Mobility and Roman Britannia

Abstract

This article reviews the evidence for mobility within, and into, the Roman province of Britannia, assesses the current state of the field and sets out how current approaches should be developed and improved. Mobility was foundational to the Roman empire and its provinces, and this paper demonstrates that Britannia provides a rich case study of the breadth, complexity and challenges of the datasets, methodologies and history of investigation of this central topic to understanding the Roman world. The review provides overviews of textual, epigraphic, material and bioarchaeological evidence and interpretive frameworks. Finally, it sets out a vision for holistic and ethical future archaeological research on this topic, especially in light of the bioarchaeological revolution in recent decades and rapidly developing datasets.