The period from 43 AD, when Britain was invaded by the Roman army, to the 5th century, when links with the remains of the western Roman empire were severed. For about 400 years, Britain was part of the Roman empire, and this is reflected in the range of new aspects that appear in the archaeology of that time. These include: a greater variety of pottery, coins and metal goods; stone, tile, mortar and plaster as building materials; wall paintings; and heating systems. Major industrial production of such items as pottery, and major engineering schemes for roads, bridges, drainage, town planning and so on, were also important innovations.

Time Team has carried out a number of investigations into Roman sites in Britain, details of which can be found in the Past programmes section of this website. These include the 1997 Live dig on the site of a Roman villa at Turkdean, in Gloucestershire. As well as a detailed report on the dig, our special Live website included a chronology of Roman Britain, a range of Roman recipes and other links and resources.

Time Team returned to Turkdean as part of its 1999 series to see if it could make sense of the spectacular geophysics results that there had not been time to investigate during the Live programme. That same series also included a programme on a Roman bath house found at Beauport Park, East Sussex, and another programme based around a Roman settlement next to a fort at Papcastle, in Cumbria. The 2000 series included an excavation of Roman remains at Cirencester and at Birdoswald on Hadrian's Wall. All of these pages contain further information and extensive links to Roman-related websites.

As well as investigating another Roman villa, this time in the Waltham Villa programme, the 2001 series also saw Time Team searching for the remains of a Roman villa at Lower Basildon in Berkshire. There is a special feature on the web pages for that programme on Roman mosaics, including an extensive list of Roman mosaic websites and suggestions for further reading and places to visit.

The 2002 series featured Roman digs at Castleford, Ancaster and Cheshunt, while the 2003 series featured those at Dinnington and Sedgefield. The 2004 series featured three Roman sites, at Whitestaunton, Ipswich and Cranborne Chase. For the 2005 series, Time Team investigated Roman sites at Drumlanrig and South Shields, as well as a multi-period site at Standish, Gloucestershire, that was occupied into the Roman era. The 2006 series featured Roman sites at Withington, Utrecht, Ffrith and Alfoldean.

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Dark Ages