I particularly wish to thank Gail Falkingham for insightful comments on an earlier version of this draft, as well as Jo Gilham, Catherine Hardman, Louisa Matthews, Ray Moore and Julian Richards for various discussions that have informed this piece. Additional thanks are due to the team of the Roman Rural Settlement of Britain Project, principally Martyn Allen, Tom Brindle, Neil Holbrook and Alex Smith, whose various views and research on 'grey literature' and excavation trends have helped inform sections of this work. Additional thanks are due to Mark Barratt and Martin Newman for clarification of the role of the Excavation Index. Any mistakes and oversights are, of course, my own. Finally, I wish to thank ALGAO England for the provision of their statistics for incorporation within the article. The publication of this article was supported by a Departmental Research Grant from the Department of Archaeology, University of York.