Many coins, bits of broken pottery, glass and metal were found by archaeologists in Rocester, Stoke-on-Trent and other sites in Staffordshire. Believe it or not, they help us to understand the way people lived in our area in Roman times.

Most people lived in the countryside and carried on their agricultural way of life much the same as they did before the Romans invaded.

Some people were forced into slavery and were transported to other parts of the empire to work for the wealthy. Many slaves had very hard lives, although some were well-treated and later freed by their masters. Slavery was not new however, it had been common throughout the iron age.

The wealthy and influential were in the minority, but it is their 'Romanised' culture that we see most often.

Most of the artefacts found by archaeologists belonged to the society's elite, who would have had little in common with the majority of people who lived in Roman Britain - the poorer peasants. We often only find artefacts that belonged to the wealthy, such as their jewellery, fine pottery and glass, their stone and brick-built houses and graves. sometimes there are more mysterious finds such as the Lightwood hoard.

However, ordinary people are rarely written about in Roman documents or on inscriptions, so it is through archaeology that they can be seen. Some objects tell us more about their everyday lives, such as their agricultural tools and coarse pottery. Slave shackles have also been found which remind us of their existence in Roman Britain.