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Imperial Rule

Romano-Britain
70s – 400 AD
66-53 generations ago

Finding Clues

Navio fort, the square in the centre of the photograph, was a symbolic and administrative centre of Rome's power

As part of Rome’s incorporation of Britannia into the Roman Empire in the years after the invasion of 43AD, the Peak District was absorbed during the 70s AD.

Forts were built along good north-south communication routes to the east and west of the region in the 50s and 60s at Derby, Chesterfield, Rotherham, Pentrich and Trent Vale, Staffordshire.

In the 70s forts were built in the Peaks at Brough-on-Noe (Navio) and Melandra, Glossop (Ardotalia).

The region would have been within one or more Roman administrative areas (civitates) which were administered by councils (curia) comprising landowning aristocracy (decuriones) which met at a town used as the governmental capital.

Pottery became very common as a market economy developed under Roman rule

It is unclear what settlement was like in the region at the time the Roman military arrived. It used to be thought that the region was relatively unoccupied, as suggested by the scarcity of archaeological evidence, but was then re-settled under Roman influence in the 2nd century AD, the earliest date for pottery found at numerous settlements.

This scenario could be argued for much of northern England, where there is a similar lack of evidence for Roman occupation. More recent work has identified environmental evidence and some finds of later prehistoric pottery under Romano-British farmsteads. It is most likely that the appearance of pottery in the 2nd century indicates the mixing of the native population into the Roman market economy.

Excavations on a Roman aisled-building at Roystone Grange show it was supported by a double-row of timber posts

The Romano-British landscape was dominated by rural settlement comprising individual farmsteads and small hamlets. While Roman forts and roads were superimposed onto the native landscape they formed only a tiny element. Both round and rectangular buildings were inhabited and were often associated with yards, rectilinear fields and terraces. Some boundaries are orthostatic walls, a construction type common in this period.

Many Romano-British settlements survive in Dales like this one

Most settlements that survive today are in areas which were commons during subsequent periods so were not subject to intensive cultivation. It is likely that the locations of many more Romano-British farmsteads continued to be occupied into the Medieval period and have been hidden from discovery. Only one villa has been discovered in the region, now situated under Carsington Reservoir.

Around each fort a larger settlement, known as a vicus, grew-up to supply the army and individual soldiers with many of their needs. Buxton, known as Aquae Arnemetiae, was developed as a bathing spa similar to those at Bath. Evidence has been found for lead-lined bathing rooms with plastered walls using water from the mineral springs. Votive offerings were made at the springs from at least the 1st century AD.

An inscribed Roman lead pig was found near Brough in 1940

Lead was an important industry during this period. Lead ingots, known as pigs, dating to the 1st and 2nd centuries AD and stamped with the name of Lutudarum or its abbreviations have been found in and around the Peak District. Demand for lead increased during the Roman period as a source of silver and for such things as plumbing and pewter. Lutudarum appears to be the name of a company rather than a place.

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