Search

The purpose of this dissertation was to conduct a systematic examination into municipal incorporation activity in the United States through three primary avenues. To accomplish this task Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) and 2000 U.S. Census Bureau data was examined. First, a geographical analysis of NIMs was conducted to determine the essential spatial attributes of newly incorporated municipalities. The geographical analyses of NIMs revealed that the South Census region received a disproportionate share of NIM activity (151 out of 263) and North Carolina witnessed the most incorporations of any state (34). Likewise, a unique clustering of NIMs within certain counties was evident while other NIMs were formed in relative isolation. The geography of these clustering NIMs can be partially explained by a "herd mentality" where a local political culture is established that facilitates the diffusion of a NIM ideology in response to the aggressive annexation tactics of neighboring cities. Secondly, an examination of socio-economic differences between NIMs and their Cohort Cities largely confirmed the existing literature on municipal incorporation. Through the use of a T-test and ANOVA procedures it was determined that NIMs have statistically significantly smaller populations, lower population densities, higher percentages of white residents, higher median household incomes, lower percentages of poverty and larger percentages of residents employed in management occupations compared to existing municipalities. Interestingly, spatial variability by Census Region and Metropolitan designation had little impact on the statistically significant socio-economic variables. Finally, three NIM typologies where identified based on socio-economic variation among NIMs utilizing Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis techniques. These three National NIM Types include Exclusive Enclaves, Suburban Settlements, and Peripheral Communities that deviated based on skills/affluence

In 1796, the antiquary Samuel Lysons (1763-1819) oversaw the clearance of a series of figured mosaics on a site at Nunnery Mead in Dorset. The floors, considered to be among the richest produced in Roman Britain, were recorded in considerable detail and left open, before the site was abandoned late in 1797. Although Lysons published the results of investigations at Frampton, questions regarding the structural form, extent, chronology and sequence of the buildings revealed, remained unanswered. The ultimate fate of the mosaics themselves was unclear, although it was assumed they had been destroyed. Recent work, however, has shown that not only do significant areas of floor survive, but also that evidence exists to help interpret both the form of the Roman building and the nature of backfill and consolidation following Lysons’ work.

The idea that an invading Roman army brought about the end of hillforts in south-west Britain, using artillery fire to demoralize and defeat their enemy, is one of the most powerful narratives in British archaeology, being a constant element in both academic literature and public discourse. At the heart of the debate is the evidence recovered by Mortimer Wheeler during fieldwork conducted at Maiden Castle, in Dorset, between 1936–37. Wheeler interpreted a series of burials found in the east gate of the hillfort as a ‘war cemetery’, residue of an ultimately futile defence of the site, in the face of Roman aggression, by the local Durotriges tribe. A recent survey of hillforts in Dorset has, however, cast significant doubt on Wheeler’s hypothesis, suggesting that not only is the widely accepted battle-theory unsupported by the archaeological evidence, but also that the Durotriges themselves were unconnected to any fortification or defence of Maiden Castle. This paper explores the conclusions of that survey, examining how the dramatic story of a siege first took shape in the late 1930s and why it became so immediately popular with the public. The problems of linking material remains to postulated historical events are outlined and the beginnings of a new model for Late Iron Age settlement at Maiden Castle are presented for the first time.

Two damaged and partially restored Roman portraits in the collection of the British Museum, previously identified as being either the emperor Caligula or an unknown “JulioClaudian prince,” are here reassessed and identified as Agrippa Postumus, the youngest grandson and adopted heir of Augustus. The first portrait, from southern Britain, may have come from a temple dedicated to the worship of the Julio-Claudian house, while the second was probably part of an equestrian group standing outside the Aedes Castoris in Rome. This is a significant reinterpretation, providing potential evidence not only for links between Rome’s first family and the rulers of a distant client kingdom, but also for the framing of imperial power and the uncertain nature of the Augustan succession in the early years of the 1st c. CE

A magnetometry survey of the Roman fort at Lake Farm, near Wimborne Minster in Dorset, first discovered in 1959, has upgraded the status of this site to a full legionary fortress: a major base of the legio II Augusta during the subjugation of the Durotriges and other tribes of southwest Britain. The interior layout of the fortress was identified for the first time, together with the original road and river connections, extensive areas of extramural activity and evidence for an earlier phase of the site as a marching camp