Brian Simmons, in his article ‘Iron Age and Roman Coasts Around The Wash,’ published in ‘An Historical Atlas of Lincolnshire’ (1994), gives an interesting hypothesis about the coastline around The Wash during those periods in history. He acknowledges that attempting to reconstruct the coastline is particularly complex, given that a number of factors would have influenced the extent to which the sea would have encroached landward. Factors such as rises and falls in sea levels, climate changes, tide levels (which could change with the seasons) and silt deposition, amongst others, could all impact. He is keen to point out that maps of coastlines can easily give an impression of a hard and fast distinction between what is dry land and what is sea, but in reality, especially in the low lying basin of The Wash, the edges blur and fluctuate, not just year by year, but also season by season. Nonetheless he proffers an approximate ‘coastline’ for both the Iron Age and the subsequent Roman period.
Here, we concern ourselves with the Roman Period. The map is based on Simmons’ illustration. Note that the sea inundated many miles more westward than it does today – reaching almost as far as Peterborough, Bourne and Billingborough. That said, the geography was not completely flat. Through millennia of silt deposition, there were fluctuations in land height albeit just within a range of 15 meters or so. This meant that pockets, or islands, of slightly higher ground existed here and there, as illustrated on the map. Even then, seasonal changes may have meant that they were not permanently dry.
No wonder, then, that Roman archaeological finds are concentrated in the areas on the higher land west and south of the ‘coastline’, or on the islands of slightly higher ground. Simmonds reminds us that there is no evidence of Roman towns or villas in the area of the fens, or any extensive road network or military presence. It is likely, he postulates, that the local population were not much ‘Romanised’ and that the local economy was likely concentrated predominantly on the production of salt for the preservation of meat and the tanning of leather, but also on ‘mundane’ activities and crafts such as basket making, turf cutting, fishing and wildfowling.
However, as all archaeologists are aware, the land beneath our feet has far from revealed all its secrets. New finds and discoveries are being made all the time, and some challenge or even upend our current understanding of historical events and human existence. Let us see whether the future evidence takes us.
(Author: Stuart Henderson)
