ALDBOROUGH, ENGLAND—When the Romans conquered Britain in the first century a.d., they transformed the island into an industrial powerhouse, particularly by means of large-scale extraction and processing of metals. Scholars have long assumed that when Roman rule over Britain collapsed around a.d. 400, metal production ceased to exist almost overnight. However, according to a statement released by the University of Cambridge, this may not be the case at all. Researchers from the Universiy of Cambridge and the University of Nottingham recently examined a 15-foot-long sediment core taken from Aldborough, Yorkshire. This was the site of the former Roman settlement of Isurium Brigantum, which was an important metal processing center. The team examined the sediment layers captured in the core for traces of heavy metals such as lead, copper, and zinc, which provide clear evidence of smelting. The results surprisingly revealed that there was no apparent drop-off in production after the Romans departed. If anything, there was actually an increase in iron and lead smelting through the fifth to mid-sixth century a.d., thereby contradicting popular beliefs about industrial activity in post-Roman Britain. There was not a noticeable decline in activity until around a.d. 550 to 600, which may have been caused by the onset of the Justinian plague. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Antiquity. To read more about the collapse of Roman Britain and the period that followed, go to "A Dark Age Beacon."
