Chapter 1 presented several concepts to explain the processes of change that occurred in rural communities in border areas of the Roman empire. As the level of archaeological data at the rural sites in the research area make it virtually impossible to identify individuals, it was decided to study rural habitation at the level of the entire community, which in the Roman period was referred to as the Cananefates. In this respect, regional differences were taken into account. The formation of this community and the changes that took place within this group during the first three centuries of our era formed the central theme of this research, as did the role of the Roman state in these processes. In the preceding chapters, a detailed description has been given of all the archaeological remains present in the research area and its wider history. The aim of this was to reconstruct the interaction between the Cananefates and the Roman-military and urban communities. Finally, this study focused on the question to what extent the case study of the Cananefates could be applied to other communities in the border areas of the Roman empire.

The community of the Cananefates

Evidence concerning the formation of the community of the Cananefates before the middle of the 1st century is known only from historical sources, which are difficult to interpret. Therefore, the reconstruction of the early history of the Cananefates remains hypothetical. The fact that the written sources report the existence of a population called Cananefates before any archaeological traces indicate a Cananefatian community, proves that the name of the group is Roman in origin. On the basis of the archaeological evidence, the research area was populated between 40 and 100, with the earliest Roman forts along the Rhine were constructed in 39/40 AD. The vast majority of the rural settlements were newly built and had no relation with the previous late Iron Age habitation. This suggests that the founders of the new settlements were immigrants from another place. Based on (slightly) different dates for the first phase of settlements, this process likely took place in several waves.