Britain’s economy thrived after the withdrawal of the Roman Empire

An archaeological dig in northern England shows iron and lead processing continued and even increased after the departure of the Romans

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(New Scientist) When the Roman Empire withdrew from Britain, the result was not chaos and economic collapse. The metals industry in what is now northern England continued and even expanded in the subsequent centuries, according to an archaeological record of pollution from metalworking.

“The argument has been that, with the disappearance of state apparatus and linked state transport systems, the regional economies collapse totally,” says Christopher Loveluck at the University of Nottingham in the UK. But that isn’t what the archaeology revealed. “We're seeing an increase in metal pollution products.”