The Roman Society

Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Britannia Monographs

Britannia Monographs (ISSN 0953-542X)

 

To order any of the volumes below, please contact Oxbow Books.
Browse the available volumes at Oxbow Books here.

 

No. 8. G. B. Dannell and J. P. Wild, Longthorpe II: the Military Works Depot: an Episode in Landscape History
This volume describes the pottery-making depot attached to the pre-Flavian vexillation fortress of Longthorpe near Peterborough and and throws light on the problems of supply of the Roman army during the conquest campaigns.

1987. 206 pp., 75 illus. Paperback. ISBN 0 907764 08 8.
 

 


No. 18, P. Leach et al. Fosse Lane: Excavations of a Romano-British Roadside Settlement at Shepton Mallet, Somerset
In 1990 rescue excavations by the University of Birmingham, funded jointly by Showerings Ltd and English Heritage, revealed over 2 ha. of a Romano-British roadside settlement beside the Fosse Way in Somerset. Located on the outskirts of Shepton Mallet, little more than a settlement locality and a pottery manufacturing site were known previously. Fosse Lane can now, however, take its place among the better known of the smaller towns and roadside settlements of Roman Britain. The excavations revealed evidence for a typical, agricultural and minor industrial centre, developing from the end of the 1st century AD and with its floruit in the 4th. Streets, plot layouts, plans of both timber-frame and stone buildings, and several small cemeteries were revealed. These last indicate some continuity of use into the 6th century, and the possibility of one Christian burial group.

2001.  348 pp, 81 figs, 24 pls. Paperback. ISBN 0 907764 27 4.  
 

 

No. 21, Hilary E.M. Cool, The Roman Cemetery at Brougham, Cumbria: Excavations 1966-67
The rescue excavations at Brougham uncovered the largest cemetery associated with a fort in the north yet dug. They revealed a third century cemetery where not only the soldiers, but also their wives and children were cremated and buried. The dead were provided with expensive pyre goods, such as elaborately decorated biers, jewellery, military equipment, household items and a wide range of animal offerings including horses. Their remains were generally deposited with pottery vessels including a large number in samian and Rhenish colour-coated wares. It has been possible to show that all parts of the funerary ritual was strongly structured by the age and sex of the deceased. There is good evidence that the unit was originally from the Danubian frontier.

The volume includes detailed specialist reports on all aspects of the finds and funerary rituals. A database of the results is included on a CD to facilitate further analysis.

July 2004, 542 pp., incl. 349 illus. and CD-Rom.  Paperback. ISBN 0 907764 31 2. 
 

 

No. 25, Michael Fulford and Amanda Clarke, Silchester: city in Transition. The Mid-Roman occupation of insula IX c. A.D. 125-250/300. A report on excavations undertaken since 1997.

Characterising urban life, City in Transition is the second volume reporting on the archaeology of the continuing excavation of Silchester Insula IX, taking the story down to the early second century. In describing the evidence for the occupation of the second and third centuries it follows on from Life and Labour in Late Roman Silchester (2006), which published the late Roman occupation. Geochemical and micromorphological analyses inform the interpretation of the use of space within buildings and, together with the study of an abundant material culture and environmental record, provide a rich characterisation of the houses and their occupants. The report sheds important light on the urban condition, debating such themes as population density, status, occupation, diet and domestic ritual.

2011, 544pp; 150 illus. (b&w and colour). ISBN 978 0 907764373
 


No. 26, Emma Durham and Michael Fulford, A Late Roman Town House and its Environs. The Excavations of C.D. Drew and K.C. Conningwod Selby in Colliton Park, Dorchester, Dorset 1937-8
This report publishes the 1937-8 excavations in Colliton Park, Dorchester, Dorset, which revealed one of the best preserved late Roman town houses so far discovered in Roman Britain. Extensively decorated with mosaics, the building has recently been re-displayed in a new cover building by Dorset County Council.

2014, 436pp; 214 figs (some colour). ISBN 978 0 907764397
 


No. 28, John Creighton with Robert Fry, edited, Silchester: Changing Visions of a Roman Town - Integrating Geophysics and Archaeology - The Results of the Silchester Mapping Project 2005 - 2010
This volume draws together for the first time all the fieldwork known to have taken place at Silchester from the earliest located trenches in the 1720s up until the modern campaigns of Fulford. It integrates this work with a new geophysical survey of 217ha to provide a new overarching narrative for the town. The volume starts with a historiography of work on the city from the earliest antiquarian investigations. This sense of changing interpretations of the site permeates all the later discussion, showing how new discoveries have transformed understandings. The core of the volume contains the empirical data, mapping the past excavations alongside evidence from aerial photography, fieldwalking, LiDAR and geophysics. The final sections provide essays in interpretation, with thematic reviews of: the defences; the development of the oppidum; the military connection; the mortuary landscape; trade and industry; and public entertainment. Finally a narrative overview examines how the town’s remains have been interpreted within an historical setting.

2016, 486pp; 58 illus (incl. colour), 1 fold-out. ISBN  9780907764427
 

 

 

No. 31, Alexander Smith, Martyn Allen, Tom Brindle, Michael Fulford, Lisa Lodwick and Anna Rohnbogner, New Visions of the Countryside of Roman Britain. Volume 3: Life and Death in the Countryside of Roman Britain

 

This volume focuses upon the people of rural Roman Britain – how they looked, lived, interacted with the material and spiritual worlds surrounding them, and also how they died, and what their physical remains can tell us. Analyses indicate a geographically and socially diverse society, influenced by pre-existing cultural traditions and varying degrees of social connectivity. Incorporation into the Roman empire certainly brought with it a great deal of social change, though contrary to many previous accounts depicting bucolic scenes of villa-life, it would appear that this change was largely to the detriment of many of those living in the countryside. 

 

2018, 448pp.; 129 illus. (colour & b/w). Paperback. 129 ISBN 978 0 907764465

 

No. 32. Michael Fulford, Amanda Clarke, Emma Durham and Nicholas Pankhurst, Late Iron Age Calleva: The Pre-Conquest Occupation At Silchester Insula IX. Silchester Roman Town: The Insula IX Town Life Project: Volume 3
The late Iron Age oppidum of Calleva underlies the Roman town at Silchester. Excavation (1997-2014) of a large area (0.3ha) of Insula IX revealed evidence of a rectilinear, NE/SW-NW/SE-oriented layout of the interior of the oppidum, dating from 20/10BC, with the remains of the larger part of one compound separated from its neighbours by fenced trackways.  Within the compound was a large, 47.5m long hall surrounded by smaller, rectangular buildings associated with groups of rubbish pits. A concluding discussion characterises the oppidum, integrating and contextualising a series of major contributions reporting the pre-conquest finds and environmental evidence with the structural story. 

2018, 480pp.; 171 illus. (colour & b/w). Paperback. ISBN 978 0 907764458

 

No. 33. Michael Fulford, Amanda Clarke, Emma Durham and Nicholas Pankhurst, Silchester Insula IX: The Claudio-Neronian Occupation of the Iron Age Oppidum: The Early Roman Occupation at Silchester Insula IX. Silchester Roman Town: The Insula IX Town Life Project: Volume 4.
How did a major nucleated settlement respond to the Roman conquest? Occupation of Silchester (Calleva) after the Roman invasion of south-east Britain in A.D. 43 shows remarkable continuity from the pre-Roman Iron Age oppidum. Although the settlement was crossed by strategic Roman roads, the network of lanes and compounds, crowded with round and rectangular buildings, otherwise remained little changed until c. A.D. 85. The contents of rubbish pits and wells give remarkable insights into the diet, occupations, identity and ritualistic behaviour of the inhabitants, while the richly varied provenances of the pottery and other finds reveal the local, regional and long-distance connections of the community. Although there is clear evidence of investment in the town in the reign of Nero, the pre-existing settlement was not swept away until the Roman street grid was established c. A.D. 85. This volume follows on from the publication of Late Iron Age Calleva, Britannia Monograph 32 (2018).

2020, Pp. c. 700 + 322 figs (colour). Paperback. ISBN  978 0 907764 47 2

 

No. 35. Simon Esmonde Cleary, Jasom Wood and Emma Durham, Chedworth Roman Villa. Excavations and Re-imaginings from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries.
Ten years in the planning and with contributions by 29 expert authors, this volume presents a comprehensive record of archaeological research at Chedworth Roman Villa, Gloucestershire, from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. Bringing together a large body of new, contextualised information about the villa, which is now in the care of the National Trust, it includes: the history of archaeological activity at the site; a description and analysis of the structural remains; reports on the artefactual material; the development, the landscape and the wider cultural setting of the villa; and a history of display of the remains since their discovery in 1864.

The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies in association with the National Trust, 2022, Pp. 608 + 335 figs + 5 fold-outs. Paperback. ISBN  978 0 907764 49 6

 

No. 36. Michael Fulford,  The Emperor Nero's Pottery and Tilery at Little London, Pamber, by Silchester, Hampshire. The Excavations of 2017
Previously suspected on the basis of a tile stamped with the name and titles of the emperor Nero found alongside other brick and tile in the ploughsoil, excavation of two tile kilns at Little London near Silchester, Hampshire confirmed production during the reign of Nero. In addition to the manufacture of standard bricks and roofing materials, the kilns produced the more specialist materials required for building bath-houses. Work on the fabrics and distinctive, roller-stamped flue-tiles shows that products reached a wide variety of destinations between Cirencester, some 100 km to the north-west, and Chichester, on the south coast, though Silchester appears to have been the main market and is the only location where Nero-stamped tile has so far been found. A suggestion is made linking the stamped tile to the visit to Britain by the emperor’s trusted freedman, Polyclitus in the aftermath of the Boudican revolt. An unexpected discovery was the ancillary production from at least three pottery kilns of a wide range of pre-Flavian domestic wares, so far only identified in Silchester and its environs. Alongside the publication of the kilns there are illustrated catalogues of the complete range of brick and tile types produced as well as of the pottery. Other reports include analysis of the fuels used and a suite of radiocarbon dates which support the pottery evidence for production ceasing in the early Flavian period. Analysis of the numerous animal foot-impressions on the bricks presents one aspect of the environment of the kilns. . 

2022, 216pp.; 149 figs. Paperback. ISBN 978 0 907764 50 2

 

Monographs currently out of print

Britannia monographs (1-30, 34) are available to download from ADShttps://doi.org/10.5284/1049651 

Out of print:

1, Roman Mosaics in Britain
2. Skeleton Green: a Late Iron Age and Romano-British Site
3, Wall-Painting in Roman Britain
4, Vindolanda: the Latin Writing-Tablets
5, Silchester: Excavations on the Defences 1974-80
6, Inchtuthil: the Roman Legionary Fortress - Excavations 1952-65
7, Baldock: the Excavation of a Roman and pre-Roman Settlement, 1968-72
9, Strageath: Excavations within the Roman Fort, 1973-86
10, The Silchester Amphitheatre: Excavations of 1979-85
11, Research on Roman Britain: 1960-89
12, Leucarum: Excavations at the Roman Auxiliary Fort at Loughor, West Glamorgan 1982-4 and 1987-8
13, Roman Inscribed and Sculptured Stones in the Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow
14, The Excavation of a Ceremonial Site at Folly Lane, Verulamium
15, Late Iron Age and Roman Silchester: Excavations on the Site of the Forum-Basilica
16, The Caerleon Canabae: Excavations in the Civil Settlement
17, Cannington Cemetery
19, The Romano-British 'Small Town' at Wanborough, Wiltshire: Excavations 1966-1976
20, Excavations in Roman Carmarthen 1973-1993
22, Life and Labour in Late Roman Silchester: Excavations in Insula IX since 1997
23, Elginhaugh: A Flavian Fort and its Annexe
24, Stanway: an Elite Burial Site at Camulodunum
27, The Towns of Roman Britain. The contribution of commercial archaeology since 1990
29, New Visions of the Countryside of Roman Britain - Volume 1: The Rural Settlement of Roman Britain

30, New Visions of the Countryside of Roman Britain - Volume 2: The Rural Economy of Roman Britain
34, Bridge Over Troubled Water. The Roman Finds from the River Tees at Piercebridge in Context

 

JRS Monographs

 

Britannia Monograph 8

 

Britannia Monograph 18

 

 

Britannia Monograph 21

 

 

Britannia Monograph 25

 

Britannia Monograph 26

 

Britannia Monograph 28

 

Britannia Monograph 31

 

Britannia Monograph 32

 

Britannia Monograph 33

 

 

 

 

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