Production, Imports and Status: Biological Remains from a Late Roman Farm at Great Holts Farm, Boreham, Essex, UK

Abstract

Botanical and faunal remains from a 3rd–4th century AD Roman farm at the modern Great Holts Farm, Boreham have provided a picture of an agricultural system based predominantly on arable production. Agrarian innovation is evinced by the bones of exceptionally large cattle which, it is suggested, may have been imported as powerful tractors so as to exploit heavy clay soils more effectively. Although the farm house was a vernacular timber building, lacking decorative refinements, the occupants were affluent: they had the resources to consume imported plant foods and preserved fish, and to enjoy recreations including hunting and, probably, hawking (or some other form of hunting with tamed raptors). Architectural pretension was not the only way to express affluence and status in the countryside of late Roman Britain; structural remains are only one indication of prosperity. Biological evidence for economy, diet and life-style can be equally significant.