Water and Decentring Urbanism in the Roman Period: Urban Materiality, Post-Humanism and Identity

In this chapter, the relationship between water and urbanism in the Roman period is examined by looking at the ways in which water formed part of the urban fabric and the implications of this for understanding urban development, urban lives and identities, that decentres approaches to Roman urbanism. Water reminds us that the dualism of ‘natural’ and ‘humanmade’ components of settlements and landscapes needs to be studied and brought together through meaningful frameworks of analysis. ‘Decentring’ urbanism draws on different perspectives of urbanism and allows us to move away from the top-down Romanocentric approach to urban studies and look for additional perspectives and experiences. The example of water allows us to explore urbanism by looking at landscape, religion and ritual, and identity and experience. The paper focuses on the towns of Britain in the Roman era, with case studies of Colchester (Camulodunum), St Albans (Verulamium), London (Londinium), Lincoln (Lindum) and Winchester (Venta Belgarum), and reflects on the way in which provinces across the Empire differed in the nature of urban development and urban experience. There was no one Roman world, but many different worlds in the Roman era where there were different identities and experiences.