Martyn Allen is well known to many in the Roman Studies Group, having talked to us previously, and as a freelance osteoarchaeologist he has provided expert bone  reports for some of our excavations. He is  currently a Post-Excavation Project Manager working for Oxford Archaeology Ltd. His  research focuses on the settlement and agricultural economy of late Iron Age and Roman Britain, with an emphasis on the zooarchaeological evidence. Previously he was a Research Fellow at the University of Reading, working on the Rural Settlement in Roman Britain project (http://www.reading.ac.uk/archaeology/research/Projects/arch-mf-settlement.aspx).

The subject of Roman rural settlement in Surrey has been chosen in the hope of kick starting some new projects in this field. It is not easy to predict where these settlements will be, nor how they might/should be characterised by the archaeology. Martyn hopes to present something on the available evidence - morphology, architecture, material culture and environmental remains which could then be used as a springboard for discussion.