge, op. cit. (note 22).

27 Sheldon, op. cit. (note 16).