R Script for analysis of Romano-British settlement data

Part of the Social Reactors Project datasets project

Author(s): Scott Ortman

Year: 2024

Summary

A key question in economic history is the degree to which preindustrial economies could generate sustained increases in per capita productivity. Previous studies suggest that, in many preindustrial contexts, growth was primarily a consequence of agglomeration. Here, we examine evidence for three different socioeconomic rates that are available from the archaeological record for Roman Britain. We find that all three measures show increasing returns to scale with settlement population, with a common elasticity that is consistent with the expectation from settlement scaling theory. We also identify a pattern of increase in baseline rates, similar to that observed in contemporary societies, suggesting that this economy did generate modest levels of per capita productivity growth over a four-century period. Last, we suggest that the observed growth is attributable to changes in transportation costs and to institutions and technologies related to socioeconomic interchange. These findings reinforce the view that differences between ancient and contemporary economies are more a matter of degree than kind.

Cite this Record

R Script for analysis of Romano-British settlement data. Scott Ortman. Science Advances. 10 (27). 2024 ( tDAR id: 500962) ; doi:10.48512/XCV8500962

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

URL: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adk5517


Keywords

Culture
Roman Empire

Material
Building Materials • Metal

Site Name
BANES • Bedfordshire • Berkshire • Buckinghamshire • Cambridgeshire • Cheshire • City of York • Clwyd-Powys • Cornwall • Cumbria • Derbyshire • Devon • Dorset • Durham • Dyfed • East Riding • East Sussex • Essex • Glamorgan-Gwent • Gloucestershire • Greater London • Greater Manchester • Gwynedd • Hampshire • Herefordshire • Hertfordshire • Isle of Wight • Kent • Lancashire • Leicestershire • Lincolnshire • Merseyside • Norfolk • Northamptonshire • Northumberland • North Yorkshire • Nottinghamshire • Oxfordshire • Rutland • Shropshire • Somerset • South Yorkshire • Staffordshire • Suffolk • Surrey • Warwickshire • West Midlands • West Sussex • West Yorkshire • Wiltshire • Worcestershire Show More

Site Type
Domestic Structure or Architectural Complex • Domestic Structures • Non-Domestic Structures • Settlements

Investigation Types
Data Recovery / Excavation • Methodology, Theory, or Synthesis • Site Evaluation / Testing

General
Excavation Results

Geographic Keywords
United Kingdom

Temporal Keywords
Roman Britain

Temporal Coverage

Calendar Date: 50 to 400 (Roman Period)

Spatial Coverage

min long: -6.309; min lat: 50.02 ; max long: 1.936; max lat: 56.242 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Scott Ortman

File Information

  Name Size Creation Date Date Uploaded Access
rb_Int_Growth_R.txt 27.66kb Jul 11, 2024 Jul 18, 2024 3:07:42 PM Public
R file associated with the two data files analyzed in this publication, converted into a text document.