How does the Verulamium site enable modern historians to understand and explain life in Roman Britain?

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Verulamium Coursework Assignment

How does the Verulamium site enable modern historians to understand and explain life in Roman Britain?

In order to answer this question I will answer a number of tasks.

QUESTION 1: Explain the choice of site – refer to its geographical position and the economic advantages to be gained. Try to think of extra advantages for the Romans as a conquering power to be sited at Verulamium.

The Romans chose the site of Verulamium to build a thriving town because of the advantages of it geographical position and economic advantage.

Being situated next to the River Ver was a major geographical advantage. It would be used for washing and drinking, we know hygiene and washing was a high priority for the Romans because they built bath -houses. The river would also be used for travel to another nearby town or village, which was on the banks of the River Ver. They would be able to sell and buy things in the neighbouring villages and make money. The land around the river would be very fertile and so would be used for farming. Farmland always needed to be irrigated; the Romans would irrigate the banks of the River Ver and use the river water to keep the land moist.

When the Romans found the original site, which became Verulamium, there was already a Catuvellauni tribe settled there. The Catuvellauni had established a large village named Wheathampstead and was the capital of the Celtic people. This would be important for the choice of the site because the Romans knew that the land was fertile enough to grow crops and the water was drinkable because the Catuvellauni tribe had managed to survive there.

Once the Romans had settled in Britain and established themselves as a conquering power they began to build roads. One of the roads built was Watling Street, which went straight through Verulamium. This would be a major geographical advantage because they would be able to send their army out onto the roads to march where they were needed. This would be necessary for the Romans to become a conquering power because they would eventually have a network of roads connecting all the major towns and so the armies would be able to march where they were needed quickly and easily.

The last major geographical advantage would be that Verulamium was in close proximity to London or Londinium, as it was then known. This would help the Romans who lived in Verulamium because with the roads that were built they would be able to travel to “Londinium” and trade with other Romans to get money and materials.

The trade links available to Verulamium were a major economic advantage because they were able to travel to other parts of the country to because of roads system built and they would be able to travel to other parts of the Roman Empire to trade too.

The fertile land around the banks of the River Ver is the final economic advantage. The fertile land would enable the Roman people to farm. They would be able to grow crops and rear animals to sell and for their own consumption. The fertile land is also an indication of sustainable settlement.

QUESTION 2a: “The Romans were skilled engineers” Is this statement true or not? Include illustrations to support your answer.

We know that the Romans were skilled engineers because there was evidence of this at Verulamium. We know there was a Hypocaust system. Hypocaust systems was basically under – floor – heating, underneath the floor and up the walls were channels which enabled the hot air to move around heating the room up. The Hypocaust was worked by a slave stoking up the fire, which would produce hot air, which would travel through the system of channels heating up the room. This is an example of skilled engineering. Although I didn’t see the Hypocaust system, due to building work, I know that it is there from my own research.

This picture shows the channels that would be underneath the floor of the Roman peoples houses.

We know that engineering was used because of the wide range of tools found at Verulamium.

This Iron “T” clamp was one of many I saw at Verulamium. I also saw iron axes, chisel, hammer, saws, gouge, drill bit, floats, plane, modelling tools and trowels which were all found at the site.

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This shows engineering because each tool was made for a purpose e.g. to help the process of making something. To make the tools they would also have needed a high level of engineering.

At Verulamium there were many grand mosaics on show and these mosaics took great skill to make. The time and effort needed to produce a large mosaic would have been immense. We know that this needed a very high skill level because the engineers who made them had to copy the picture from their minds. From the mosaics on show at Verulamium we found out that ...

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