Description
In this issue:
– ON THE EDGE: The story of Alderley from prehistory to the present
– BATHING AT BINCHESTER: Creature comforts in the military north
– MEDIEVAL VOICES: Recording England’s early church graf fiti
– LIFE IN THE LOOP: A landscape 6,000 years in the making near Biddenham
– AVERTING EVIL IN ROMAN BRITAIN: Phallic carvings on the frontier
Plus: News, Reviews, Comment, Sherds, Odd Socs, and more!
From the Editor:
A recent excavation campaign at Binchester Roman fortconcluded with a spectacular discovery. A trench revealedpart of a bathhouse that may be one of the best-preservedstructures surviving from Roman Britain. Traces of garishfrescoes still cling to walls standing above head height,which bear witness to refurbishments that kept pace with the garrison’s demand for creature comforts. We discover how a facility dedicated to cleanliness ended up choked with dirt.
Also in this issue, we pay a visit to Alderley Edge to learn the results of a surveyunearthing the secrets of a landscape that has attracted miners and myths in equalmeasure. From a Bronze Age shovel that became a schoolboy’s talisman to a 19th-centurylandowner’s revenge on the commuter settlement that had appropriated thename of his family seat, this weird and wonderful landscape is fertile ground for stories.
The devil is in the detail, they say, and for medieval churches and cathedrals thisadage is especially apt. A fascinating study of graffiti is giving voice to generations ofcongregations and clergymen who whiled away the hours incising fears, fancies, andfrustrations into the masonry. These frequently crude compositions of ships, windmills,music, and demons bring their creators’ worlds to life with extraordinary power.
A lost landscape has been brought to light in the Biddenham Loop,where archaeologists have dug a huge tract of land boundwithin a river meander. What they found was a place wheremonuments evolved over thousands of years, keeping pastgenerations’ decisions very much in the present.
Matt Symonds
Cover Date: Jun-2016, Volume 27 Issue 3