Piddington Roman Site

In this essay, I am going to look at the Romano-British site of Piddington Roman Villa. I will look at its typically distinctive Roman features, and its British features. I will draw a conclusion based on finds to see which features I think are most distinctive on this particular site. I will also comment on how local populations might have adapted to cultural changes.

The site is known to have been in use for an extremely long period of time. There is archaeological evidence of remnants of activity from as early as 8,000 BC. Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples left behind evidence of flint tools and arrowheads, while remains of round houses can be found from Iron Age peoples. It seems that from the Roman invasion of 43 AD onwards, the site that had only known simple communities began to have a heavy military presence. (UNAS – http://www.unas.org.uk/magazine/magview.php?ID=1&date=1512).

A Roman villa such as that of Piddington is in itself unique to Roman culture. This kind of building is never seen anywhere in pre-Roman Britain. Typical features of a Roman villa that are present is a courtyard, which contained a stone-lined well, the largest of its kind from this period in Britain. Evidence of Roman coinage from the site suggests that it is likely that the courtyard would have been used as a meeting place to conduct trade. (Selkirk, P.60).

The villa also has two bath houses, which are separated from each other. This might suggest that they were used according to social status. The larger one, located to the north at the edge of the building, and away from the main range of the structure, may have been used by workers at the villa, while a smaller bath, located within the main range of the villa's buildings, was probably us...

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... their unique tools and cosmetic artefacts.

Bibliography;

P.T. Craddock, A Burnett and K Preston, Hellenistic Copper-Based Coinage and the Origins of Brass. Published by Oxford University Press in 2002.

R.M. Friendship Taylor, Iron Age and Roman Piddington: An Interim Report on the Excavation of a Late Iron Age Settlement and Romano-British Villa in Northamptonshire. Published by the Upper Nene Archaeological Society in 1989.

George Clark, An Illustrated History of Great Britain, Second Edition. Published by Oxford University Press in 1982

Tim Taylor, The Time Team Guide To The History of Great Britain. Published by Transworld Publishers in 2006.

UNAS Piddington Dig Diary - http://www.unas.org.uk – Information on excavations from 2005 – 2010.

Current Archaeology, 30th August 2007 Edition. Edited by Andrew Selkirk. Published by Current Publishing.