- The First Towns -
in the fourth and fifth centuries AD. The role of these sites in the total settlement
pattern, and for trade and production, is still unclear.
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 Be), 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 Cleavel 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 Be, early first century AD.
The nature of British 'oppida' which appeared in eastern England at the end of the
first century Be 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 Colchester (Camulodunum) 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 (Foster
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