Timber structures, sometimes associated with industrial activity, also altered the organisation of space within public buildings whilst indicating their continued use. Other traces of activity within the public buildings are also examined here, including spreads of pottery sherds, coins, and animal bones. These remains, however, are usually considered to relate to a period after the buildings had ceased to be maintained or had been abandoned. Along with the timber structures, they have been regarded as representing the ‘slum conditions’ of town centres (Wheeler and Wheeler 1936: 30), squatters amongst the ruins (Collingwood and Myres 1936: 206), and a ‘degenerate’ situation of ‘shanty towns of huts and shelters’ (Faulkner 1996: 94; 2000a: 124) at a period when Roman civilisation and order had decayed and vanished. This interpretation is used to support notions of decline because it contradicts perceptions of economic vitality and Golden Age images of urbanism.

Ward-Perkins (2005: 94–5) considered timber structures to represent ‘the disappearance of comfort’ and the end of civilisation. His excavations on a small area of the forum at Luni in northern Italy, which uncovered traces of two timber buildings cutting into the robbed forum floor, became a well-known type-site to support his argument for the decline of towns (1978, 1981); however, Cameron (1993a: 198) sees this as applying ‘inappropriate classical norms’ to the evidence. An approach that avoids more negative interpretations is more helpful.