Many economic forces influenced the ability to build stone structures. Economic diversity, integration into the Roman economic system, and the location o f a settlement in relation to suitable building stone influenced whether individuals invested in stone masonry and the scale o f investment required. These factors affected not only the economic growth and ability of a town to invest in more expensive architecture; they also affected the point o f feasibility where stone architecture would be more common.
Returning to the model from Chapter 1, the economics involved in the choice o f architecture were probably dependant upon not only the economic growth o f a site but also the point at which it intersected the threshold o f feasibility. However, the threshold o f feasibility was not a necessarily a fixed point. It was affected by two significant factors. As seen at Alcester and Margidunum, the lack o f local building stone would raise the threshold of feasibility by increasing the cost o f importing the basic building materials. In addition, a site needed to have access to artisans familiar with that construction technique. A lack o f skilled masons would also raise the threshold o f feasibility. Thus, inhabitants o f a town might
potentially need a higher level o f economic growth to cross that threshold and reach the point of feasibility where stone architecture would be increasingly common. Towns with a higher threshold o f feasibility would reach that point later than towns with a lower threshold of feasibility. Therefore, stone buildings at those sites would arise later (see Fig. 7.1).
I19 O pyrtiuiity fer Stone Architecture
TkreslwlA ằ f Feasibility w ith o v tk ca lsln e
§
P.iM s ằ f FnsM ltijr Threshold o f Feasibility
o with local sh a t
o
Foundation of Towit Time
Fig. 7.1: Comparison of the threshold of feasibility of sites with locally available building stone with sites that had to import stone.
This model temporarily assumes that government forces are absent. If we take into account the possibility that some land was directly managed by the government or military, such as may have been the case immediately outside the fort at Catterick or Carlisle, the heavy hand o f government planning would prevent investment despite this model. However, the military may have aided in the local supply o f skilled masons. Along the frontier, active or retired military engineers and masons would provide a supply o f skilled artisans and may have even paid for construction o f some civilian buildings, significantly lowering the point o f
feasibility. Thus we cannot definitively say that the military either helped or hindered the choice o f architecture. This is an area where more research could be conducted.
The other economic factors influencing when a town could construct stone architecture was the economic growth o f the site. Economic growth is most simply defined as the process where a community increases wealth over time and is able to sustain that increase as measured in the production o f goods and services (Millett 2001, 19). Several factors influenced growth including diversity of outputs, integration into the Roman economic system, and strength of economic output. A diverse economy would allow sites to weather economic fluctuations. The integration into the Roman economic system had several ramifications. First, supplying the military forces along the frontier would provide significant economic input to a community, both near a garrison and to sites in the south providing the goods that were transported north.
Second, the integration into the new reality would allow a site to adjust to the changing economic needs o f the province as it matured. Those towns with a higher level o f economic growth would reach the threshold o f feasibility sooner than those with a lower level o f growth (see Fig. 7.2). As growth occurred, inflation and unemployment would reach a low level, indicating greater economic maturity.
Yet, it should be borne in mind that without hard statistical data it is impossible to completely quantify economic growth in an absolute sense that pleases economists. Artifacts may reveal diversity o f outputs, but in absolute measurable terms they are o f little help.
Therefore, we may have indications that one site showed greater growth than another, but to what degree is debatable. What we are left with is only a schematic understanding o f the economic forces driving the choice of architecture.
■r*
Pvixts ôfFeisftiU]r
O ff ortwdty 6 r Stone Architecture
Threshold o f fcasftiMtv
Slow Economic Growth
Foundation of Town Time
Fig. 7.2: A comparison of rapid economic growth and lower
economic growth in relation to the point at which it became feasible to construct stone buildings.
Iron Age settlements, tied to an older economic system, may have initially had a harder time adjusting to the new economic system imposed by Rome. If a site was by-passed by the Roman road network and was not on a navigable water route, undoubtedly it would have been limited in the amount of integration it could achieve. In addition, if the inhabitants resisted integration, it is likely they had a more conservative outlook which would result in a low
saliency o f the Roman identity (see below). However, as the new economic reality increasingly dominated the island, towns had to adjust through the operant forces or face limited
opportunities. Any resistance would thus delay economic maturity. Iron Age sites could and did adjust, such as at Dragonby and Baldock. Eventually both sites achieved a dominance of
stone buildings, even if the saliency o f the Roman identity may have been lower than at other sites.
One last factor important to remember in relation to the level o f integration was that the major cities began to lose their economic importance, possibly shifting to the “small towns” in the mid-third century (Drinkwater 1985, 85; Millett 1990, 132; Dark and Dark 1997, 70). As economic production shifted, some sites will have experienced an accelerated integration into the Roman system. Therefore, the rate o f economic maturity as visualized in the above graphs is only conceptual. Nonetheless, it becomes clear that temporal factors played as important a role as geographic factors in determining the choice in architecture.
There may have been some consequence o f choosing stone. Using the data from the case studies, a comparison o f the mean coin loss across these building traditions reveals some interesting results worth exploring (see Fig. 7.3). Until the mid-second century, those towns that had a transitory tradition in architecture had a coin loss pattern more similar to those sites with a dominant tradition o f timber construction. By the mid-third century, when these towns had over half their excavated buildings constructed with masonry, coin loss is more similar to those sites that had a dominant stone tradition. It should also be noted that sites with a majority o f their buildings constructed in stone had a lower coin loss rate than did sites with timber dominance.
12
10
8
6
—♦—Timber Tradition Mean -•-T r a n s itio n Mean
Ston e Tradition Mean
4
2
0 ! ! I---
A D 4 1 - 9 6 A D 9 6 - 1 6 1 A D 1 6 1 - 2 5 9 A D 2 5 9 - 3 4 8 A D 3 4 8 - 4 1 0
Fig. 7.3: Case study mean coin loss rate per 1000 coins
The relatively small sample o f coins cautions against making too strong conclusions.
However, it appears that those sites that had a dominant stone tradition were fundamentally different in an economic sense. Sites with predominance toward tim ber construction, regardless o f period, may have lost more coins simply because they had more coins to lose. This fact may be due to the cost o f investment in stone architecture. Another interesting trend is revealed when compared to coin loss across the island and the differences observed become quite
insignificant. Using data from Reece (1993, 1995), these sites had significantly lower coin loss rates than larger cities or province wide (see Fig. 7.4 and Table 7.1).
Timber T radition Mean
Transitory Tradition Mean
- ♦ - S t o n e Tradition Mean Verulamium Mean -♦ -B r itis h Mean
AD 4 1 -9 6 AD 96-161 AD 1 6 1 -2 5 9 AD 2 5 9 -3 4 8 AD 3 4 8 -4 1 0
Fig. 7.4: Case study mean coin loss rate per 1000 coins compared with British mean and V erulam ium
T a b le 7 .1 : C a s e s tu d y m e a n co in loss r a te p e r 1000 c o in s c o m p a r e d w ith B r itis h m e a n a n d Verulamium (R e e c e 1993, 1995)
B ritish Verulamium T i m b e r T r a n s i t o r y S t o n e
A D 4 1 - 9 6 1 3 .7 3 8 8 .8 4 0 1 .4 6 9 1 .4 7 3 0 .4 8 8
A D 9 6 -1 6 1 1 8 .1 2 0 1 3 .5 8 0 0 .9 3 4 1.021 0 .2 7 7
A D 1 6 1 - 2 5 9 9 .3 4 6 7 .8 3 8 0 .6 7 3 0 . 4 1 9 0 .5 2 6
A D 2 5 9 - 3 4 8 1 1 4 .5 2 2 1 4 0 .2 0 2 9 .7 3 0 5 . 7 2 9 6 .0 5 8
A D 3 4 8 - 4 1 0 6 7 . 8 1 8 4 5 . 9 2 5 4 .0 8 4 3 .5 0 1 1 .8 5 5
III. Id en tity Saliency an d A rch itectu re
A. In te ractio n of Id en tity Saliency an d Econom ic G ro w th
Examining the purely economic forces influencing the choice o f architecture suggests a pattern similar to the American frontier analogy described in Chapter 1. However, that analogy begins to breakdown and is no longer applicable when considering the saliency o f identity in the
1 4 0
120
100
8 0
6 0
4 0
20
0
Roman provinces. This appears to be a point o f significant difference between the two frontier situations. On the American frontier, the mass migration o f people to the West (and the
subsequent displacement o f the indigenous population) consisted mostly o f people who had a common idea o f what towns and buildings “should” look like. Despite the great ethnic diversity of these migrants, most were from various European backgrounds and had common concepts o f architecture and town organization. That is not to say architecture was not used to display status or refinement, but when comparing the adoption o f Roman architectural traditions by the indigenous peoples in Britain, the model becomes less applicable. A stronger comparison and opportunity for further research in the American example would be how Native American cultures adopted and used Anglo-European architecture. However, the heavy handed
interference o f the Federal Government in the regulation o f the reservation system would still limit its applicability as a model for comparison with the Roman provinces. Asian migrants would provide a better example, but they were often marginalized because o f their race, even as late as the Second World War when they were forcibly detained in prison camps in the
American West. Again, this undermines the ability to use them as an analogy for Roman Britain. It is clear that in the Americas the diversity o f identities was a significant issue but in a different way than in the Roman provinces.
Thus, returning to our model concerning the feasibility of stone construction, we must add a new factor, the saliency o f the Roman identity. The data indicates that stone architecture in fact reflected some salience o f the Roman identity. As seen in Chapter 3, the use of
decorative features reached its peak, in both stone and timber buildings, before the peak o f stone buildings. This indicates that many inhabitants desired to display an association with a Roman identity even if they had not yet reached the economic point o f feasibility. It is therefore plausible to assume that stone architecture did reflect at least some level o f Roman identity in a town, at least o f an “average” o f its citizens.
The meaning of a Roman identity certainly would change over time and not necessarily increase in a linear fashion. Two factors must be accounted for in the social decisions to invest in stone architecture. The first would be the adoption o f the Roman identity, and the second would be a hypothetical threshold o f desire where the Roman identity was strong enough that people would have wanted to construct stone buildings. The results o f this are plotted
schematically on Fig. 7.5.
• r *
High saliency of
Roman Identity Lower saliency of Roman Identity
Threshold of Desire co
Foundation of Town Time
Fig. 7.5: The influence of differing rates in the growth and power of a Roman Identity over time.
The saliency of the Roman identity had to reach the threshold o f desire for the opportunity o f stone construction to occur. Taking into account both economic and identity factors, the point o f desire and the point o f feasibility both had to be reached in order for a
majority o f the townspeople town to construct stone buildings. Once both points had been reached, a new point o f opportunity was achieved, and towns had the opportunity to construct stone buildings. This new point of opportunity becomes the determining factor as to when stone architecture will be used in increasing numbers. Adding together the saliency o f a Roman identity and economic growth results in Figures 7.6-7.13. While there are literally an infinite number o f combinations of where and at what angle to measure each variable, these figures are exaggerated to illustrate the general possibilities.
Economic Growth
&
3
o 1oa0o
*1
* P 4o o©
02
Saliency of Roman Identity
Opportunity for Stone Architecture
Threshold of Desire Threshold of Feasibility I ^ Point of Desire
and
1 Point of Opportunity j Feasibility______________
Foundation of Town Time
Fig. 7.6: A site with high economic growth, a strong Roman identity, and low feasibility.
Figure 7.6 schematically represents a site that had a lower threshold of feasibility due to location or access to stone building materials but also have a strong growth in the saliency o f a Roman identity and strong economic growth. If we were to examine our case study towns in relation to this model, Ilchester, Nettleton, and Camerton would fit appropriately here. Each would have its own unique signature in regards to the placement o f the variables, however, they all seem to have this pattern in common. All three had easy access to building stone. All three seem to indicate a relatively strong acceptance o f a Roman identity. All three also exhibit strong signs o f economic growth. In the case o f Nettleton this may have been stimulated by government interference. Camerton’s industrial production also benefited from stone buildings that would be more fire resistant. In the case o f Ilchester the use and export o f the stone was an economic force itself.
Saliency of Roman Identity
Point of Feasibility and
Opportunity Economic
.Growth Point of
Desire
Threshold of Desire Threshold of Feasibility Opportunity
for Stone Architecture
Foundation of Town Time
Fig. 7.7: A site with lower economic growth, a strong Roman identity, and low feasibility.
Figure 7.7 represents a model site that would have ready access to building stone and where the inhabitants had strong Roman identity but the economic growth was moderate to poor. The reasons for this moderate growth may have been imposed or organic. If we are correct in assuming that the government limited use and economic activity on land around military bases, then Catterick and Carlisle would fit this model. Both had access to suitable building stone. They also seem to have had a population that followed the army and likely had few strong ties to the indigenous population and thus a strong affinity or openness to a Roman
identity. At Carlisle, the dependence upon the military which occasionally moved into Scotland stymied a linear economic growth. The settlement around Catterick may have had limitations on the type o f economic activity and the property investment placed upon them by the military. The suburbs, interestingly enough, flourished and balanced the overall economic picture.
Economic Growth
Point of Desire and
Opportunity
Saliency of Roman Identity Point of
Feasibility io
o
<x>
Threshold of Desire Threshold of
o
Feasibility
Opportunity for Stone Architecture
Foundation of Town Time
Fig. 7.8: A site with high economic growth, a lower Roman identity and low feasibility.
If a town had a robust economy that grew but the identities were not closely related to Romans even if they were near quality building materials, they would be represented by the model o f Fig. 7.8. Wanborough would seem to correspond with this category. The economy
showed some diversity and growth. Even though its inhabitants were not as conservative as at Dragonby, there are some indications that the inhabitants held onto their more traditional ways.
Dragonby and Baldock appear to have had a very conservative outlook for some time after the Roman conquest. Their economic growth was probably slower than would be literally
represented in the Figure 7.8 but it appears that the resistance to quickly adopting a more
favorable Roman outlook is what kept them from quickly adopting stone masonry despite being located near suitable stone.
Point of Desire and
Opportunity I
Economic Growth Point of
Feasibility oS3
oV
*
• <4
COo Threshold of
Desire Threshold of Feasibility Saliency of
Roman Identity Opportunity for Stone Architecture
Foundation of Town Time
Fig. 7.9: A site with low economic growth, a lower Roman identity, and low feasibility.
If a town had limited economic growth and a moderate Roman identity despite being located near building stone, they would be represented by the model in Figure 7.9. Great Chesterford with its predominant reliance on agriculture and modest adoption of elements o f Romanitas would seem to fit in this category. Neatham would likely fit in this model as well,
though the strength o f its economy would indicate a higher growth rate than represented in this literal model. However, despite having the ability to use stone, most inhabitants appear to have chosen not to and the elements of a Roman identity are slight. Therefore, it would appear that identity was the determining factor in the choice o f building materials.
echold of
•X Feasibility Saliency of
Roman
Identity Point of
Feasibility
and
Opportunity
§ Economic
Growth
©a
©
©6
Point of Desire
Threshold of Desire Opportunity for Stone Architecture
Foundation of Town
Fig. 7.10: A site with moderate economic growth, a strong Roman identity, and high feasibility.
A site with a moderate economic growth and a strong Roman identity but a high feasibility threshold would be represented by Figure 7.10. For example, artifacts at Alcester indicate a high level of Roman identity. However, because of the lack of suitable building stone, the threshold o f feasibility was relatively high. Stone buildings do in fact appear
relatively late in Alcester’s history, reaching peak use in the late third and early fourth-centuries and never reaching parity with timber structures. However, artifacts also indicate a fairly substantial economic diversity and growth. Thus, by the time stone was being used, Alcester was more economically mature than other sites that may have used stone sooner and in greater quantities but lower feasibility. Margidunum would also be represented by this model but with a shallower incline o f economic growth than that o f Alcester. Although not represented by any case studies presented in this study, Figures 7.11 to 7.13 show the remaining potential models.
Point of Feasibility and Opportunity
N . / Threshold of
Feasibility
Saliency of Roman Identity
t<c
so
19S3
9v 9O wO
05
Economic Growth
Opportunity for Stone Architecture
Threshold of Desire Point of Desire
Foundation of Town Time
Fig. 7.11: A site with high economic growth, a strong Roman identity, and a high threshold of feasibility.
Threshold of
Feasibility
Point of Feasibility Economic
Growth
Saliency of Roman Idemty Point of Desire
and Opportunity
©S3
ow>
©6
Threshold of Desire Opportunity for Stone Architecure
Foundation of Town Time
Fig. 7.12: A site with high economic growth, a lower Roman identity, and high feasibility.
Point of Feasibility Threshold of
Feasibility
Pomt o f Desire and
Opporatmty Economic
Growth Threshold of
Desire
Opportunity for stone Architecture SaEency of
Roman Identity
Foundation of Town Time
Fig. 7.13: A site with lower economic growth, a lower Roman identity, and high feasibility.
As seen in Figs. 7.6-7.13, the point o f opportunity was relative to each town, based on the rate o f economic growth, the saliency of the Roman identity, and the threshold of feasibility.
Where the point o f opportunity occurred in time dictated when, if at all, stone buildings would be constructed in increasing numbers. In addition, it becomes clear that the point o f opportunity would have been reached at some sites with greater economic growth later if the feasibility was higher because of the lack of local building stone than some with lower economic growth if the point o f feasibility was lower despite the power o f the Roman identity.