Following excavation and survey projects on the Iron Age and Romano-British landscapes in the Holme-on-Spalding Moor area and at Shiptonthorpe, this is the third landscape study undertaken by Peter Halkon and Martin Millett in East Yorkshire since the early 1980s (Halkon & Millett Reference Halkon and Millett1999; Millett Reference Millett2006). As with Shiptonthorpe, Hayton lies on the road between the Roman legionary fortress and later colonia at York and the Roman town at Brough-on-Humber at approximately the mid-point and a day's march from each. The first modern archaeology to be undertaken in the village followed the discovery of a Roman auxiliary fort (1.5ha in size) by aerial photography in 1974, which was then part excavated by Stephen Johnson in 1975. The evidence suggested to him a short-lived occupation associated with the early Flavian conquest of the north of England. The combined impact of deep ploughing, intensive activity by metal detectorists and development pressures led to a concentration of research on the 3 × 3km landscape block around Hayton from 1993–2011. A variety of methodologies were deployed to investigate the landscape: aerial photography, LiDAR, systematic surface collection (field-walking), geophysical survey (magnetometry), geochemical survey and the excavation of a discrete site at Burnby Lane, about 1km east of the Roman road, to investigate the discovery of a small bath-house following deep ploughing in 1993; the report on this excavation occupies about half of this two-volume study.
The complementarity of the survey methods deployed graphically illustrates the linearity of the roadside settlement and the shallow depth at which it lies. Particularly striking are the images of high phosphorus and calcium concentrations and of the surface collections of Roman pottery and ceramic building material, none of which extend farther than around 100m from the road frontage (figs 5.7 & 5.9). Along with the careful cataloguing of metal-detected material, it is hard to see what excavation would add to the picture derived from non-invasive survey, but this is where the Burnby Lane excavation provides important perspectives, including invaluable information on change over time, the nature of the buildings and various categories of environmental data (Chapters 7–19). But for a simple, small, row-type bath-house, which belongs to a widespread Roman tradition, the structures were of timber with round houses giving way to rectangular structures and occupation continuing from the late Iron Age until at least the late fourth century AD.
Except for the connections afforded by the road, a picture emerges of a settlement isolated from its hinterland. This is emphasised by a wider, contextual study of the coins found and reported through the Portable Antiquities Scheme from an area of approximately 30 × 20km, extending either side of the Roman road from the Humber northwards (Chapter 22). The fall-off in coin numbers within less than 5km from the road is striking. Via the road, however, the settlement was linked to a wider world, demonstrating traditions and practices that connected to central and southern England, and to nucleated settlements of varying levels of complexity. For example, we might pick out the tradition of infant burial in and around buildings discussed in Chapter 16 or the deposition of articulated animal remains, including burnt material, well documented here in Chapter 17. These examples have strong resonance with practices in southern towns such as Silchester (cf. Eckardt Reference Eckardt, Fulford, Clarke and Eckardt2006) and Winchester, the latter providing Mark Maltby (Reference Maltby2010: 297–304) with the opportunity for a wide-ranging review of the evidence for articulated animal remains, or associated bone groups, in urban contexts across Roman Britain. Even the discovery of the occasional special find, such as the exquisitely decorated piece of furniture, probably a cupboard (pp. 304–306, fig. 11.4), and apparently at odds with the very modest social standing of the Burnby Lane settlement, has parallels in the south; for example, a humble third-century AD cottage in Insula IX at Silchester, associated with dog skinning, has yielded a fine ivory-handled folding knife and rare ‘Mercury’ bottle (Allen Reference Allen, Fulford and Clarke2011: 142; Crummy Reference Crummy, Fulford and Clarke2011: 110–13).
The fortunes of the settlement at Hayton are closely linked with the road and the changing patterns and intensity of its use. Insight into these fortunes is provided by the stratified material evidence, particularly the ceramics from Burnby Lane, but also by the material collected through systematic field-walking and by metal detecting. The combination of the latter two methods also gives a fresh perspective on the length of occupation of the fort at Hayton, extending activity to the end of the first century AD. Nonetheless, the densities of Romano-British pottery sherds recovered from the roadside settlement, at about 12 sherds per hectare, are low compared with the remote chalkland landscapes of Salisbury Plain, where even the off-site densities are commonly in the range of 6–16 sherds per hectare (Fulford et al. Reference Fulford, Powell, Entwistle and Raymond2006: 14–18). Is this difference a reflection of diverse cultural practices with respect to pottery, or a comment on the intensity with which the York to Brough road was used?
The quantitative approach adopted, including the measurement of the volumes of deposits, has come to be expected of Martin Millett and his colleagues; it is not only welcome but vital for any kind of comparative study. The planned route of the HS2 (high speed 2) railway from London to the north of England will affect another Roman roadside settlement, at Fleet Marston on Akeman Street in Buckinghamshire. Let us hope that the results of that investigation are undertaken and published in such a way that they can be compared with those from Hayton.
