RAC/TRAC Session 23: Peopling Rural Architecture Studies: a cross-Channel perspective

Details of the RAC/TRAC Conference session 'Peopling Rural Architecture Studies: a cross-Channel perspective.'

Conference Sessions and Abstracts - Saturday 13 April 2024

23. Peopling Rural Architecture Studies: a cross-Channel perspective

Lacey Wallace – University of Lincoln 
Sadi Maréchal – Universiteit Gent

This session brings together archaeologists studying regions on either side of the Channel/La Manche to discuss people-centred questions in rural domestic architectural studies. Too often, treatments of architecture and elaboration are heavily focussed on material, technologies, typologies, and style, with a regrettable lack of using these data to address how we understand past people and their lives. Equally, such studies often suffer from a lack of contextualization of the architecture of nearby regions, a gap that is especially notable across the Channel. Architectural data can be used to explore common activities, shared values, and the exchange and movement of people and ideas between regions now within modern Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Britain. Papers in this session will address these challenges, addressing thematic and question-driven approaches to studying rural communities and identities, using architecture and elaboration.

Session schedule 

Abstracts 

 From Celtic to Roman rural settlements in the north of France and England
Aurore Diliberto – Université du Luxembourg 

My research is focused on rural societies from the first century B.C. to the Late Antiquity on both side of the Channel, and more specifically in seven Celtic territories: Dobunnian (Costwold), Durotriges (Dorset), Trinovantes (Essex), Unelles (Normandy), Nerviens (Cambrésis), Morins (Thérouanne) and Ménapiens (Cassel). It is insightful to compare the evolution of LPRIA to late Roman rural settlements in these regions. While the integration of Gaul to the Roman Empire started after the Gallic war, the indigenous people of Britain were incorporated only one hundred years later when rural settlements became Roman farms or ‘villae’. However, in some regions (such as Normandy in France or the Cotswolds in England), the local topography influences the establishment of the Roman settlements suggesting the creation of a local identity from the first installations. Finally, my paper will be focused on the transformation of rural settlements on both side of the Channel and interpreted considering archaeologic, historic, environmental (topography, hydrography etc.) and geological aspects.

 Morphology and evolution of rural settlements in Northern Gaul, Germania and Britain: interesting comparisons
Antonin Nüsslein – Centre national de la recherche scientifique

Major surveys carried out recently in Britain, northern Gaul and Germania (such as the ERC Rurland project) have shown that the countryside was made up of a multitude of different types of settlements, some with highly varied architecture, morphologies and evolutions. Even 'villae' have different morphologies from one region to another. In particular, vernacular habitat types probably exist. What do these differences tell us about the people? Do they indicate economic and social differences? Regional cultural settlements? Or are there elements that unify the different regions? Based on a comparison of several examples of settlements excavated in Britain, northern Gaul and Germania, this article aims to provide some answers to these questions, in particular by trying to distinguish the morphological, architectural, economic and social elements that differentiate or link these different parts of the Empire.

 East Malling to Blicquy: a Nervii connection?
Stephen Clifton – University of Kent

Ongoing excavations by the Maidstone Area Archaeological Group (MAAG) at East Malling in Kent have revealed two new masonry structures that could be part of a much larger enclosure, first seen in the 1950s and ‘60s when it was labelled a ‘villa’. Now possible votive deposits and the presence of a walled causeway have suggested that the site may be of a sacred nature. When searching for comparisons for this Kentish arrangement we came across the details of the site at Blicquy in Belgium. This site appears to have an entrance building almost the same size and shape as East Malling and the orientation is almost identical. The survey data has also given us an indication that the perimeter wall and possible structures built against the north and south wall are also mirrored. Blicquy’s design and layout is unique among Continental sanctuaries and to find a site in southern Britain with such striking similarities begs the question of what were the links between the two areas? Are we looking at a breakaway faction of the Nervii coming to Britain? Or is it the result of a marriage between distant clan elite?

 Building small, standing tall. Social aspects of adopting and adapting Roman domestic architecture in rural northwestern Gaul and Britain
Sadi Maréchal – Universiteit Gent

On both sides of the Channel, in what would become the provinces of Britannia and Gallia Belgica, the start of the Roman period also meant the start of stone domestic architecture. The shift from indigenous houses in perishable materials to residences in stone was a major turning point in the history of the regions and reveals how local inhabitants were engaging with the Roman cultural sphere. This paper will focus on two regions characterized by a low number of Roman-style villas and a strong persistence of vernacular architecture: the Menapian territory in modern-day Belgium and the Iceni territory in modern-day England. The modest rural houses, often with only the base of the walls in stone, are strongly reminiscent of traditional indigenous house architecture, yet incorporate and adapt certain specific Mediterranean elements. By examining which elements were adopted and adapted, and how this might have changed though the lifecycle of the building, we can try to understand how local elites negotiated their own place of power within a local setting and yet within the broader framework of the Empire.