6 Romano-British (AD 43 – 410)

Isles of Scilly Historic Environment Research Framework: Resource Assessment and Research Agenda 6 Romano-British (AD 43 – 410) Edited by Charles Johns from contributions from Sarnia Butcher, Kevin Camidge, Dan Charman, Ralph Fyfe, Andy M Jones, Steve Mills, Jacqui Mulville, Henrietta Quinnell, and Paul Rainbird. 6.1 Introduction Although Scilly was a very remote part of the Roman Empire it occupied a pivotal position on the Atlantic façade along the routes of trade and cultural interchange between Brittany and Western Britain; unlike Cornwall, however, it was not a source of streamed tin. The cultural origins of Roman Scilly are rooted in the local Iron Age but sites can be identified which reflect the cult practices of the wider Roman world. Charles Thomas (1985, 170-2) envisaged Roman Scilly as a place of pilgrimage, dominated by a shrine to a native marine goddess at Nornour in the Eastern Isles. The rich Roman finds from that site are among the most iconic and enigmatic emblems of Scilly’s archaeological heritage. The main characteristics of Scilly’s Romano-British (AD 43 to AD 410) resource are summarised in this review. Fig 6.1 Iron Age and Romano-British sites recorded in the Scilly HER 6.2 Landscape and environmental background Results from the Lyonesse Project (Charman et al 2012) suggest that the present pattern of islands was largely formed by this period, although the intertidal zone was much greater in extent (Fig 6.2). Radiocarbon dating and environmental analysis of the lower peat deposit sample from Old Town Bay, St Mary’s, i n 1997 indicated that from the Late Iron Age to the early medieval period the site consisted of an area of shallow freshwater surrounded by a largely open landscape with arable fields and pasture bordering the wetland (Ratcliffe and Straker 1998, 1). Pollen fro m Old Town Bay, St Mary’s , analysed by the Lyonesse Project, suggests herb- rich grassland with a background of coastal indicators; aquatic plants suggest standing 108 Isles of Scilly Historic Environment Research Framework: Resource Assessment and Research Agenda water throughout the Roman period and into the early medieval. Samples from Bathinghouse Porth, Tresco, indicate a saltmarsh environment at the end of the Roman and beginning of the early medieval period. Samples from Porth Coose, St Agnes, show low background levels of woodland and wet grassland with very high Plantago and other disturbance indicators becoming increasingly aquatic during the same period (Charman et al 2012). Fig 5.8 Inferred submergence model, AD 150 (based on data from the Lyonesse Project (Charman et al 2012); all details as for Fig 3.3 6.3 Chronology There is general lack of radiocarbon dates from this period. Of the 18 determinations only one is from an excavated site (Nornour); the others are all from environmental samples. Tables of radiocarbon determinations and OSL ages relating to the period are presented at the end of the chapter (Figs 6.5 and 6.6). 6.4 Settlement Simple stone houses were still the norm at this period but the walls were sometimes clay-mortared and rendered. The settlement at Halangy Down seems to date from the mid second century AD (below, Section 6.5.3). One of the excavated structures there has much in common with the courtyard houses characteristic of West Cornwall during this period (Fig 6.3). A long, narrow entrance passage leads through a massive enclosing wall into a sub-rectangular courtyard off which are two good-sized oval and circular living rooms (one with a pentagonal recess in its wall – perhaps a sleeping compartment) and a tiny sub-circular chamber that could have been a store. This is the building’s final form and is the culmination of several pro gressive stages of construction. The Cornish examples had open central courtyards but it is possible that the house at Halangy Down may have been entirely roofed (Ratcliffe and Johns 2003, 11-12). 109 Isles of Scilly Historic Environment Research Framework: Resource Assessment and Research Agenda No equivalents to the Cornish rounds have yet been identified. In Cornwall distinctive oval buildings are now recognised as the principal house form of the Roman period (Quinnell 2004, xii). Fig 6.3 The courtyard house at Halangy Down (photo: Cornwall Council) 6.5 The material world 6.5.1 Metalwork The Nornour finds By far the most unusual discovery in Scilly relating to this period is the collection of Roman material recovered from Nornour. The settlement there was excavated in the 1960s and early 1970s and consisted of 11 circular stone buildings situated just above high water. The buildings were occupied and continuously modified from the Middle Bronze Age to the end of the Iron Age. During the Roman period most of the settlement was abandoned but a large collection of Roman artefacts dating from the late first to fourth centuries AD were found in the upper levels of buildings 1 and 2 (Butcher 1993). These comprised over 300 copper-alloy brooches (Fig 6.4), c 25 finger rings, 10 bracelets, 83 Roman coins, c 22 glass beads, 13 pipe-clay figurines, c 30 miniature pots (below, Section 6.5.1.2), and a number of other Roman artefacts (Butcher 2000-1). This is a large and unusual collection of objects to be found in the last occupation phase of a remote prehistoric round house: ‘. it is probably true to say that there are more Roman-style artefacts (other than pottery) from Nornour than are known from the whole of Cornwall and Devon west of Exeter ’ (Butcher 1993). The site was initially interpreted as a brooch-making workshop of the Roman period (Dudley 1968) but has since been reinterpreted as a shrine (Butcher 1978; 1993; 2000-1), which Thomas (1985) suggests may have incorporated a fire or beacon. Fulford (1989) considered the objects as evidence of a Roman shipwreck (or possibly two different wrecks given the date span) because the objects are not varied enough to compare with the personal items offered at shrines and temples; however, most 110 Isles of Scilly Historic Environment Research Framework: Resource Assessment and Research Agenda recently Reece (2011, 256) has noted that ‘The coins from this site are unusual both in number and in unbroken sequence and this must suggest constant visitation from people from the highly Romanised parts of either Britain or Gaul. ’ Whatever the genesis of this remarkable collection of objects, they almost certainly have a maritime connection. Crucial to our understanding of this site would be a better understanding of the Roman coastline around it, as this (as suggested by Thomas 1985, 165-72) may have been ‘a harbour for Roman Scilly’ a safe haven from easterly gales suitable for mariner-pilgrims which is conspicuous by its absence today. Fig 6.4 Brooches from Nornour (Isles of Scilly Museum) Coins Roman coins from Scilly were catalogued by Roger Penhallurick (2009, 17-18, 257-70). Only one coin earlier than Roman Imperial has been found, a Republican denarius dating to c 109 BC pl oughed up at North Farm, St Martin’s , in the 1960s. Penhallurick noted that Julius Solinus observed that the inhabitants of Scilly ‘refuse money’ and prefer to barter so that ‘it is hardly surprising that few early coins have been found there’. Most of tho se reported date from the later empire. Penhallurick recorded the following Roman Imperial coins from Scilly: one second century AD bronze coin from St Agnes; a denarius of Trajan (AD 98-117) and a half centenionalis of Magentius (AD 350-353) from St Marti n’s; half a dozen silver coins of Constantius (or Constantius II), Julian and Honorius dating from AD 351 to AD 395 found on Samson in the 1870s (their whereabouts is now unknown); two sesterii of Marcus Aurelius (AD 161-130) and a sestertius of Septimus Severus (AD 193-211) from Tean (Thomas 1960b, 17-18); a follis from Tresco Abbey Gardens; a sestertius of Marcus Aurelius (AD 161-180) from an unknown site on Tresco and a rumour of a hoard found by a metal detectorist at Merchant’s Point , Tresco, ‘some years ago’. In addition to these other Roman coins have been found by Michael Tangye (The Scillonian 2007/8, no 266) and a brass sesterius of Hadrian (AD 119) was found by him at the north end of Samson Hill, Bryher in 2008 (The Scillonian 2010, no 271). 111 Isles of Scilly Historic Environment Research Framework: Resource Assessment and Research Agenda The coins from Nornour are not typical of Romano-British hoards for a number of reasons. Forty-five per cent are late first century to Commodius (177-192) issues, which are rare on rural sites whether religious or secular, and 36% are of the House of Constantine, sandwiched between a small number of later third and later fourth century coins. Also late third century radiate coins are scarce among the Nornour coins although they are the commonest coins found on Romano-British sites elsewhere, including Cornwall. As mentioned above, Fulford (1989) sees the Nornour coins as deriving from perhaps two dispersed hoards, the first ranging in date down to Commodus, the second comprising the remainder in which the handful of third century radiate coins would not be out of place. Penhallurick (2009) points out that there are problems with this interpretation: why should coins from two shipwrecks separated by c 200 years turn up on the same site and why should the coins and other finds assigned to the first wreck be left untouched? He sees a shrine of some sort being the best explanation of the current evidence, and this explanation is supported by the conclusions of Reece (2011, 254).

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