The North West

Just in case anyone is interested, I will be doing my MLitt dissertation on Roman brooches from the North of England, focussing on stray finds and using PAS data. Here is my research proposal.

Romano-British Brooches: a study of creolization in the northern frontier through material culture

A wealth of artefactual data from the Roman period in Britain has been generated over the past decade due to continued excavations and recent publications, as well as the inception of the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS)[1].  Despite this wealth of data, there is comparatively little synthesis and interpretation. This is particularly the case for the data produced by the PAS which has previously been thought of as not a completely valid data set, as unstratified finds. This is starting to change with various works by leading Roman finds specialists and forthcoming PAS Conference Proceedings, PhDs and other postgraduate study using PAS data. This research will attempt to pull together the data on stray finds of Roman brooches from the North, studying Roman finds from a theoretically informed perspective.

The primary focus of data gathering will be Roman brooches recorded with the PAS, with a study area loosely centred on Northern England[2].  Brooches from excavations offer a control sample tied to stratigraphically dated deposits, but excavation is naturally biased in its nature, in the antiquarian past mostly high status sites were excavated. Some areas are chosen methodically (e.g. the forts on Hadrians wall chosen for their dating evidence) but more recently excavation has been developer led which does not take into account any archaeological research objectives. It is hoped within this project to geographically fill some gaps in our knowledge by looking at the PAS data, together with and compared to, the excavated data. There are c. 1300 Roman brooches recorded on the PAS database (1) from the Northern region, which will greatly supplement the known archaeologically recovered examples (e.g the 845 brooches catalogued by Snape 1993).

A catalogue of the brooches will be created which can be used alongside the syntheses produced of excavated material.  Due to the large number of brooches to be looked at in this study it will be impossible to examine all brooches in detail. After data has been gathered, detailed case studies will be established, looking either at specific geographical areas or certain types of brooches. Preliminary research suggests the Wirral brooch as an ideal type for a case study. The type was first noted and published in 1999 by Philpott (pp274-285), who thought that they originated on the Wirral due to their large concentration around the South of the Wirral (at that time almost 50% of known examples (12) were from just 1 site). This brooch also seems to be a British variant on the Roman style Trumpet brooch, which makes it an interesting case study of the acceptance of Roman fashions with British influence. Apart from Philpotts work little study has gone into these brooches, it may be possible to distinguish different classes within this type once they have been catalogued more accurately. It is also hoped to confirm the origin of the style of the brooch, Philpott talks about the brooch drawing on a number of decorative and stylistic features of other brooches’ and also whether the Wirral brooch influenced any other types.

Since Philpotts 1999 publication, the number of Wirral brooches known has more than doubled (from England, Wales and Scotland), mostly through the work of the PAS and it is anticipated that this number will continue to rise. As a result of Philpott’s consideration of the origin and possible manufacturing area of this brooch type, alloy composition analysis[3] will be carried out on all Wirral brooches available for testing (as well as some waste products from one of the most productive sites). By doing this it is hoped that it can be seen if they were all made from the same alloy mix. If they are all the same composition it will point to one source for the brooches and will be an interesting view into metal working during the Roman period. Dungworth carried out analysis of Iron Age and Roman copper-alloys from northern Britain and this work will be useful to look at for known practices (2006). Exploring the connections between the brooches metallurgy will add another dimension to exploring social connections. A new distribution map will be constructed and alongside the alloy analysis will hopefully be able to assess Philpott’s hypothesis as well as extend our knowledge of this regional style.

The distribution patterns of some brooch types are already known to suggest differences between the North and South, for example the Dragonesque brooch. It is hoped that this study may show if there are any differences in the distribution of brooches within the North and so demonstrate intraregional differences. The concentration of Wirral brooches with only a few outliers is again a good example of this. Further research will address variations within types and update current knowledge of the distribution and use of brooches. By combining the newly collected data with that previously known it is hoped a fuller understanding of the brooches in the North will be gained.

The study will be placed in the theoretical context of creolization studies, which have been argued to offer a more sophisticated and balanced model than the formerly preferred models of Romanization (Webster 2005). This perspective offers a more nuanced view of ‘Roman’ and ‘native’ interaction, recognizing the ‘natives’ as active participants in cultural negotiation. Such a perspective also more greatly allows for variation over time that is not found in Romanization models. By adopting a creolization model, the study becomes more than just a review of artefact typologies and distributions and will attempt to look at social dynamics through material culture.

Bibliography

Dungworth, D. 2006. Iron Age and Roman Copper Alloys from Northern Britain. http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue2/dungworth­_index.html

Philpott, P. 1999. A Romano-British Brooch Type from North-Western and Northern England. Britannia 30 (Notes) pp274-285.

Snape, M. 1993. Roman Brooches from North Britain. A classification and a catalogue of brooches from sites on the Stanegate. BAR 235. Webster, J. ‘Historical Archaeology and the Middle Passage’. Journal of Maritime Research, 2005. Available at: http://www.jmr.nmm.ac.uk.

1. www.findsdatabase.org.uk

[2] This includes the counties of Yorkshire, Northumberland, Durham, Cumbria, Cheshire, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and also some of North Wales and Southern Scotland.

[3] Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy will be carried out.

This is just to update people as to the FLO post for these 3 counties. From September I will be going part time in order to start an MLitt at Newcastle University. There will hopefully be someone else coming in part time so that the post is still going to be filled full time.

To keep things organised the area will be split geographically- at least for club and museum visits. I will continue to visit Bolton and Manchester Museums and the 5 clubs around Greater Manchester- Bolton, North West, Tameside, Wilmslow and Stockport. The other person will visit the Salt Museum, Northwich and the Grosvenor Museum. They will visit the following clubs- Mold, South Lancs and Cheshire, West Kirby and Crewe and Nantwich.

The museums will still be visited once a month and the clubs every 3 months as I have been doing so there should be no real disruption to routines, some people will just have a new person to meet. We will both still be based at Liverpool as I am now and so people can come into that office.