The Middle and Upper Ouse Valley in the Late Iron Age and Romano-British Periods

The subject of this research is social change in Roman Britain in the Late Iron Age and the Romano-British period. Evidence from the Middle and Upper Ouse Valley is examined from the perspective of identity, a subject in which there is currently muchinterest amongst archaeologists. Identity emphasises the diversity of experience of both individuals and communities, and therefore spheres of life that might reveal continuation, discontinuity, or change in identity, are examined. The aim is to discover howLate Iron Age communities saw themselves, how they constructed their identity, and how this was transformed (if at all) with the coming of Rome. A second theme is that of population groups and their boundaries. Both aspects are examined using a landscapeapproach, drawing on the large corpora of data now available in Sites and Monuments Record Offices, excavation reports and archaeological journals.