The archaeological foodscape of Roman Kent and Essex

The material manifestations of the colonial encounters occurring in Roman Britain has been subjective to diverse – and divisive – theoretical and methodological considerations. Situated within this ongoing discourse, this thesis employs occurrence and network analysis to investigate the impact of these colonial encounters in the foodscape of Early Roman Britain. Archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data were collected from reports of Roman excavations throughout the counties of Kent and Essex. Occurrence analysis was conducted using a site-type approach to reveal differences in plant and animal-based food occurrence. The imported plant foods data were visualized utilizing network analysis. This project reveals that while all site-types had some access to new foodstuffs following conquest, nucleated settlements and villas exhibited more frequent occurrence and greater diversity than the rural sites. The site-type differences in food availability/usage are interpreted as distinct forms of entanglement resulting from the colonial encounters, restructuring the British foodscape.