Roman \"Abandonment\" of Britain: Fact or Fiction?

[Robert Vermaat]

I haven't seen a conference publication yet-

me neither, and there were a great number of very interesting papers!

Matt makes the very good point about the lack of 5th century coinage.

true, but it's not a strictly British phenomenon, although it's symptomatic (or at least it was, I'm not always following the latest publications) for the way archaeology looks at British events, without comparing these to event in NW Gaul. As it happens, minting halted in the Gaulish mints also, and others closed (or we have no more evidence of production) after the mid-5th century.

The Londinium mint did not produce coins after 388.
Other dates for NW Europe are:
Camulodunum, (Colchester, Britain) 296
Ticinum, (Pavia, Italy) closed 326
Ambianum, (Amiens, France) 353
Lugdunum, (Lyons, France) closed 423
Aquileia, (Italy) 425
Treveri, (Trier, Germany) 430
Arelatum/Constantina, (Arles, France) 475

Therefore I think it’s not simply a matter of Britain breaking away from the Roman Empire, but a development that involved the minting of coinage in this part of the Empire, combined with political as well as military actions.

And this - in my opinion- is why no "grand theory" of transition from Roman rule (whatever that meant in 4th century Britain) to Saxon/ Romano British/ post Roman rule works. The transition is best understood area by area, town by town, even village by village.

I agree, and for me this also is not only a model for Britannia, but also for the rest of Germania, Gallia and Hispania. The change is gradual but relentless and ends everywhere at a different point in time, but always with the ‘end’ of identification with Rome, or ‘the Roman period’ if you wish.