Conception versus Perception
Ideas about the course of the Roman road
from Radwinter to Great Chesterford
(Essex, UK)
John Peterson
University of East Anglia
Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference 2014
1
This presentation
1. Development of ideas about the course of part of
Roman road 300
2. A new model for the road
3. What concepts may have influenced conflicting
modern perceptions?
4. What could have been the ancient conception of roads
in this area? Should we share it?
2
Great Chesterford
Road 300 (part)
Landscape here was the basis
for a hypothetical limitatio
(Peterson 1988).
3
Ref
4
Note
Proposed limitatio based
on calculated OS
coordinates.
Road 300, traced
from OS 1:25.000
mapping.
5
A 1:1 relationship?
(Peterson 1990)
6
Ref
The same area on
Google Earth
The same relationship appears.
BUT can it be confirmed more extensively?
7
OS grid references in
another hand, probably
added after the entry
was made in 1948.
One definition of the road line:
Essex Historic Environment Record (HER)
Card PRN 211 (February 2011)
8
Part of the line defined by the
“Phillips” OS coordinates.
9
The whole “Phillips” Line.
Refutation of the centuriation
hypothesis?
10
Note
However, another line
has been published
(Eckardt et al 2009).
Part of the alternative line (OS
grid references kindly
provided by Peter Brewer).
11
Ref
Question:
where did this other line come from?
12
Answer:
from the second part of the same record
(in an entry probably predating the
definition by OS grid references)
13
This road is aligned upon the South Gate of
the walled town of Great Chesterford.
Authority: Major J. G. S. Brinson (1950)
14
Great Chesterford
The early Brinson line
(1950), as implied by
Eckhardt et al (2009) and
Medlycott (2011).
Another refutation?
15
Ref
A closer look at Great
Chesterford.
South Gate (later
renamed East
Gate).
Brinson line.
16
Earlier fort, first
trace found
1948/9.
Brinson line.
17
South Gate of fort
(inferred position).
Brinson line.
18
Overlaid plan (Medlycott
2011), showing proposed
road line in grey.
Brinson line.
19
Ref
The section of the road
excavated in 1980 points
the “wrong” way!
Site of East Gate
excavation (1980).
20
The revised road line
provides a “solution”.
21
This part of Bassett’s
(1982) alternative line
has greater merit ...
22
Ref
... but the whole Bassett
line, in purple, is not so
convincing (the Brinson
line also shown).
23
The Bassett line diverts
to take in a “Jug and
Patera” burial.
24
It passes through an area
of crop marks, ...
25
(seen here in close up)
26
Note
... but it does not fit those
marks that could best
represent the road.
27
This line, passing
through intersections of
limites, fits much better.
28
And, close by on the
same line, we see ...
Crop marks
29
30
... a further (previously
unrecorded) mark on the
same line, ...
31
Note
... which is more clear in
grey with heightened
contrast ...
32
... and on a Bing image
overlaid in the same
position, where two
parallel marks are clear.
33
Note
34
Their separation may be
measured using the
Google Earth ruler.
12m
35
A new model for the road
36
Several parts of road 300 may
provisionally be modelled by long thin
polygons, 12m wide, diagonal (at 1:1) to
the limitatio.
Double trace, see
next slide.
Note: only the trace
on the southern
side is visible here.
37
38
Near Radwinter the same
model fits like this.
39
It may be compared to
the “Phillips” line (in
yellow).
40
There are gaps, but this
projected course under
Great Chesterford village
has not yet been refuted.
Confirmed by
geophysics and
excavation.
Projected.
41
Note
What concepts may have influenced the
different modern perceptions?
1. “Roman” versus “UnRoman” roads
“On the whole I am not in favour of the Roman road
‘crossing all obstacles in a straight line school of
thought’ ...”
Maria Medlycott, email, 18 July 2011
So this contorted route can be
proposed. It preserves as
much as possible of the
Brinson hypothesis, but looks
implausible.
42
2. Roads conceived to be lines ,
with consequent misperception
43
The “Phillips” line fits only the still-visible boundaries.
It now appears that these lie on opposite sides of the road.
The 2012 revision of the
HER road line is another
example of this.
Single trace.
Double trace.
44
Misleadingly, it seizes on
the single trace.
45
46
3. Overfitting or “heaping up” may lead to error
47
“Overfitting” is a term borrowed from machine learning,
referring to a model that fits the “noise” in the training
data and has little predictive value.
“Heaping up” refers to a process explicitly described in the
apology to the Historia Brittonum (ascribed to the early
medieval Welsh writer Nennius).
Ego autem coaceruaui omne quod inueni
“I made a heap of all that I found”
48
In some ways, these approaches seem similar.
Would it be totally unfair to caricature the second as an
historical method that is too unthinking :
“Collect data, then try to explain it all”?
In stark contrast, some studies of actual or potential
evidence of limitatio (including my own) treat the landscape
as a laboratory, within which hypotheses may be tested.
The system of survey is simple. It can be modelled by precisely
defined grids. Hence it can respond well to this approach.
49
What could have been the ancient
conception of roads in this area?
Should we share it?
50
There are clear spatial
relationships between the
early fort, road 300 and
the limitatio.
51
Note
Might other Roman roads
in the area (according to
B. B. Charge, 1986)
provide a context?
52
Ref
As well as the part of
road 300 from Great
Chesterford to Radwinter,
where it turns south, ...
Great
Chesterford
Radwinter
53
... there is a road from
Radwinter to Wixoe,
which has comparable
features.
Great
Chesterford
Wixoe
Radwinter
54
Charge’s plans may be
overlaid on Google Earth,
...
55
..., and his line for the
Radwinter to Wixoe road
identified ...
56
... with the location of his
resistivity transects, ...
E
D
C
57
... which have sections of
high resistivity that could,
again, accommodate a
12m wide road.
58
This road also could
have planned
relationships with the
limitatio.
8:1
9:2
59
1:1
60
9:2
And the continuation of
road 300 to the south
could be similarly
planned.
122.5°
1:1
9:2
122.5°
2:9
61
Creating a symmetrical
pattern.
These roads seem to have been planned from the limitatio.
Furthermore, symmetry is visible.
In a limitatio the most common symmetry is produced by
translation; two road segments are parallel but out of line.
Symmetry may also be produced by rotation (Corinth, Tarraco)
and reflection (as in this case).
62
Ref
Why?
Homo ludens?
Pythagorean harmony?
System constraints?
Efficiency?
Perhaps we can suggest answers if we imagine the process.
63
Military design and construction based on limitatio
Preliminary
Survey
SURVEY
limitatio
LANDMARKS
termini
MAP
forma
Other
Constraints
Written
ORDERS
64
ROADS,
FORTS, etc
THESE ARE
CRUCIAL
SHOULD WE SHARE THIS CONCEPTION?
65
REFERENCES
Bassett, S. R. 1982. Saffron Walden : excavations and research 1972-1980. CBA Research Report 45.
Chelmsford Archaeological Trust & Council for British Archaeology, London.
Charge, B. B. 1986. Roman Roads in Southern East Anglia - A reappraisal in the light of recent fieldwork.
Journal of the Haverhill & District Archaeological Group 4.2 : 47-74.
Eckardt, H., Brewer, P., Hay, S., and Poppy, S. 2009. Roman Barrows and their Landscape Context: a GIS case
Study at Bartlow, Cambridgeshire. Britannia 40 : 65-98.
Medlycott, M. 2011. The Roman Town of Great Chesterford. East Anglian Archaeology Report No.137. Essex
County Council, Chelmsford.
Palet, J. M., and Orengo, H. M. 2011. The Roman Centuriated Landscape: Conception, Genesis, and
Development as Inferred from the Ager Tarraconensis Case. American Journal of Archaeology 115.3 :
383-402.
Peterson, J. W. M. 1988. Information systems and the interpretation of Roman cadastres. In Computer and
Quantitative Methods in Archaeology: CAA 88. BAR International Series S446. edited by Rahtz, S. P. Q.
pp. 133-149. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.
Peterson, J. W. M. 1990. Roman cadastres in Britain: II - Eastern A: signs of a large system in the northern
English home counties. Dialogues d'histoire ancienne 16.2 : 233-272.
Romano, D. G., and Tolba, O. 1995. Remote sensing, GIS and electronic surveying: reconstructing the city plan
and landscape of Roman Corinth. In Computer Aplications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology 1994.
BAR International Series 600. edited by Huggett, J. and Ryan, N. pp. 163-174. Tempus Reperatum,
Oxford.
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NOTES
Slide 4. The settlement (top center) is Orsett. In order to construct the limitatio hypothesis the straight road running
west of north through the hamlet of Baker Street and the parallel boundary west of Orsett were taken to be possible
traces of limites of a 20 x 20 actus Roman cadastre. The model was further constrained by making it fit obliquely on
two stretches of Roman road at Brentford, at 5:1 and 2:1.
Slide 10. It has been suggested to me that the “Phillips” line, because the eventual mismatch between it and the grid
corners of is so small, cannot refute the idea that the grid and road fit each other. Knowing that systems of limitatio
could be extremely accurately surveyed, my own view is that the mismatch shows that the fit of the grid to the
“Phillips” line is no better than a chance event. Hence, if the line is correct the grid could be dismissed – but it’s a
big “if”.
Slide 26. Source of plot (in red), from aerial photography: Essex HER, copyright Essex County Council.
Slide 31. Source: Google Earth historic image dated 12/13/2007, from 125m above the ground. I am not able to see
this feature if the eye altitude is more than 400m above the ground, even though (thanks to this particular limitatio
hypothesis) I know precisely where to look.
Slide 33. The Bing aerial image was available in 2011. In 2014 nothing could be seen. Google Earth, which keeps
historic images, has the advantage here.
Slide 41. Given that the so far undetected section is short, any projection must lie close to that shown. This
projection was constructed from an extension of the 1:1 line and a curve rotationally symmetrical (about the east
gate) to the curve already found within the town). On symmetry, see slide 62, below.
Slide 51. There was some discussion at the TRAC Conference presentation over the s-bend in the road near the fort.
Why does the road not go straight to the fort gate? My suggestion is that, in whichever direction the road was
planned, written instructions to the working soldiers will be shorter, and hence easier to carry out, if a simple
relationship to the limitatio is maintained for as long as possible.
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