In the North of England is located Hadrian’s Wall, a large structure built during the Roman period in Britain and was manned by Roman legions. Around 410 AD the Roman period in Britain came to an...Show moreIn the North of England is located Hadrian’s Wall, a large structure built during the Roman period in Britain and was manned by Roman legions. Around 410 AD the Roman period in Britain came to an end. The transition between the Roman period to the Medieval period is a period of uncertainty for researchers. This is largely due to the lack of written sources from this time period. This problem extents to the Northern frontier. In this thesis the main research question is focused on seeing certain spatial and chronological patterns by looking at an artefact database of artefacts found in Northumberland, England that date back to around 43-1066 AD. The research is split up into two methods. The first is a literature research focused on comparing both the Roman and early medieval period on 5 aspects of social culture. The second method focusses on the data provided by the Northumberland Historic Environment Record. The data is transformed into a database in which the type of artefacts are split into 5 categories that are further split up into sub-categories. The spatial distribution of the data is analysed using Qgis. In the results from both research methods the following patterns can be observed. During the early medieval period there is a clear decrease in the amount of artefacts and those artefacts are mostly not present in locations which had large clusters during the Roman period. An exception to this trend is Corbridge which has datapoints belonging to all categories during both time periods. During the early medieval period new data clusters show up in Millfield and Holy island in the north of Northumberland. The decreasing datapoints can potentially imply that the Northern frontier region in Northumberland became a less favourable place to live in the early medieval period compared to the Roman period. The decrease of datapoints along Hadrian’s Wall can potentially imply a lessened importance in areas with a previously heavy Roman presence. The datapoint clusters in the north of Northumberland also indicate that the early medieval period saw new population centres that were not previously Roman.Show less
