Centrality on the periphery: an analysis of rural settlement hierarchy in the Dutch part of the Roman limes

Abstract

The Lower Rhine region was of crucial importance for the Roman empire as a transit zone from Gaul to the North Sea. The river Rhine functioned both as a transport artery and as a defence line. Huge investments were made in the first century CE to protect this economic lifeline, by installing a line of forts and legionary camps along the river from Cologne up to the North Sea, known as the Lower Germanic limes. Unlike areas further south, however, its hinterland did not witness a development towards a ‘central place’ settlement pattern, but instead shows seemingly separate trajectories of development of the ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ settlements. In this paper, the apparently weak socio-economic interaction between the towns, forts and rural hinterland is analysed using a model of settlement hierarchy originally developed by Bertoncello et al. (2012). Data on building materials and ceramic imports found in archaeological surveys and excavations in the Dutch part of the region were used as indicators of socio-economic status, and settlements were classified accordingly. Statistical and spatial analysis of the resulting settlement classification revealed a weak hierarchy of rural settlement in the region, that was to some extent influenced by the development of towns.