BRITANNIA

Fulford, M., and Timby, J., Late Iron Age and Roman Silchester: Excavations on the Site of the Forum-Basilica 1977, 1980–86 (by Peter Guest), 385-386

Goudineau, C., Regard sur la Gaule (by John Collis), 387

Henig, M., The Heirs of King Verica. Culture and Politics in Roman Britain (by Anthony King), 387-388

Kerébel, H., Corseul (Côtes-d'Armor), un quartier de la ville antique, les fouilles de Monterfil II (by Simon Esmonde-Cleary), 388-389

Mason, D.J.P., Excavations at Chester. The Elliptical Building: An Image of the Roman World? Excavations in 1939 and 1963–9 (by Roger White), 389-390

McOmish, D., Field, D., and Brown, G., The Field Archaeology of the Salisbury Plain Training Area (by Garrick Fincham), 390

Pearson, A., The Roman Shore Forts. Coastal Defences of Southern Britain (by Jason Wood), 391-392

Perring, D., The Roman House in Britain (by Richard Hingley), 392-393

Price, E., Frocester: a Romano-British Settlement, its Antecedents and Successors (by Roger Goodburn), 393-394

Sim, D., and Ridge, I., Iron for the Eagles: the Iron Industry in Roman Britain (by J.P. Northover), 394-395

Walton Rogers, P., Bender Jorgensen, L., and Rast-Eicher, A. (eds), The Roman Textile Industry and its Influence: A Birthday Tribute to John Peter Wild (by Mary Harlow), 395-396

Cardon, D., and Feugère, M. (eds), Archéologie des textiles des origines au Ve siècle: Actes du colloque de Lattes, Oct. 1999 (by Mary Harlow), 395-396

BRITANNIA 2003 ABSTRACTS

David J. Breeze: John Collingwood Bruce and the Study of Hadrian's Wall

In 1848 John Collingwood Bruce, school master and minister of religion in Newcastle upon Tyne, commenced his study of Hadrian's Wall. In 1851 he published The Roman Wall, followed by the Wallet-book (later Handbook) to the Roman Wall in 1863. Last amended in 1978, I am now preparing a new edition of The Handbook for publication in 2004. In 1863 Bruce offered the first modern definition of the purpose of Hadrian's Wall, separating out the functions of frontier control and military operations, yet he primarily saw it as a defensive structure, and his view of the Wall has been followed by all his successors down to the last edition. His interpretations even survived the argument of R.G. Collingwood that Hadrian's Wall was not primarily defensive in purpose. Sustained campaigns of investigations along the Wall in the 1920s and 1930s led to the statement that all the problems of Hadrian's Wall had now been solved. This had severe repercussions for Wall studies as there ceased to be a research agenda, insufficient rescue excavations were carried out, the local universities lost interest in the Wall, while the scholars of Roman Britain turned their back on Hadrian's Wall as a candidate for research. Yet Hadrian's Wall offers a rich archaeological database through which many of the problems at present of interest to the archaeologists of Roman Britain and of Roman frontiers can be studied.

D.B. Campbell: The Roman Siege of Burnswark

Eighteenth-century antiquarians considered Burnswark to have been the scene of a Roman assault. However, the supposed remains of siegeworks were later considered over-elaborate to deal with such a small hillfort. Of those remains, only the two large camps are now thought to be Roman, but even these have been deemed extravagant for the task. Many believe the site to represent practice manoeuvres, but their argument leans heavily on the interpretation of the camp tituli as artillery platforms, an identification that is far from certain. This paper proposes that the site bears all the hallmarks of a genuine Roman siege.

Malcolm Todd: The Haverfield Bequest, 1921-2000, and the Study of Roman Britain

The Bequest of Francis Haverfield of a fund to support research on Roman Britain has existed since 1921. Over the past eighty years many projects have been supported, chief amongst them the preparation and publication of The Roman Inscriptions of Britain. Many field projects have also received assistance, along with air photography and archival recording. Among the many excavations given support are Verulamium, Wroxeter, Caerwent, Inchtuthil, Fishbourne, Colchester, Catterick, and York. The paper traces the influence of the Bequest on the development of the study of Roman Britain from 1921 to 2000.

R.S.O. Tomlin: 'The Girl in Question': a New Text from Roman London

First publication of a waxed stilus tablet found in 1994 at 1 Poultry in the City of London. The traces of an incised cursive text (c. A.D. 75-125) are published with transcription, translation, commentary, drawing and photograph. They preserve the first 'page' of a two-page legal document recording the purchase by mancipation of the Gallic slave-girl Fortunata by an imperial slave called Vegetus, assistant to the imperial slave Montanus.

Catherine Johns: The Tombstone of Laetus' Daughter: Cats in Gallo-Roman Sculpture

The statement that domestic cats are represented in a small series of stone sculptures from Roman Gaul, particularly as accompanying animals on tombstones of children, continues to be repeated both in archaeological sources and in books on the domestication of the cat. A careful examination of the published examples reveals that in some cases they are more likely to be dogs and, in all but one of the children's tombstones, the highly impressionistic style of the carving makes it impossible to distinguish between cats, dogs, or toy animals. In the key example, the well-carved tombstone of Laetus' daughter from Bordeaux (CIL xiii.787), close inspection of the animal proves it to be, beyond any doubt, a small dog. A brief discussion is included of the archaeological evidence for small cats in the northern Roman provinces.

C. Gosden and G. Lock: Becoming Roman on the Berkshire Downs: the Evidence from Alfred's Castle

Three seasons of excavation at Alfred's Castle have revealed a long sequence of activity within and around the site including early Bronze Age round barrows, later Bronze Age linear ditches, Iron Age enclosures, and a Romano-British villa-house. We discuss this evidence within the context of current ideas about 'Romanization' and suggest that in this rural environment it was not a simple process of adopting 'Roman culture' but incorporated a more subtle set of connections with the surrounding landscape and the past.

Ben Croxford: Iconoclasm in Roman Britain?

Studies of the presence of Christianity in Roman Britain occasionally utilise a form of 'negative evidence': the destruction of pagan images. Christian iconoclastic attacks did occur elsewhere in the Roman Empire, the question is whether we have been uncritical in automatically applying such an interpretation to the damaged Romano-British images. It is possible that some of these images may instead have been deliberately fragmented, with the resulting pieces retaining meaning and receiving special treatment and deposition. The aim of this paper is to question the validity of interpretations that suggest iconoclasm and to put forward an explanation based upon the theories of fragmentation as an alternative explanatory framework. It is hoped to demonstrate that iconoclasm cannot account for all of the instances of image 'destruction' in Roman Britain.

Dominic Perring: 'Gnosticism' in Fourth-Century Britain: the Frampton Mosaics Reconsidered

This paper presents a reinterpretation of the significance of a series of fourth-century mosaics found at Frampton in Dorset. It suggests that a combination of pagan and Christian images was contrived to make a series of allegorical statements about the destiny of the mortal soul. These statements seem dualistic in inspiration, drawing on Gnostic and Orphic ideas. It is also argued that these images were used to create a space for the celebration of the Eucharist. A broader review of the evidence of the art and architecture of fourth-century Britain suggests that such ideas and practices may have been more widely diffused. This identification of diverging approaches to Christian worship is reviewed in the context of contemporary political developments.

J.R.L. Allen, E.J. Rose and M.G. Fulford: Re-use of Roman Stone in the Reedham Area of East Norfolk: Intimations of a Possible 'Lost' Roman Fort

Blocks and rubble of a grey-weathering quartzitic quartz sandstone (grey quartzite) occur in several of the parish churches lying on the broad peninsula between the estuaries of the Rivers Bure and Yare in east Norfolk, and especially at Saint John the Baptist, Reedham. In terms of heavy-mineral assemblages, the stone is indistinguishable from a grey quartzite known to have faced the Roman fort at Brancaster (Branodunum), on the North Norfolk coast, and from a Lower Cretaceous grey quartzite (Leziate Beds) with a lengthy outcrop in the King's Lynn area, on the shores of The Wash in the west of the county. The stone blocks used in the Reedham district are suggested to have been robbed from a considerable Roman building at or near Reedham itself. They decline in relative abundance away from Reedham, take a scale and form consistent with Roman petit appareil, include pieces with mouldings and dressing marks, and are associated with Roman brick and tile. Although the site of the building has not yet been identified, and appears to be lost (coastal erosion cannot be excluded), the establishment at Reedham could have been a fort contemporaneous with Brancaster but older than nearby Burgh Castle (?Gariannonum) and the settlement at Caister, which would seem strategically to have had a different role.

Ruth Shaffrey: The Rotary Querns from the Society of Antiquaries' Excavations at Silchester, 1890-1909

This paper describes in detail the typology, lithology, and provenance of 79 rotary querns, mostly part of the Silchester Collection housed at Reading Museum and recovered during the Society of Antiquaries' excavations at Silchester between 1890 and 1909. Few of these were discussed in the reports of the excavations published annually in Archaeologia and most are described in detail here for the first time. The results of evidence from subsequent excavations are incorporated as a means of investigating the chronological changes in quern supply. The implications for our understanding of food supply in the Roman town are also investigated, as is the contextual deposition of querns.

Christopher Evans: Britons and Romans at Chatteris: Investigations at Langwood Farm, Cambridgeshire

The implications of a major Roman stone building, exposed during the sample investigation of a large Iron Age and Roman settlement complex, are considered, as is its potential relationship to nearby Stonea Grange. Iron Age, Roman Republican and post-Conquest coins were recovered, the latter indicating occupation throughout the second half of the first century. This site tells of the interaction between Late Iron Age and 'Roman' communities, and the dynamics of Romanisation. In the light of its Late Iron Age usage, the character of its occupation is further considered in relationship to other low level 'centres' of the period within the region and, with it, the general appellation of 'oppida-type' settlement.

Jean Bagnall Smith, Martin Henig and Kevin Trott: A Votive Head from West Wight

A small, hollow-cast bronze head of a man was found during a field-walking survey on the Isle of Wight. The features suggest that it is of Romano-British fabrication and of third-century date. It belongs to a well-known votive type though current indications are that it came from a villa-shrine rather than a temple.

Matthäus Heil: On the Date of the Title Britannicus Maximus of Septimius Severus and his Sons

Temple accounts from Arsinoe in the Fayum (Egypt) record expenditure on celebrations to mark the anniversary of a victory of Severus Antoninus (Caracalla) on 31 March A.D. 215. The author argues that this was the anniversary of the proclamation of Septimius Severus and his sons as Britannicus Maximus in A.D. 210.

J.G.F. Hind: Caligula and the Spoils of Ocean: a Rush for Riches in the Far North-West?

The much-debated tale that the emperor Gaius ordered his troops to pick up shells from the shores of Ocean can be given the following explanation. The shells were mainly oyster- and mussel-shells, which are known to produce pearls. Gaius himself was partial to pearls and the Roman public believed that they could be found cast up on the shores of the Northern Ocean ready to be gathered. Gaius' reported words to the soldiers, 'Dismiss, be happy; dismiss, be rich', referred to this belief. He had sent them off on a treasure hunt, to keep them happy after the military non-event of the invasion of Britain. Two years later the same troops under Aulus Plautius were reluctant to embark for Britain; Gaius had labelled the shells 'Spoils of Ocean' – an offence to the great god and ample reason for them to fear his anger.

Catherine Johns and Philip J. Wise: A Roman Gold Phallic Pendant from Braintree, Essex

A small gold pendant of phallic form was found by metal detecting at Braintree, Essex, in 2000. It probably dates to the earlier Roman period, the first or second century A.D., and is an item of high-quality personal amuletic jewellery. Phallic imagery was regarded as protective and apotropaic, but though many phallic ornaments in base metal and other materials have been found in Britain, this is the first recorded example from the province in precious metal. It was declared Treasure under the Treasure Act 1996, and has been acquired by Braintree District Museum.

Richard Reece: The Siting of Roman Corinium

Roman Corinium lies near the junction of the Fosse Way running from NE to SW and Ermine Street running from E to W. The alignment of each section of road changes in order to approach the site of the Roman town. If the previous alignment, before deviation, is examined all the roads would have crossed near a point to the NE of the town site. Since the actual site has several severe disadvantages in terms of sub-soil and drainage it is suggested that there must have been a substantial reason for not siting the town on the excellent site at the crossing point.

Giles Standing: The Claudian Invasion of Britain and the Cult of Victoria Britannica

The aim of this note is to bring together seven, otherwise dispersed, inscriptions relating to the different religious responses across the Empire to the emperor Claudius' invasion of Britain in A.D. 43, both prior to his embarkation and following his victory. Particular attention is paid to the little-known cult of Victoria Britannica at Corinth in Greece, the divine personification of the Emperor's victory in Britain. It is hoped that the body of inscriptions will act as a useful reference for further studies relating to the Claudian conquest and its commemoration throughout both the Western and Eastern provinces.

R.J.A. Wilson: The Rudston Venus Mosaic Revisited: a Spear-bearing Lion?

The well-known fourth-century Rudston Venus mosaic contains a lunate panel showing a lion, with an inscription below it interpreted since 1934 as [LEO] F[R]AMEFER or F[R]AMMEFER, 'the spear-bearing lion' (RIB 2448.7). Quite apart from the fact that this word does not exist in Latin, it is clear on epigraphic grounds that there is insufficient room for an R in the damaged part of the mosaic after the initial F. The reading F[L]AMMEFER, 'fiery', is therefore to be preferred. Moreover such labels attached to animals, unique in Britain, serve as amphitheatre 'stage names' on African mosaics (the ultimate model for the Rudston floor), and 'fiery' is an appropriate appellation for a lion. 'Spear-bearer' by contrast could only have served as a weak and unnecessary descriptive label, and not as a name, since the animal only 'bears' the spear at the moment of its death. FLAMMEFER is therefore proposed as the correct original reading.