This chapter examines the diverse communities of Britain from the ninth century bce to the early fifth century ce, and uses a Web of Violence model to examine the archaeological and primary source evidence for violence in both periods.
This model was chosen because it recognises that all forms of violence within a community are interrelated and share many causative factors, such as rates of intimate partner violence increasing during periods of social and political unrest.
1 The majority of the evidence discussed is bioarchaeological data derived from the analysis of human remains. Studying the skeletal remains of ancient individuals provides a unique and independent perspective on past communities, as throughout the life course, from embryogenesis to death, the skeleton captures information about diet, age and sex, activity patterns, health and mobility.[613] [614] When these data are interpreted within the environmental, socio-cultural, political and economic structures of a community, it is possible to make inferences about gender roles, social hierarchies and the impact of large-scale events, such as environmental catastrophes or periods of colonisation.[615] Each individual studied provides their own perspective, and the remains of children are particularly important because their health and treatment are directed by socio-cultural values, their bodies are sensitive to the state of the living environment, and as their age at death can often be more precise than adults, their health provides a ‘window' on a specific period of time within their community.[616] In this chapter age is not simply a person's age at death, it follows a life course approach recognising the discrepancy between biological and social ages, whereby a person can be biologically still a sub-adult but in their society are considered an adult. A sub-adult refers to individuals who are not biologically adult, typically from o to 18 years old. The chapter also distinguishes between sex and gender, with the latter being a social construction of the roles, occupations, activities and responsibilities of men and women.[617]Using the Web of Violence model, the chapter focuses on the ‘mindful body' approach that advocates for no separation or opposition between the mind and body; recognising that bioarchaeological evidence can reveal important insights into the ‘social body' and ‘body politic' of both periods by examining inequality, whether of age, gender or status, because these frequently result in health disparities.[618]
The Iron Age and Roman phases of British archaeology stand in sharp contrast to one another.
The Iron Age (IA) is characterised by small farming communities organised into heterogeneous tribal confederacies, which display strong regional identities. The archaeological evidence from these communities shows intense variation in terms of funerary practice, monumental architecture and trade connections within Britain and Europe, and with the Roman Empire through the creation of client kingdoms in south-east England following Caesar's invasions in 55 and 54 bce.[619]The evidence for social organisation is derived from two sources: the funerary record and Roman primary sources. Both attest to ranked communities, with status created and maintained by the management of and access
Table 15.1 Web of Violence approach adapted for Late Iron Age and Roman Britain, and sources of evidence for these forms (after Hamby and Grych, Web of Violence)
| Type of violence | Primary evidence | Secondary evidence | |
| Late Iron Age | Roman Britain | ||
| Child abuse: infanticide, | Bioarchaeology | bgcolor=white>—Roman primary | |
| neglect, physical abuse | sources | ||
| Inequalities: age, sex, | Bioarchaeology | Roman primary | Roman primary |
| status | sources | sources | |
| Intimate partner | Bioarchaeology | - | Roman primary |
| violence (IPV) | sources | ||
| Community physical | Bioarchaeology | Roman primary | Roman primary |
| assault | sources | sources, | |
| Britain specific | |||
| Community violence: | Bioarchaeology | Roman primary | Roman primary |
| exposure or | sources | sources, | |
| involvement | Britain specific | ||
to resources, people and specialist knowledge, with groups including priests (Druids), warriors, farmers and the enslaved. Status appears to have been defined more by stages of the life course than by gender, and inter-regional comparison of funerary practices shows that this varied between different communities.
Funerary practices directly influence our bioarchaeological knowledge about these communities, because until the Late Iron Age (LIA) (first century bce to first century ce) the majority of individuals across Britain were afforded a non-recoverable burial rite.[620] In broad-brush terms, younger children, especially infants, did not have recoverable grave goods. Adolescents were often buried with ‘adult' goods, and adults ofboth sexes have comparable items (e.g. pottery and animal inclusions), with many burials organised in cemeteries close to settlements. Across Britain there is the trend for elite individuals to be buried with (among other items) martial equipment, mirrors and Roman feasting equipment. At the regional level, according to community identity, people of a lesser status are distinguished by the presence of material culture and animal inclusions, which show variation within the grave according to sex and age at death. Many other burials are unaccompanied and some individuals received a secondary burial rite. Such burials are often found in non-cemetery contexts, and it is proposed that these are lower status people or those regarded as ‘other' by their community.[621]The Claudian conquest in 43 ce resulted in tumultuous change for the communities of Britain. Urban centres were created, and new technologies for industry, building and farming were introduced. Communities were reorganised and governed under imperial administration, whose authority was reinforced by a military presence. This fundamentally changed the organisation of these communities, introducing new concepts of life course, gender roles and status. However, funerary evidence from Dorset suggests that although a patriarchal social and legal hierarchy was imposed on Britain, the attributions of male and female identities often maintained strong LIA connections. Free and forced migration not only increased the population but resulted in tremendous diversity with respect to material culture and funerary practices, as evidenced by mobility isotope studies and inscriptions.[622] [623]
This period saw the establishment of cemeteries outside settlement sites, and because of redevelopment, particularly in south-east England, this has meant that many thousands of burials have been encountered by archaeologists, the majority dating to the third and fourth centuries ce, meaning that available data sets are biased towards late Roman urban cemeteries.
Bioarchaeology has demonstrated that there are significant health differences within a region, as well as between urban centres, supporting the impact of migrants on population health.11 Therefore, as with the LIA, caution has to be used when discussing the evidence for a particular population, as it may not be entirely applicable to the province as a whole.The life course in the Roman world was subject to temporal and spatial variation. Britain is broadly similar to other north-west provinces: there were clear sex and age differences in funerary treatment which also display strong regional patterns, and grave-good provision is considered to be an indicator of status. The majority of older children and adults are accompanied by an item of (among others) pottery or animal inclusions and are buried in formal cemeteries.[624] [625] [626] There is also evidence for the display of body parts in military contexts, and the purposeful disposal of disarticulated remains in liminal contexts and clandestine burial in domestic contexts.
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