Akeld : Romano-British Period and After (AD 70- 500)

Towards the end of the first millennium BC, pollen evidence suggests that all remaining upland forest had been cleared, and small-enclosed settlements or "homesteads" were established in increasing numbers on slopes and high moorland.

Some of these new settlements seem to have been established within the ramparts of earlier hillforts, or overlying the defences, which in some cases were seen to have been abandoned for some time (Welfare 2002, 75). The 'scooped platforms' at Glead's Cleugh and Harehope Hill may date to this later period. Settlements of this type are very common in this region, their distinctive appearance being the result of digging out or "scooping" house platforms and stockyards directly into the hill slopes. Though they are usually considered Romano-British, it is possible that they may have originated in the late Pre-Roman Iron Age and are likely to have been in use for a considerable period.

This part of Northumberland lay beyond the Roman frontier for much of the period of occupation, and the influence of Roman culture is likely to have been slight and very indirect (Higham 1986, 224-6). Small enclosed homesteads such as these are likely to have continued to be used for several centuries, and were perhaps only eventually abandoned in favour of lower-lying hamlets and villages, many of which are in existence today, in the early medieval period, following a political takeover by new warrior elites originally deriving from Northern Europe and Scandinavia.