25 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 T. K. Betsinger, S. N. DeWitte (eds.), The Bioarchaeology of Urbanization, Bioarchaeology and Social Theory, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53417-2_2 Chapter 2 Changing People, Changing Settlements? A Perspective on Urbanism from Roman Britain Rebecca C. Redfern Abstract The conquest of Britain by the Roman Emperor Claudius from AD 43, saw the introduction of urban settlements, associated infrastructure (e.g., roads, water supply), and Imperial governance to a territory characterized by small dis- persed farming communities, organized into tribal confederacies. The integration of Britain into the Empire was marked by the imposition of entirely new, and often unfamiliar, economic and social practices, and ways of living, particularly those from the Mediterranean and more distant parts of Continental Europe. These devel- opments are evidenced by changes in the patterns of diseases and mortality risks observed post-Conquest in Britain’s population. However, research has shown that the bioarchaeological data are heterogeneous, revealing marked differences between towns, as well as between urban and rural settlements. This chapter seeks to under- stand the reasons for this heterogeneity, focusing on the theme of migration. Keywords Britain · Diet · Inequality · Migration 2.1 Introduction One of the defning characteristics of Roman Britain is urbanism, which Roman scholarship considers to be settlements with public buildings (e.g., market-places), a defned political territory, and used by the Imperial administration to govern the locale (Perkins and Nevett 2000). As Roman settlements have been studied since Antiquarian times, their physical remains have become bound-up with modern “urban archaeological resource management” (Bryant and Thomas 2015, p. 7), as R. C. Redfern (*) Centre for Human Bioarchaeology, Museum of London, London, UK School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK e-mail: rredfern@museumofondon.org.uk