ABSTRACT
There is a very strong tradition of studying the material culture of Roman Britain, as well as the preceding Iron Age, including pottery, glass, coins, brooches, other jewellery and metalwork objects, intaglios, leatherwork, wooden objects and bone objects. Objects interpreted as female within domestic contexts for example have been ignored or interpreted differently when found in military contexts. The specialist study of objects has long formed an integral and highly informative role in Roman archaeology to support excavations and textual evidence and this is no less the case in Romano-British studies. Artefact studies have long been the focus of specialists in Roman archaeology, which has produced a huge amount of important data and information that we would not otherwise have. New perspectives for studying and theorising material culture within archaeology, especially in developing socially inspired approaches, were influenced by anthropology and sociology and the reconsideration of the relationship between objects and humans.
