Heritage & Culture

Professor Stephen Upex: ‘You never know what you’re going to find, and that’s the great fun of archaeology’

Professor Stephen Upex: ‘You never know what you’re going to find, and that’s the great fun of archaeology’ 1 2

[prev] …migrants aren’t town dwellers; they build in wood, not stone, and have little use for towns. So, Durobrivae – pretty much abandoned – goes into steady decline. But also, Christianity is coming to Britain. it never really stopped – there’s evidence of a Christian church there at the end of the Roman period, when it had become the state religion. But by the 6th and 7th centuries, monasticism is coming down from the north. There are two branches of monasticism at the time. One is from the south, and Canterbury, which is very urban and sets up shop at St Albans and places like that, and the other branch comes from the Celtic heartlands – places like Lindisfarne – and that branch had a preference for remote places, isolated settings and austere life. They came to this area precisely because nothing was here. It was on the edge of a fen, it’s austere and inhospitable, and therefore it was an ideal place for that early form of monasticism. Once that starts, though, it acts like a magnet. If you’re a trader, you want to sell to people who have a bit of money, and if you’ve got pilgrims coming you have more trade. It’s a push-pull factor. The push factor is that Durobrivae is going into decline, there are fewer people there, the town is falling apart, while a few miles up the road is a place that is starting to boom. And that’s how Peterborough comes into being.

THEY CLEARLY HAD A HUGE IMPACT ON THE LIFE AND LANDSCAPE OF BRITAIN, BUT HOW MANY ROMANS – THOSE OF ROMAN BLOOD, AS IT WERE – WERE ACTUALLY HERE?
In administrative terms, probably 2,000 to 3,000, if that. In military terms, Britain has a higher proportion of legions than any other province, but there might only have been around 15,000 troops here at any one time. So, not a large part of the population is actually ‘Roman’. And, of course, not all would necessarily have left – some Romans would have married local women and retired locally.

YOU’RE THE AUTHOR OF NUMEROUS BOOKS AND ARTICLES ON THE SUBJECT – IS THERE ANYTHING TO LOOK OUT FOR SOON?
The Romans in the East of England came out in 2008, but I’ve just finished another book that will link the gallery here directly with work that has been going on in the Nene Valley area. It’ll be called something like The Romans in the Peterborough Area, will be 80-90 pages long with lots of images, answering basic questions such as what people ate, what the military situation was in the area, were there villas, and so on. That’ll be out later this year – ‘in the shops for Christmas’, as they say – and on sale in the museum itself!

The new Roman gallery opens to the public on 15 November 2014.

To find out more about the museum, its collections and special heritage talks and events, visit www.vivacity-peterborough.com

Professor Stephen Upex: ‘You never know what you’re going to find, and that’s the great fun of archaeology’ 1 2

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