Prehistoric and rural settlement in Northumberland has traditionally relied upon the dedicated fieldwork of George Jobey from the 1960s and 1970s, which identified the rectilinear enclosure as the primary type of settlement of the Iron Age and Roman north east. Very little archaeological attention was given to these rural settlements in the 1980s and 1990s, but developer-funded archaeology has prompted new examination of a number of the rural sites on the Northumberland coastal plain over the past decade, providing fresh data for students of the period.
Hodgson et al are to be congratulated for this report, which presents the results of the excavations of four settlement sites: Blagdon Park, East Brunton and West Brunton, and Shotton. Each site is presented within its own chapter (Chapters 2, 3 and 4, respectively), providing a stand-alone excavation report of the structural archaeology, its phasing and dating, and discussion of the site. Pit alignments identified and excavated at Blagdon and Shotton, as well as two other sites not otherwise reported on this volume (Shotton Anglo-Saxon site and Fox Covert, Horton Grange), are given separate treatment (Chapter 5), as are the small finds (Chapter 7) and the biological remains (Chapter 8). Significantly, Chapter 6 is devoted solely to the extensive campaign of radiocarbon dating and Bayesian modelling. All the information is combined for an authoritative interpretation and summary in Chapter 9.
There is much to be praised in the volume: it is amply illustrated with site plans and feature sections, many of the former in colour, and each site report ends with useful tables summarising the site phasing, structural sequences and contexts with associated dimensions and small finds; weaknesses or limitations in some data that impact on interpretation have been addressed directly; and the volume as a whole is easily interrogated, cross-referenced and supported by an index.
Perhaps the most useful aspect of the work, however, is the series of sixty-two radiocarbon age determinations that are not only published, but incorporated into a number of Bayesian models. These models are presented for each site that produced 14C samples; also presented is a model that combines the data from each site for a more synthetic picture of settlement on the coastal plain. Furthermore, the Bayesian modelling and interpretation is given separate treatment from the excavator’s interpretation of the 14C dates. This enhances understanding considerably, moving beyond a discussion of dating to include an appreciation of the location, method and significance of each dated sample.
The general conclusions (Chapter 9) contextualise current understanding of the settlement archaeology of the region, before exploring the implications of the more recent excavation campaigns, further incorporating the results of excavations at Pegswood (Proctor Reference Proctor2009). Evidence from pit alignments reinforces the notion of Late Bronze Age–Early Iron Age division and organisation of an increasingly cleared landscape during which we find unenclosed settlement. Enclosed settlements appear by the later Iron Age, c 200bc, conforming to a trend observed from the Midlands of England to south-east Scotland. However, there is an occurrence of earlier enclosure at West Brunton, c 400–200 calbc. This exception noted, the general agreement in the appearance of enclosure opens up the discussion of settlement size, density and patterns, as well as the arrangement and use of space within individual settlements and roundhouse architecture. Discussion of these latter aspects of settlement is then related to the Roman conquest and establishment of the Imperial frontier. There is much food for thought in the discussion, particularly as Hodgson et al link the abandonment of settlement on the coastal plain, which can be dated to around ad120–75, to the construction of Hadrian’s Wall. Substantiated by the Bayesian modelling and the general dearth of Roman artefacts post-dating the second century ad, this is an attractive suggestion, and leads to two fundamental questions. What happened to the population of Northumberland in the later second century? Can Hadrian’s Wall be seen as a sharp line of economic/cultural division with a cleared landscape to its north? Clearly, further excavation and more radiocarbon dates are required.
