An Archaeological Resource Assessment of Roman Northamptonshire

The Northamptonshire sites and monuments record currently contains 1573 records related to the Roman period, which constitutes 22.5% of the total. A large proportion of the undated cropmark sites are, however, also likely to be Roman and/or Iron Age in date and should be added to this total. In Northamptonshire this period is characterized by intensively occupied and large scale rural landscapes related to expanded agricultural production, regional scale craft and industrial production of pottery and iron, the construction and use of an extensive network of roads, and the foundation and development of many local market and religious centers. Discrete formal ceremonial sites are found in both small towns and rural sites, and detectable burial rites become far more common on both rural and small town sites with later Roman inhumation cemeteries common at larger settlements.