The defended Vici of Roman Britain: recent research and new agendas

Smith, A. and Fulford, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8780-9691 (2019) The defended Vici of Roman Britain: recent research and new agendas. Britannia, 50. pp. 109-147. ISSN 1753-5352 doi: 10.1017/S0068113X19000151

Abstract/Summary

The evidence of the character and purpose of settlements previously described as defended ‘small towns’ is reviewed in the light of knowledge accrued since the implementation of Planning Policy Guidance 16 in 1990, the same year as the publication of Burnham and Wacher's survey, The ‘Small Towns’ of Roman Britain. This review focuses on four of the more extensively excavated settlements: Alcester, Cambridge, Godmanchester and Worcester. In the absence of convincing urban attributes, it is suggested that this category of settlement should more appropriately be regarded as defended villages (vici). These cluster in and around the West Anglian plain and on Ermine Street, suggesting a strategic function to protect grain and other food supplies and their movement, potentially either to the northern frontier or south to London and, perhaps, export to the Continent.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/84551
Identification Number/DOI	10.1017/S0068113X19000151
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science > Department of Archaeology
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
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