Issue I, Summer 2011
Dear Member I am delighted to write a few words of The main initiatives which I hope will welcome in the first issue of our new benefit members more generally are the Contents electronic newsletter. The members are changes we have made at the Annual the core of the Society and anything we General Meeting and this do depends entirely on your support. So newsletter. We now have a „mini- Welcome from it is important that we give you feedback conference‟ at the AGM, with five papers and encourage you to reciprocate. on different aspects of a theme and the President Over the last year or so we have intended to be of general interest. This begun to broaden the work of the year‟s theme was Vindolanda and I am Society from its traditional academic delighted that so many of you – well over Editorial activities, which include the publication 100 – came. of our journals and occasional But the e-Newsletter will be the most monographs, and supporting our important new way of reaching out to Society News wonderful library. While these remain of you all and engaging you more with the the highest importance, at the same time Society‟s activities. I am delighted that From the Field we need to find new ways to support Peter Guest and Fraser Hunter have Roman studies. We are doing more to developed this new initiative and I encourage children at school to learn encourage you to support them by Research Latin and have recently introduced a sending contributions for future issues. bursary scheme for people wishing to have some experience of Roman Dr Andrew Burnett, President Conferences & antiquities in museums. Meetings EDITORIAL The Roman World is a richly fascinating While this first issue is unashamedly Exhibitions period of history and our Society was British and archaeological, there is also founded just over a century ago to much about the history, art and literature Learning encourage the study of the from all parts of the Roman World and extraordinarily diverse evidence for every member will find more than Rome and the Roman Empire. In 2010 enough to whet their appetites. News the Society celebrated its centenary, and In future, we hope that Epistula will one of the main challenges for all of us expand to cover an even wider range of in the early 21st century is how to keep interests, but we are particularly pleased Books up with the ever increasing pace of to be able to use this first issue to discovery and research. announce the imminent launch of Contribute & In order to take advantage of the IMAGO - the Society's online image digital age, the Archaeology Committee bank developed from the much-loved Subscribe proposed establishing an e-Newlsetter slide collection. This new resource will that would meet this challenge and help be invaluable for lecturers, teachers and keep members, and everyone interested students alike, and is a very fitting way in the Roman period, informed and up- to start the Society‟s second century. We Roman Society e-News to-date – Epistula is the result. hope you enjoy Epistula Prima. ISSN 2047-6292 Brittunculi Society News
IMAGO The best of the Roman Society‟s slide collection will be available online shortly via the Society‟s website at: www.romansociety.org/imago
Containing over 1,500 images of sites, monuments and objects from across the Roman world, IMAGO is launched to commemorate the Society‟s centenary in 2010.
IMAGO is a comprehensive image bank of photos donated by members over many years, and will be useful for anyone interested in Roman archaeology and history, particularly students, lecturers and teachers.
Images are available as downloadable jpeg files, but also can be simply copied into electronic presentations produced using software such as PowerPoint.
IMAGO will develop over time and new digital images can be easily donated.
ROMAN ARCHAEOLOGY CONFERENCE 2012 RAC 2012 is taking place in Frankfurt am Main, Germany from 29 March to 1 April 2012.
Hosted by the Römisch-Germanische Kommission des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, the conference will be held in the new central lecture theatre building at the Campus Westend of the Goethe University, Frankfurt, and two excursions will be arranged to sites in the surrounding area. TRAC 2012, organised by the Goethe University and the Technische Universität Darmstadt, will run in parallel.
Further information is available at www.rac2012.org, and registration will open in August.
SEVERUS CONFERENCE 15.30 Tea Saturday 26th November, British Museum 16.00 Dr Fraser Hunter: “Barbarians in revolt”: Caledonia before and after Severus The Roman Society and Association of Roman Archaeology will hold a conference at the British For further information, see the Society’s website Museum to mark the 1800th anniversary of the death of (www.romansociety.org), and to books tickets, please the Emperor Severus. contact the Society ([email protected]).
13.30 Dr Philip Kenrick: Lucius Septimius Severus: Libya’s most distinguished son? 14.30 Dr Nick Hodgson: The archaeology of the British expedition of Septimius Severus, AD 208-11 Epistula I, 2 From the Field
BINCHESTER This summer sees the third season of excavation on the On the basis of coins and ceramic material, activity Roman fort and vicus at Binchester (Co. Durham), within the vicus appears to have extended into the later carried out by a team involving Durham University, 4th century; there is tentative evidence that it may even Stanford University, Durham County Council and the have continued into the sub-Roman period, but this will Archaeological and Architectural Society of Durham and require further confirmation. Northumberland. A large campaign of geophysical survey around the The team have opened up two trenches, one in the fort has helped define the extent of the vicus, building on north-east corner of the fort and one in the vicus. The previous surveys carried out by Durham County Council fort trench has revealed a probable late Roman barrack and Time Team. Almost the entire gravel plateau block and parts of the rampart, including two towers and surrounding the fort was utilised in the Roman period. an oven. Significantly, there appears to be considerable The survey has also identified what appears to be an sub-Roman activity across the area, including large- area of industrial activity and a probable inhumation scale animal butchery and continued use of the main cemetery, bringing to three the number of cemeteries barrack building for a range of craft or industrial known at the site. Small evaluations are planned on the purposes, including antler working. This complements a cemetery and industrial areas later this year to confirm similar range of sub-Roman activity found in previous interpretations of the geophysical data. excavations within the late Roman bath house and The project has a strong community element and praetorium by Iain Ferris and Rick Jones.It seems that has involved the public not just in the excavation itself, sub-Roman activity within the fort was not limited to a but also in the post-excavation process, with finds small focal area around the commander‟s house, but processing and training in environmental processing. As was spread extensively across the fort interior. part of a new initiative, members of the local Excavations within the vicus have been sited along archaeological society will soon start a project recording a stretch of Dere Street to the east of the fort. Despite and researching a substantial assemblage of objects post-medieval landscaping and considerable medieval collected during metal detecting rallies at the site in the and post-medieval use of the Roman road, a number of late 1990s. Roman structures have been identified, among them a The project would like to thank English Heritage and stone-built strip building with evidence for craft activity, the Roman Research Trust for support. Follow progress including jet-working. Another stone structure had of the excavation on our blog at apparently been extended, and what appear to be the http://binchester.blogspot.com/ bases of splayed windows survive in situ within the fabric of the building, indicating a considerable depth of David Petts (Durham University) surviving stratigraphy.
CAERLEON Excavations will continue at Caerleon in 2011, investigating the newly discovered suburb of monumental buildings outside the legionary fortress of Isca, including a possible quay on the River Usk.
Further details of this research and engagement project, including information on the results of previous geophysical surveys and large-scale excavations within and outside the fortress, can be found on the Cardiff University website.
Peter Guest (Cardiff University)
Reconstruction of the southern canabae at Caerleon (© 7reasons)
Epistula I, 3 From the Field
DEWLISH VILLA, DORSET Between 1969 and 1979, on behalf of Weymouth No environmental finds have survived the years, but College, the late Dr W.G. Putnam excavated a villa at work is in hand to seek funding for a full analysis of the Dewlish, Dorset. Valiant attempts were made to pottery and the fragments of architectural stonework. establish a post-excavation project with a view to Examination of the glass from the site is nearing publication, but critically important aspects of the work completion. A preliminary geophysical survey revealed remained incomplete and, as a result, a comprehensive complexities in the plan of the villa that had not been report was never written. noted during excavation; it is hoped that a new survey will form part of the project. The archive has become scattered over the years, but in 2010, with the invaluable help of Maureen Putnam, Iain Hewitt (Bournemouth University) Bournemouth University began the task of re-uniting the [email protected] surviving archive. A new post-excavation project has been put together, leading to publication.
EXETER Members may be interested to hear of the excavation by contemporary to that from the Roman legionary fortress Exeter Archaeology of a Roman military supply base or at Exeter some 2.6km to the north-west. works depot at Exeter in the summer of 2010. A post-trench building of Roman military design, Evaluation of the site in 2008 at the behest of the probably a workshop, was constructed on top of the City Archaeological Officer in advance of proposed infilled ditch. This is interpreted as a „fort‟ or works depot development had found evidence for two closely spaced on the Roman road from the fort or fortlet at Topsham (on defensive ditches characteristic of the Roman military. the navigable estuary of the River Exe) to the legionary Open area excavation of the 1.6ha site revealed fortress at Exeter. The south-west corner and an evidence stretching from the prehistoric to post-medieval unbroken length of almost 200m of the southern periods. A late pre-Roman Iron Age settlement was defences were exposed. Timber buildings within the represented by at least two successive enclosure base included a workshop (fabrica) arranged around ditches, surrounding a single, centrally placed three sides of a courtyard with an aisled hall to the west roundhouse approximately 7m in diameter. The earlier and an accommodation block (barrack?) forming the enclosure was banjo-shaped with an entrance on its east north range (see location „A‟ on the attached plan). A side, whilst the later enclosure was larger and multi-phase series of timber buildings (location „B‟) would rectangular but retained an entrance in a similar position. have stood alongside the Roman road where the modern After a short period of abandonment, the later ditch was Exeter to Topsham Road now runs. The presence of deliberately infilled to ground level during the Roman open spaces and the apparent random nature of the military period at Exeter (c.A.D. 55-75). The infill deposits building plan suggest this was not a standard auxiliary produced a Roman military pottery assemblage, fort. Nor is it likely to have been another legionary including samian ware and other imported fine wares, fortress so close to the known example at Exeter.
The suspected works depot at St Loye‟s, Exeter (© Exeter Archaeology)
Epistula I, 4 From the Field
A supply base or works depot serving the Roman army in the western part of the site, with a Roman field system presence in the South West peninsula might offer a to the east. Five inhumations were found towards the reasonable interpretation, given that the Exeter fortress is bottom of the site well away from the road. No direct known to have had its own sizeable extra-mural dating evidence was found but a mid-late Roman date for compound or stores-base. the cemetery is suspected. The works depot at St Loye‟s was probably Perhaps the most exciting find was part of a wooden decommissioned as part of the withdrawal of the Roman stilus writing-tablet re-used for an ink text, with some army presence from the forts in the South-West by the letters still legible. This tablet has been studied by Prof. mid 80s A.D but specialist reports on the pottery and Roger Tomlin at Oxford and may refer to the presence of other dating evidence is awaited. The timber buildings an armourer at the base, which would fit well with current adjacent to the road would have been attractive for re- theories. use and may have continued into the Roman civil period. A summary will appear in the forthcoming Britannia; A well, thought to be of military origin and provided with full publication is planned for The Proceedings of the substantial supports for a winding mechanism, was Devon Archaeological Society. apparently serviceable until the late second century, when it was backfilled. A number of industrial features John Pamment Salvatore (Exeter Archaeology) considered to be of the Roman civil period were recorded
INVERESK MITHRAEUM Excavations on the eastern edge of the fort complex of Inveresk in East Lothian have revealed the first evidence for the cult of Mithras in Scotland. The excavations, for East Lothian Council by AOC Archaeology Group, preceded the rebuilding of the cricket pavilion after it was burnt down. The findspot is over 750 m from the fort, in an area where little Roman activity was previously known. Excavations exposed part of a sub-rectangular sunken feature 6.1 m long, at least 4.1 m wide and 0.65 m deep. Buried face-down at its north-west end were two intact altars, both offered by the same person, C Cassius Fla[vianus?], a centurion. One is dedicated to Sol and bears a bust of the god, his pierced eyes and radiate crown allowing light to shine through from a recess carved in the rear; the capital carries busts of the four seasons. The other is dedicated to Mithras, with imagery linked to Apollo (lyre, plectrum and griffin) and sacrificial implements carved on the sides. Traces of pigment The two Inveresk altars in situ, face down. survive on both altars. Close by was an altar base. (© AOC Archaeology Group) Inveresk was only occupied in the Antonine period, and had a cavalry garrison for at least part of its Inveresk has produced some remarkable finds over the occupation; C Cassius Fla… may have been a legionary years, including two altars dedicated by the Imperial centurion in command of the auxiliary unit. Most Procurator and, most recently, the first cavalry tombstone evidence for Mithras in Britain dates to the third or fourth known from Scotland. It is one of the few Scottish sites century, though his cult was known elsewhere along the where aerial photography and extensive excavation have frontier from the later first century, so it is not unexpected revealed a picture of a fort in its landscape, with vicus, to find his worship in the Britain at this time. Sol and cemeteries, field systems, and now evidence of religious Mithras were often associated or conflated, while the structures. Was the sunken feature a timber-built linking of Mithras and Apollo, both solar deities, is also mithraeum? paralleled elsewhere. John Gooder (AOC Archaeology Group) and Fraser Hunter (National Museums Scotland)
Epistula I, 5 From the Field
PUNTA SECCA, SICILY Excavations by the University of British Columbia in 2008–2010 uncovered a residential building in the known late Roman/early Byzantine village settlement on the south coast of Sicily near Punta Secca (RG). It is traditionally identified (probably incorrectly) with Procopius‟ Kaukana where Belisarius set sail for Africa in A.D. 533. The building had a short life, from c. 580/600 to c. 650. The real surprise was the discovery of a substantial „élite‟ tomb of c. 625/30 standing in an open area within the house: it contained the body of a young woman aged 25 and her daughter aged about 4, inserted later. A grave slab reading hagios, hagios hagios suggests they were Christian. A libation hole, an offering table, a bench and hearths show that funerary feasting took place in their honour, a discovery unique in Sicily. Four questions are puzzling us. (a) the house as excavated (2010): the tomb is at bottom left (a) Burials inside a house within a settlement (except of the „dumped‟ variety in abandoned buildings) are very rare in late antiquity (except in monasteries); are there parallels for substantial built tombs in a domestic context (as opposed to in or near a church, whether intramural or extramural)? (b) An African lamp has an apparently unique design on its discus of uncertain interpretation (is it the world‟s earliest depiction of a backgammon board?); do readers know of parallels? (c) The burial slab with the inscription has a design surrounding it best paralleled in rock art in the Alps showing the „camunian rose‟, a version of the swastika – yet those examples are 1000 years or more earlier than (b) African lamp, second half of the sixth century ours. Is the similarity coincidence or are there other post-Iron-Age examples? (d) The woman had a birth defect, a hole at the rear of her cranium, a rare condition known as atretic cephalocele, of which ours appears to be the earliest example attested. Do readers know of others?
Any help with these four questions, or indeed other comments on the discovery, would be much appreciated. (c) the inscribed tomb slab Preliminary reports have appeared in Journal of Roman Archaeology 22 (2009), 412–15; Minerva 21.6 (2010), 34–7; Current World Archaeology 44 (December 2010), 38–45; and American Journal of Archaeology 115 (2011), 263–302.
Roger Wilson (University of British Columbia) [email protected]
Epistula I, 6 From the Field
VINDOLANDA Remains of a possible Romano-British refugee camp of the rebellious tribes to the north. have been found at Roman Vindolanda It would make a certain sense to bring friendly The on-going excavations at the Roman site of farmers behind the curtain of Hadrian‟s Wall and protect Vindolanda have a habit of unearthing some of the most them while the fighting continued, as they would have remarkable finds from Roman Britain: letters, murder had real value to the Romans. Given current events, it is victims, and the largest collection of shoes from the perhaps ironic that we may have found the evidence at Roman Empire, to name but a few. This year the Vindolanda for a refugee camp founded on the order of archaeologists have found a new series of circular huts, an Emperor who came from modern day Libya, engaged built during the troubled time of the Roman invasion of in intervening and protecting some Britons from others. Scotland under the Emperor Septimius Severus (A.D. After the death of Severus in AD211 and the 208-211). retrenchment of the frontier on the Hadrian‟s Wall line An earlier fort at Vindolanda was completely levelled the roundhouses were demolished and a traditional for the construction of these new buildings, which may Roman fort replaced them, constructed by the 4th cohort number into the hundreds and completely covered the of Gauls. It is hoped that more of these structures will be old fort site. But what were they for? Roman soldiers are uncovered and that the secret of their true meaning not thought to have built roundhouses, and this has led might be determined. Excavations continue through to the archaeologists to consider other reasons why the the 16th of September. Roman army would go to such lengths to accommodate Other exciting developments at the site include a these unusual structures at a military site. Past ideas completely refurbished museum, with a fine selection of have ranged from irregular Severan units to slaves, but writing tablets on a rolling 3-year loan from the British perhaps an answer closer to home is more likely. Museum. New site interpretation and a stunning new 3D They are the sort of buildings you might expect to film (on show at the nearby Roman Army Museum) give find just north of Hadrian‟s Wall in this period, used by the Vindolanda research collection the stage that it has small farming communities. Were the Roman Army long deserved. You can see the trailer of the 3D film and providing for these farmers, creating a temporary refuge learn more about the exciting developments at the site for the most vulnerable people from north of the Wall in a on the new Vindolanda.com website. time of conflict? Those people may have helped to feed the army and traded with the soldiers, and might have Andrew Birley (Vindolanda Trust) been regarded as traitors and collaborators in the eyes
One of the roundhouses emerging. (© Adam Stanford and the Vindolanda Trust)
Epistula I, 7 Research
COMMERCIAL ARCHAEOLOGY AND ROMAN BRITAIN Around 90% of archaeological fieldwork in Britain over England which encountered Roman archaeology, where the last 20 years has been prompted by the planning they were located, and the proportion that have reached process. Many of these investigations have been conventional publication (available online at comparatively small in scale such as evaluations and http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/arch-811- watching briefs, although at the opposite end of the 1/dissemination/pdf/2205_Roman_Grey_Lit_Stage_1_R spectrum there have been some enormous pieces of eport_Jan_08_PDF.pdf This was followed by a more work associated with major infrastructure schemes, detailed assessment of the research potential of grey mineral extraction and residential development. While literature in four pilot areas, which has acted as a the results of this substantive work, often secured by a springboard for grant applications to roll out the project condition attached to a planning consent, are expected out nationally. A paper summarising our main to progress to publication in conventional formats such conclusions to date will be published in the Antiquaries as monographs and county and national journals, work Journal in the autumn, and assessments of the undertaken prior to the determination of a planning contribution to knowledge of commercial archaeology in application or small-scale works on condition such as the pilot areas will appear in forthcoming editions of the watching briefs etc are normally documented in county journals for Essex, Somerset, Warwickshire and unpublished reports deposited in the local Historic Yorkshire. Environment Record. These reports form the principal One of our major tasks has been to find out just how component of so-called grey literature; reports which are much work has been going on in Roman Britain. We in theory publicly accessible, but in reality local estimate that around 6,600 interventions encountered communities and academic researchers alike have Roman remains in England between 1990 and 2004, found difficult to access because of the problems of and that 30% of these were excavations. The scale of finding out what is available, their unfamiliar appearance archaeological work in England since 1990 greatly and highly restricted distribution. The need to make the exceeded anything that had gone before, although these results of developer-funded work more readily available investigations have not been evenly spread across the has been recognised as a priority by English Heritage country and display a marked concentration in the south and others in the archaeological community for some and east. This regional variation is related to factors time now, and the increasing number of electronic such as the intensity and extent of development across reports accessible via the OASIS website England, differences in the ease with which sites can be (
Epistula I, 8 Research
It is the countryside, however, where the scale and aims in relation to the agricultural economy of Roman volume of investigation has generated an increase in Britain and how we might achieve them. knowledge of several orders of magnitude, almost Commercial archaeology has its supporters and entirely due to the impact of planning requirements. detractors, but none the less our research shows that Here work on non-villa settlements, ranging from single the vast quantity of new data does have value, although farmsteads through to nucleated villages, has formed a the quality is variable (both in terms of the potential of vital counterbalance to the focus of earlier work on villas. the archaeology revealed and the research capability of It is these farmsteads which would have been home to the investigating organisation). Commercial archaeology 95% or more of the rural population of Roman Britain; should be about knowledge creation, and it would seem there were vastly more roundhouses than villa houses in that we are only just beginning to realise how much we the province. Nor has knowledge been restricted to have learnt since 1990. settlements; large scale developments have also (This article also appeared in The Archaeologist, the allowed us to gain an understanding of the landscape magazine of the Institute for Archaeologists) development of fields, field systems and trackways. After 21 years we have an enormous and challenging quantity Michael Fulford (University of Reading) of settlement and landscape data to synthesise, but at Neil Holbrook (Cotswold Archaeology) the same time we urgently need to review our research
MEMORIA ROMANA: MEMORY IN ROMAN CIVILIZATION The Memoria Romana international research project, led (on an international basis) to carry out work in this area by Professor Karl Galinsky, has a projected duration and to highlight the role of Gedächtnisgeschichte by from 2009-2013 and has been made by possible by the means of scholarly exchange, including conferences. Max Planck Society and the Alexander von Humboldt The recipients of dissertation stipends meet Foundation with an award of €750,000. periodically for discussion of their projects; three of the It has three principal and interrelated goals: current thirteen are from the UK, in addition to two UK. * to study, on a more comprehensive and integrated awardees of research grants. basis than previously, the role of memory in various Given the interdisciplinary orientation of the project aspects of Roman culture - literature (including and the subject itself, the project is not being carried out historiography), art, architecture, religion, and social and in isolation but is interacting with other projects on political history memory (for instance in history of religions, * to do so by employing and testing some neuroscience) especially at the Ruhr-Universität in perspectives, methods, and impulses from current work Bochum. on Gedächtnisgeschichte, and by continuing to For more information on the Memoria Romana project, introduce this direction in historical scholarship, which including abstracts from all recipients, details on how to has been centred largely in Germany and France, to apply for grants, and bibliography, visit: scholars in other countries and, especially, more http://www.utexas.edu/research/memoria/index.htm scholars of classical antiquity * to provide financial support - and that is where We welcome your suggestions and comments. Please most of the funds will go - to Ph.D. students and others address emails to: [email protected]
TALES OF THE FRONTIER: BRINGING HADRIAN‟S WALL TO LIFE This project has arisen from an Arts and Humanities funded project on the afterlife of Hadrian‟s Wall from the fifth to the twenty-first century.
A number of published outputs have been produced which explore the valuation and significance of this Roman frontier work and a book is in the final stages of preparation for publication during the autumn 2012 (Hadrian‟s Wall: a life)
For further information, please contact Richard Hingley ([email protected]).
Epistula I, 9 Conferences & Meetings
XXII INTERNATIONAL LIMES (ROMAN FRONTIERS) CONGRESS Interdisciplinary Researches, Presenting the Roman Ruse, Bulgaria – 6th to 11th September 2012 Frontiers, Varia
Major international conference dealing with Roman Delegates are asked to send summaries of no more 250 frontier and military studies. words to [email protected], indicating for which session it is intended. Summaries should be submitted The Congress will take place in the beautiful and in one of the official languages of the Congress, which recently renovated “Dohodno” building situated in the are English, German and French. Deadline for the very center of Ruse. Includes four days of papers plus receipt of abstracts is 28th February 2012. pre- and post-congress excursions. Further details available at: The following sessions are envisaged: http://www.limes2012.naim.bg/ Fortifications, Units and Arms, Civil Settlements, Roads and Trade, Burial Rites and Religion, Barbarians,
AAH ANNUAL MEETING 2012 BATH ROYAL LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC Thursday 3 to Sunday 6 May – Durham and Chapel Hill, INSTITUTION NC Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution is an educational charity based in Queen Square, Bath. The The program for the Association of Ancient Historians 'Antiquity' meeting group provides a programme of 2012 annual meeting is now on-line at lectures with high quality content from respected http://associationofancienthistorians.org. This explains speakers on topics which will appeal to an interested but how to join, etc; membership is a reasonable £5 or so non-specialist audience. We would like to draw readers' per year, payable by credit card. Paper submissions for attention to our forthcoming lectures in 2011: the following seven sessions will be invited in autumn 2011. 14th July: The Reception of Ovid's Metamorphoses in the 20th Century. Stephen Harrison, Professor of Civil Wars Latin Literature and Fellow and Tutor in Classics, Greek Historiography and Attic Comedy Corpus Christi College, Oxford. HGIS (Historical Geographical Information Systems): 8th September: Phantom Phoenicians. Dr. Josephine Questions, Applications Quinn, Martin Frederiksen Fellow, Tutor in Ancient The History of „Books‟ and Reading in Greco-Roman History, and Vice Provost of Worcester College, Antiquity Oxford. Moses Finley in America, 1912-1955: The Making of an 11th October: John Coates Memorial Lecture: Greek Ancient Historian Triremes and Naval Warfare in the Ancient World. Religious Change in the Roman Empire: New Boris Rankov, Professor of Ancient History, Questions, New Models University of London. The lecture will be Sacred Intersections: Religion, Law, and the Economy in accompanied by a film of a trireme being rowed in the Ancient World. Greek waters, the construction of which was based on research by John Coates. 11th November: Migration and Foundation - a post- THE BRITISH EPIGRAPHY SOCIETY Roman new Europe. Professor Peter Heather, Chair Autumn Colloquium and AGM 2011; Epigraphy in Action of Medieval History, King's College, University of Saturday 19 November 2011, Institute of Classical London Studies, Senate House, London (G22/26) Evening meetings start at 7.30 pm unless otherwise Speakers include Profs Robin Osborne (Cambridge), stated. Visitors welcome £4 : Members £2 Silvia Orlandi (Rome), Thomas Corsten (Vienna) and http://www.brlsi.org/admin/group.cfm?group=an Michael Crawford (London).
The programme and registration form can be found at: http://www.csad.ox.ac.uk/bes/Events.htm
Epistula I, 10 Exhibitions
ROMAN GOLD JEWELLERY ON EXHIBITION AT RHAYADER MUSEUM & GALLERY The British Museum has lent the Rhayader jewellery back to its findspot for the first time since the hoard was acquired in 1900. The three items of gold jewellery were discovered by James Marston in 1899, who, according to the original report of the discovery was „looking for foxes‟ in Carreg-Gwynion Rocks at Nantmel, Radnorshire in the hills above Rhayader. Mr Marston found the hoard when he dislodged some stones in the rock whilst poking around with an iron bar. The treasure inquest led to much debate at the time as to who should acquire the jewellery. Eventually it was agreed that the BM was the only appropriate institution, but the case helped focus attention on the lack of a national museum for Wales, and shortly afterwards, in 1907, a national museum was established in Cardiff. The largest item is an ornament which consists of a bracelet has led to the suggestion that these are chain of interlinking gold plates set with alternating products of a British workshop, probably in the 2nd carnelians and blue-glass settings. The function of this century A.D. ornament is unclear: it is too large to be an armlet and The exhibition features the Rhayader jewellery would not have hung well as a necklace. A diadem or alongside the Bronze Age gold torcs from Llanwrthwl. „A belt have been suggested as possibilities. The second Glimmer of the Earth: the Treasures of Rhayader and its item is a gold bracelet comprising two pieces of plate region‟ runs from June 4th to September 4th 2011 at the gold (now flattened) decorated with broad guilloche Rhayader Museum & Gallery. bands of intertwisted filigree, whilst the final item is a solid gold ring set with an ovoid sardonyx intaglio For further information, please see the museum‟s engraved with an ant. The unusual nature of the website http://www.carad.org.uk/. construction and decoration of the ornament and
ANCIENT SAGALASSOS The Gallo-Roman Museum of Tongeren is preparing the However, its remote location high up in the mountains, very first retrospective exhibition about ancient and an erosion layer several metres thick, protected the Sagalassos, from 29 Oct 2011 – 17 June 2012. remains against plundering and decay. Consequently, the archaeological site is extremely well preserved. A Sagalassos is an abandoned city in south-west Turkey, research team led by Professor Marc Waelkens of the 120 km north of Antalya. In Roman times Sagalassos Catholic University of Leuven has been carrying out was an important regional centre. The city had its pioneering, archaeological excavations there since the heyday in the early centuries AD, as exemplified by beginning of the 1990s. monumental buildings, fountains and sculptures. In the sixth century the city gradually began to decline as a For more information, please use the link below. result of earthquakes, plague epidemics and invasions. http://www.galloromeinsmuseum.be/temporary_exhibitio Eventually it was abandoned altogether. ns/sagalassos
Epistula I, 11 Learning & News
E-LEARNING RESOURCES The Centre for Interdisciplinary Artefact Studies at Inscripta (http://cias.ncl.ac.uk/Inscripta) (note: the capital Newcastle University has recently launched two e- I is essential on some computers) uses the collection learning initiatives: owned by the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, now housed in the Great North Museum, as the Identifact (http://cias.ncl.ac.uk/Identifact) provides three basis for a learning package on Latin epigraphy. As well entertaining quizzes for students to learn and test their as providing a method by which students can build on skills in classical architecture, Ancient Greek pottery and their formal epigraphy classes and develop their skills at Romano-British small finds. This is simple to use and fun their own pace, Inscripta also puts the inscriptions into to try out. their archaeological context and offers a great deal of supporting information.
ROMAN MALTON MUSEUM TO CLOSE Malton, 15 miles from the legionary fortress of provided a valued educational resource for local Eboracum, seems to have been an important place schools, visitors to Malton and Ryedale, and of course to throughout the Roman occupation. The 3.4 ha (8.4 Roman specialists. Visitors have been able to see a acres) fort there was the subject of a major campaign of comprehensive range of cultural material, 1st to 4th excavations, exemplary for their time, by Philip Corder century, including occupation and burial assemblages and Dr John L. Kirk between 1927 and 1930. There from military, urban and rural sites (the finds from have been a number of subsequent campaigns in the Langton Roman Villa are also there) and from the local vicus that lies between the fort and the nearby River ceramics industries including the locally-made Derwent, in what seems likely to have been a small town Crambeck and Calcite Gritted Wares. and industrial complex including pottery kilns at Norton Malton Museum Foundation, recently accorded across the River Derwent, and in various burial and accreditation as a Registered Museum, has now found settlement sites along the six Roman roads that focus on itself without a home. Ryedale District Council, the the fort. Occupation started in the pre-Agricolan period successor of the Urban District Council which persuaded and the fort, established in the first century, was still in the Museum Trust to move to the Old Town Hall, has use late in the 4th century or even into the 5th. opted not to renew their lease, and the Fitzwilliam A museum and Trust was set up at the time of the Estates which owns it itself wishes to put the hall to a Corder and Kirk excavations in the 1930s which more commercial use. The Malton Museum Foundation acquired, curated and exhibited finds from these and all invoked the support and expertise of the York subsequent excavations. Earlier local finds were also Archaeological Trust to plan an imaginative new brought together in the museum. It was originally museum in existing buildings on the Orchard Fields fort accommodated in the Milton Rooms at Malton, a public site. The scheme depended on support from the hall donated, in part as a home for the Museum, on a Heritage Lottery Fund, but unfortunately the necessary 999-year lease by Fitzwilliam Estates which owns conditions for a grant could not be met. The Museum Orchard Fields, the site of the Roman fort, and much Foundation considered a second scheme for submission other land in Malton. The Milton Rooms were to the Heritage Lottery Fund which, though possibly refurbished some 25 years ago by Malton Urban District overcoming some of the impediments, proved likely to Council, which shifted the Museum into Malton Old be unviable. The Foundation therefore took the Town Hall, near-ideal premises leased from Fitzwilliam inevitable decision to announce the closure of Malton Estates in the centre of the town‟s market place. With Roman Museum at the end of December 2011. The the professional involvement of staff from the Yorkshire collections will be placed in concentrated storage, Museum through North Yorkshire County Council and probably with only extremely limited access, until some the distinguished architect Ron Sims of George Pace other solution can be found. and Co., an excellent, fresh and delightful exhibition was On the occasion of a visit to Malton in 2009 from the set up. It has been maintained since by voluntary staff XXIst International Limes (Roman Frontiers) Congress through several phases of local government the Malton Museum Foundation produced an illustrated reorganisation, in recent years subsisting on small guidebook to its Roman collections under the authorship grants from the local authorities and occasional of Dr Rick Jones (Roman Malton, obtainable from exhibition-specific awards from the Heritage Lottery Malton Museum, Old Town Hall, Market Place, Malton, Fund. Though with relatively low visitor figures it has North Yorkshire YO17 7LP, price £3.00 incl. postage).
Epistula I, 12 News & Books
This gives a good idea of what can currently be seen in objects made from this locally-obtained semi-precious the Museum‟s displays. Amongst military items, the ALA stone, a selection from an extensive display. PICENTIANA inscription, ballista bolts, catapult balls, a Artisans represented at Malton include a goldsmith sword, spears, scale armour, chain mail and an (FELICITER SIT GENIO LOCI SERVVLE VTERE FELIX inscribed patera are illustrated. From the town, there is a TABERNAM AVREFICINAM, says one inscription: town house with its mosaic and a winged victory “Good luck to the Genius of this place. Young slave, use sculpture, a terracotta finial, a tile with an evocative to your good fortune this goldsmith‟s shop”). Other crafts child‟s footprint and water pipes. Burial finds mainly and industries evidenced include textile working, iron come from Norton, where an active modern cemetery working, pewter and bronze working and ceramic regularly produces Roman burial deposits. An infant production. Late 4th or 5th century belt fittings, brooches burial was accompanied by a jet bear figurine. An old and combs from Malton and Norton - and the find (1835) records a dedication by Scirus to Mars Rigas Hovingham hoard of coins including issues as late as and there are a series of small votive objects which Honorius (AD 393-423) - illustrate the longevity of exemplify other religious beliefs. Roman activity in Malton and its region. The Malton region, then as now, was largely Good though it is, Rick Jones‟ little catalogue is no agricultural and the guide discusses the villas and the substitute for a visit to the Museum itself, but readers are basis of local agriculture, illustrating it by finds such as warned that time is running out. Meanwhile the Malton spade and hoe blades and some of the many beehive Museum Foundation is continuing its efforts to find an querns in the museum collection. As with so many alternative to permanent closure, and the wherewithal to collections from Roman occupation and burial sites, effect it - and would welcome help and advice. Malton Museum has extensive displays of personal items. The guide illustrates mirror or fan handles, a Peter Addyman range of combs, hair pins, tweezers and a scoop, and jet
BOOK CORNER This is not intended to compete with the review sections in Britannia and JRS, but is for notes and news of recent and forthcoming books by, or of interest to, members. We would be particularly interested to hear of reports published by excavation units, as these are often poorly advertised and, as a result, sporadically available.
Allan Wilson, Roman and Native in the Central Scottish In Music in the Odes of Horace (published by Aris & Borders BAR British Series 519. Phillips) Stuart Lyons explores the orality of the Odes, This assessment of the Roman Iron Age in the Central and highlights the internal and external evidence for the Scottish Borders and the relationship between Roman Odes as performance art. He then turns to the post- and native is based primarily on an inventory of Carolingian tradition of sung performance in the relevant archaeological material from Roman and Iron Benedictine monastery network. Lyons shows that the Age sites, including a significant number of finds arrangement for the Ode to Phyllis (4.11) in the hitherto unpublished. Montpellier manuscript, and Guido d‟Arezzo‟s do-re-mi mnemonic of the early 11th century share a common Andrew Wallace-Hadrill has recently published musical ancestor. The long-hidden 12th-century St Herculaneum. Past and Future. (Frances Lincoln, Petersburg manuscript is a virtual songbook with 16 2011; 352 pages, ISBN-10: 0711231427; ISBN-13: melodies reflecting secular as well as monastic 978-0711231429). It is available on amazon uk for traditions. The book, available on Amazon, has 50 £26.50 (recommended price £40). For comments and illustrations and 12 colour plates. responses on Blogging Pompeii, see: http://bloggingpompeii.blogspot.com/2011/05/herculan Rheinisches Museum now online: eum-past-and-future.html After the recent completion of a major digitization programme, the journal Rheinisches Museum is now John Fairclough suggests that the major Roman roads fully accessible electronically, and all its volumes since in East Anglia preserve traces of the pre-Roman the first issue in 1827 (under a slightly different title) are boundaries in the area. The argument is presented in freely available online at http://www.rhm.uni- his book Boudica to Raedwald, East Anglia‟s relations koeln.de (with a moving „wall‟ limiting access of the last with Rome (Malthouse Press 2010). three years). The site also has some information on electronic access to current issues since 2010.
Epistula I, 13 Contribute and Subscribe
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Epistula I, 14