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BRITANNIA 2008 ABSTRACTS

Michael Fulford: Nero and Britain: the Palace of the Client King at Calleva and Imperial Policy towards the Province after Boudicca

The evidence for a major, post-Boudiccan Neronian building campaign in Calleva is set out and discussed and its wider context considered. It is suggested that there was deliberate investment in the civil development of the client kingdom south of the Thames in contrast to the re-establishment of direct military control to the north and in East Anglia where revival of the towns was slow to take off.

Philip Crummy: The Roman Circus at Colchester

The circus at Colchester was discovered late in 2004. By the end of 2007, a succession of targeted investigations helped reveal its basic plan and provided some limited dating evidence for its period of use. The building proved to have been of average length for a provincial circus (457 m) but, at about 71.5–74 m across, it was relatively narrow. The stands appeared to have been raised a section at a time. The seating was carried on an earth bank revetted by two stone walls. The circus possessed only eight starting-gates. Excavation of the near meta yielded some remarkable evidence about the size and nature of the cones, the supply of pressurised water to the barrier, and the tactics adopted by the charioteers as they swung around the metae. The circus was built in stone probably in the second century a.d. The building ceased to be used if not c. a.d. 275, then sometime later in the Roman period.

Peter Guest: The Early Monetary History of Roman Wales: Identity, Conquest and Acculturation on the Imperial Fringe

Over 52,000 Roman coins have been recorded and published from Wales. Using this comprehensive numismatic sample, this article investigates how coins of different metals and denominations were used and lost in western Britain during the later Iron Age and early Roman periods. The analysis of coins from hoards, excavated sites and single finds produces a more detailed picture of coin supply and use in Roman Britain than has been the case in the past and, consequently, it is now possible to provide a relatively sophisticated description of the monetization of Wales in the decades immediately before and after the conquest in the later first century a.d. The complexities of the early numismatic history of Wales are explored using a series of chronological and regional case-studies, while the discussion emphasises the role of native traditions in shaping local responses to the appearance of coinage and the foreign practices associated with using Roman imperial currency.

Peter Beaumont: Water Supply at Housesteads Roman Fort, Hadrian’s Wall: the Case for Rainfall Harvesting

The Roman fort at Housesteads on Hadrian’s Wall is located on a high ridge formed by an outcrop of the Whin Sill. As a result of this location, the supply of water to the fort using conventional aqueducts does not appear to have been possible, and yet no alternative methods of supply have been identified. This paper, after analysing detailed meteorological records from the site, concludes that the Romans would have been able to supply a garrison of 800 men with water using rainfall harvesting from the roof structures within the fort. Using an estimated runoff rate from the roofs of 65 per cent means that the soldiers could have been supplied with 10 litres/capita/day or 8 tonnes of water in total each day provided that a storage capacity of 300 cubic metres existed within the fort. This storage capacity is believed to have been provided by stone-lined tanks with volumes of around 2 cubic metres. Perhaps four or six of these tanks would be associated with each of the major buildings within the fort. Excess surface drainage and overflow from the storage tanks would have been led to the south-east corner of the site as a result of local topography to be used for flushing the latrines.

Stephen Rippon: Coastal Trade in Roman Britain: the Investigation of Crandon Bridge, Somerset, a Romano-British Trans-shipment Port beside the Severn Estuary

There is growing awareness of the significance of coastal trade around Roman Britain, though very few of the smaller ports and towns that were engaged in such activity have seen archaeological investigation. This paper reports on work at Crandon Bridge, in Somerset – including excavations in advance of the construction of the M5 motorway – that appears to have acted as a trans-shipment port where goods brought by road and river through Somerset were loaded onto larger vessels that could cross the Bristol Channel. Analysis of the buildings and artefacts suggests that this extensive site may also have been a small town.

Jake Weekes: Classification and Analysis of Archaeological Contexts for the Reconstruction of Early Romano-British Cremation Funerals

This paper reassesses analytical categories commonly used to reconstruct the ‘funerary sequence’ of cremation and associated deposition in early Roman Britain, looking in particular at pre-pyre and pyre activity, burial, and other forms of primary deposition. In order to develop a clearer picture of the actual contexts of ceremonial performance and installation, and even to begin to disentangle the manifold meanings these events would have held for original participants, it is first necessary to refine a ‘forensic’ approach to the data, remaining constantly aware of how our own assumptions about funerary behaviour can heavily influence what we think we see in the archaeological record.

Rebecca Redfern: A Bioarchaeological Investigation of Cultural Change in Dorset, England (Mid-to-Late Fourth Century b.c. to the End of the Fourth Century a.d.)

This paper discusses the results of the first regional and bioarchaeological analysis of health in late Iron Age and Roman Britain. This tested the hypothesis that cultural and environmental changes in Dorset would result in changes to demography, stature, dental health and infectious disease. The study observed change to all health variables, supporting environmental and archaeological evidence for the introduction of urban centres, changes in living conditions, greater population movement, and development of the agricultural economy. Importantly, the study demonstrated that these responses did not reflect changes observed in other areas of Britain or Gaul.

Susan Pearce: The Hinton St Mary Mosaic Pavement: Christ or Emperor?

The significance of the well-known central roundel of the mosaic from Hinton St Mary, Dorset, UK, which carries a young male head with a chi-rho monogram behind it and pomegranates on each side, has been much discussed. This paper marshals evidence which suggests that the head is not a representation of Christ, but of one of the emperors of the House of Constantine, perhaps Constantine himself. Some of the implications for the nature of fourth-century imperial culture are discussed.

R. E. Cobbett: A Dice Tower from Richborough

The dice tower, or pyrgus, an ancient device for rolling dice, was an everyday object in the Roman world, but up to now only two towers, from Germany and Egypt, have been found. In re-examining a group of bone box-casings from Richborough Roman Fort, however, the author has found that some of these casings must have belonged to such a tower. This article shows how this dice tower may have been constructed. The author also summarises the literary and artistic evidence for dice towers, and shows how the rosette decoration on this tower links it to the Roman game of Duodecim Scripta.

Steve Hartgroves and John Smith: A Second Roman Fort is Confirmed in Cornwall

Restormel fort is a small square, bivallate earthwork located on a spur above the River Fowey in Cornwall. In 2007 a geophysical survey was carried out which showed very clearly that the site was in fact a Roman fort and closely similar in size and in the position of its entrances to Nanstallon, until then the only known Roman fort in Cornwall. The position of these two forts has prompted speculation that they were located strategically to control movement both north–south along the rivers and east–west overland along the central Cornwall ridgeway. The proximity of both sites to significant deposits of metals suggests that the role of the forts may also be linked to the Roman interest in minerals.

Tim Gates and Stewart Ainsworth: A Newly Identified Roman Temporary Camp at Cow Close, Near Bowes, Co. Durham

This note is concerned with the recognition of a previously unrecorded Roman temporary camp at Cow Close, near Bowes, in County Durham. Its possible significance as one of a chain of early Flavian camps linking York and Carlisle is also examined.

L.-J. Marshall, S.R. Cook, M.J. Almond and M.G. Fulford: Roman Diet and Trade: Evidence from Organic Residues on Pottery Sherds Recovered at the Roman Town of Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester, Hants.)

The analysis of organic residues from pottery sherds using Gas-Chromatography with mass-spectroscopy (GC-MS) has revealed information about the variety of foods eaten and domestic routine at Silchester between the second and fourth–sixth centuries a.d. Two results are discussed in detail: those of a second-century Gauloise-type amphora and a fourth-century SE Dorset black-burnished ware (BB1) cooking pot, which reveal the use of pine pitch on the inner surface of the amphora and the use of animal fats (ruminant adipose fats) and leafy vegetables in cooking at the Roman town of Silchester, Hants.

Peter Salway: A Publication Policy for Chedworth

A project-planning grant to the National Trust from the Heritage Lottery Fund provided the context for a review of what had and had not been published since the villa’s discovery in 1864. An Archaeological Data Service website will make public as soon as possible the material currently available to the Trust – without prejudicing subsequent publication in other forms – and will be kept up to date. Arrangements are also being made to complete the post-excavation work on the investigations carried out between 1994 and 2006 and to publish them. Significant changes in knowledge arising from this latest phase are summarized.

Rob Collins: The Latest Roman Coin from Hadrian’s Wall: a Small Fifth-Century Purse Group

Eight Roman coins were reported in 2007 to the Portable Antiquities Scheme. All the coins were late Roman issues, with the latest identified as a Gloria Romanorum type dating to a.d. 406–408. This coin is only the second of its type to be identified in Britain, and it was found outside the normal area of fifth-century coins in southern Britain, in the Hadrian’s Wall corridor. The finding of the group with its late coin begs the question of how many more fifth-century Roman issues may be as yet undiscovered or misidentified in Britain.