What was made locally, using raw materials from the Yorkshire Wolds, and what was imported and from where? What do these materials tell us about local senses of identity and community, and the wider social networks of which people were a part? How was this transformed in later periods by improvements in transport infrastructure, trade networks and markets?
Below are set out a number of research questions and strategies that are associated with the theme Crafting Ways of Life.
Patterns of inhabitation and farming practices across the transition should be explored by examining temporal depth at villa sites (e.g. Brantingham, Rudston, Norton), strategic examination of intermediary building types (e.g. Thwing’s proto-villa), and wider changes to smaller enclosures and farmsteads (e.g. apparent consolidation around contracted square enclosures in the Mid-Late Roman phases of ladder settlements as at Wharram Grange Crossroads and proposed by Stoertz). By combining the ‘signature’ of fieldwalking data and small-scale commercial evaluations with LIDAR/air photo data, projects could evaluate how well this captures that chronological change over time (thus enabling us to better target future developer funded or research led excavation) as well as enhancing our understanding of the relative civilian versus military nature of site occupation. On/off Wolds interactions between sites, explored through movements of materials, fuel, resources and stock, will better assist understanding of the agrarian economy of the Wolds during this period and inform models of rural/urban interactions, villa economies and civilian/military dynamics over the course of the Roman period.