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Ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant: the Romans in Scotland, a Palaeoenvironmental Contribution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

Graeme Whittington  and
Kevin J. Edwards
Graeme Whittington
Affiliation:
School of Geography and Geology, The University of St Andrews
Kevin J. Edwards
Affiliation:
School of Geography, The University of Birmingham
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Extract

Interst in the Roman incursions into Scotland has a long history and, despite the numerous works that have appeared on the subject, there is still no diminution in the appearance of new writings. Of considerable interest is the recent appearance of a paper by Hanson and Breeze which undertakes a critique of existing studies of Roman Scotland and the nature of the data on which they depend, while also suggesting lines along which future enquiry might proceed. Several statements made by them are pertinent to the findings to be reported here. The first of these is that, ‘the relationship between the occupying Roman forces and the indigenous population is relatively poorly understood’. A second is that, ‘the pax Romana has frequently been cited as the occasion for changes in settlement patterns in north Britain’. The third, relating to the impact of the Roman arrival on agriculture and the environment, is that ‘…the pattern which is beginning to emerge suggests that the effect of the Roman army's presence was minimal’.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 24 , November 1993 , pp. 13 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © Graeme Whittington and Kevin J. Edwards 1993. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 e.g. G.S. Maxwell, The Romans in Scotland (1989).

2 W.S. Hanson and D.J. Breeze, ‘The future of Roman Scotland’, in W.S. Hanson and E.A. Slater (eds), Scottish Archaeology: New Perceptions (1991).

3 Hanson and Breeze, op. cit. (note 2), 65.

4 ibid., 66.

5 ibid., 66.

6 ibid., 72.

7 G. Whittington and K.J. Edwards, ‘Palynology as a predictive tool in archaeology' (forthcoming).

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14 The common name equivalents of those pollen taxa mentioned in the text and on the pollen diagrams are given in the appendix.

15 The Coryloid pollen curve may include both hazel and bog myrtle (Myrica gale). Their pollen is similar and their separate identification is unreliable. See Edwards, K.J., ‘The separation of Corylus and Myrica pollen in modern and fossil samples’, Pollen et Spores xxiii (1981), 205–18.Google Scholar

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40 van der Veen, op. cit. (note 9).

41 Hanson and Breeze, op. cit. (note 2), 71.

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