Roman Britain

Roman villa revealed near Wrexham

The remains of a Roman villa have been revealed near Rossett, Wrexham. It is the first site of its kind to be found in north-east Wales, adding to our knowledge of the region during this period. The first clues to…

Current Archaeology 370

• Corby’s ‘temple-mausoleum’
• Later-medieval churches in Herefordshire
• Evolution of pet cemeteries
• Archaeology on furlough: exploring the past during lockdown

Tomen y Mur, Snowdonia National Park

Tomen y Mur was abandoned by AD 130, but had lasting political and cultural significance into the medieval period.

Below The face of long covered parts of Hadrian’s Wall was revealed during excavation by the WallCAP project.

Hadrian’s Wall revealed at Walltown Crags

Many miles of Hadrian’s Wall survive beneath turf and rubble, unexplored and often under threat from erosion, people, and animals. A recent excavation at Walltown Crags in Northumberland, undertaken in advance of fixing some of this damage, revealed sections of…

Overlooking the Priors Hall excavation site, where Oxford Archaeology East has revealed the remains of a Roman temple mausoleum that was subsequently repurposed as a major tile and brick making centre.

Romano-Celtic villa: a temple-mausoleum and evidence of industry at Priors Hall, Corby

Excavation just outside Corby has shed vivid light on the construction of a Roman villa, the reuse of an enigmatic religious building, and a bustling array of industrial activity, as Paddy Lambert explains.

Gloucester: the Roman forum and post-Roman sequence at the city centre

Gloucester: the Roman forum and post-Roman sequence at the city centre H E Hurst Gloucester Archaeological Publications, £25 ISBN 978-0948386022 Review Richard Hodges

Excavation at Chester: the northern and eastern Roman extramural settlements, excavation 1990-2019 and other investigations

Excavations at Chester: the northern and eastern Roman extramural settlements, excavations 1990-2019 and other investigations Leigh Dodd Archaeopress, £30 IBSN 978-1789696271 Review Nick Hodgson

Hinterlands and Inlands: the archaeology of west Cambridge and Roman Cambridge revisited

Hinterlands and Inlands: the archaeology of west Cambridge and Roman Cambridge revisited Christopher Evans and Gavin Lucas McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, £45 ISBN 978-1902937892 Review Kasia Gdaniec

Finds tray – early Roman axehead

Last December, a metal-detectorist discovered this cast of a socketed axehead near Boynton in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Made of copper-alloy, it is perfectly complete but has been made in miniature, measuring only 23.9mm long. While it was probably…

RIGHT Part of the curving foundations of the round house were revealed beneath an early medieval mortar mixer.

Roundhouse revealed at Bamburgh Castle

Excavations within the West Ward of Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland have revealed the partial foundations of what appears to have been a substantial roundhouse. Based on its stratigraphy, it is thought to be late Romano-British, but could potentially be earlier…

An unfinished frontier? Was Hadrian’s Wall completed in his lifetime?

During the 2019 Pilgrimage of Hadrian’s Wall (see CA 353), participants considered a key question relating to the ancient fortification: did the eponymous emperor who commissioned its construction live to see it completed? David Breeze and Erik Graafstal explore the evidence.

News in brief

British Museum launches protective platform The British Museum has launched a global platform called ‘Circulating Artefacts’ (CircArt) to fight against the looting and trafficking of antiquities. This initiative combines a restricted object database with an online public service where users…

Recent Roman discoveries during the A1 upgrade in North Yorkshire

In 2018, Highways England opened an upgraded section of motorway on the A1 in North Yorkshire. Construction of the new road prompted a series of large-scale excavations, with illuminating results. Stuart Ross and Cath Ross present some of the preliminary findings.

Above A muddy ‘pinch point’ on the National Trail, within Milecastle 33, at the end of winter. The bridge carries the path over the side wall of the milecastle.

Managing the Wall: How to care for a 73-mile-long monument

Hadrian’s Wall was built to safeguard the Roman frontier – today, the fortification itself needs special care. Humphrey Welfare discusses the unique challenges of managing a monument that runs from coast to coast and spans diverse authority areas.

Communities in the conflict zone: Ten years of discoveries at Vindolanda

The Roman auxiliary fort of Vindolanda is best known for the remarkable cache of 1st- and 2nd-century wooden writing tablets that was found on the site in 1973, but ongoing archaeological work on the site continues to reveal a wealth of insights into both military and civilian life. From a murder mystery and evidence for a previously unknown goddess to shoes and sporting equipment, Andrew Birley takes us through some of the highlights uncovered in the last ten years.

Sharing snapshots from South Shields and Wallsend

What is the latest thinking on the forts that lay towards the eastern extremity of Hadrian’s Wall? Paul Bidwell and Nick Hodgson report.

Community spirit: Hadrian’s Wall, Cumbria

For Historic England, Hadrian’s Wall has always been a site needing active research – many questions about the frontier remain unanswered, and only by the kind of refreshed understanding that research brings, and by addressing the interests and concerns of the public, can the frontier remain relevant.

Above Between 1978 and 1982, excavation of the north Lanes site at Carlisle shed vivid light on the Roman civilian settlement. Here, the team from Carlisle Archaeological Unit is lifting one of the oak base plates belonging to a 2nd century high status structure, possibly a mansio.

Reconstructing Roman Carlisle: Fort life on a shifting frontier

The Roman fort at Carlisle was founded decades before the construction of Hadrian’s Wall. How did the site’s use change as the frontier was fortified, and what can we learn about the lives of its inhabitants? John Zant reports.

Settlement and sacred structures: exploring cultic and commercial activity at Maryport

Excavations at Maryport have shed vivid light on activity outside the Roman fort, from possible temple buildings and buried altars to signs of more everyday life. Tony Wilmott, Ian Haynes, and John Zant explain more.

The story of an urn: investigating an unusual cremation vessel

Analysis of one of the Birdoswald cremation vessels has revealed a wealth of new information – as well as some very unusual contents. Tony Wilmott tells all.

Buried at Birdoswald: excavating a Roman cremation cemetery outside the fort

To-date, the 3rd-century cremations discovered above Birdoswald fort remain the only Roman cemetery to have received major archaeological attention along the line of Hadrian’s Wall. What light does it shed on the people who lived and died on the frontier? Tony Wilmott explains.

The delightful (baker’s) dozen: artefactual insights into Hadrian’s Wall

The 73-mile length of Hadrian’s Wall, as well as the forts and structures associated with it, has yielded thousands of intriguing objects shedding vivid light on life on the Roman frontier. Rob Collins picks out 13 key finds that highlight how the material culture of the monument can enhance our understanding of the people who lived and worked along it.

Above Some of the inscriptions record the names of the legions who were sent to work at the quarry; this text proudly declares that the 2nd Legion Augusta once laboured there. A rudimentary face carved just above the text has been interpreted as a possible caricature.

Roman writing on the Wall: recording inscriptions at a Hadrian’s Wall quarry

In the depths of a Cumbrian wood, intrepid archaeologists have been abseiling down the wall of a Roman quarry to document eroding inscriptions left by 3rd-century soldiers tasked with harvesting the sandstone to help repair Hadrian’s Wall. Carly Hilts visited the site and spoke to Jon Allison and Mike Collins to find out more.

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The Past

Solving a silver jigsaw: a new hoard of Roman hacksilver from Fife

Recently discovered in Fife, the Dairsie Hoard represents the earliest-known evidence found outside the empire for Roman use of hacksilver to secure their frontiers. Fraser Hunter unpicks its illuminating and ornate contents.

Uncovering magnificent mosaics in the heart of Roman Leicester

The largest excavation undertaken in Leicester for over a decade has shed vivid new light on the city’s early Roman history, as well as revealing evidence of luxurious dwellings, including one of the biggest fragments of mosaic floor found in the city in 150 years. Gavin Speed reports.

Above Found with other fragmentary human remains in a pit near the Walbrook River, this skull speaks of the violent life and brutal death of the man it once belonged to. Might he have fought in London’s Roman amphitheatre?

Fighting talk: searching for gladiators in Roman London

A new exhibition, displayed amid the remains of London’s Roman amphitheatre, tells the story of the gladiators who fought in its arena. Carly Hilts spoke to Kate Sumnall about what light the material record can shed on the lives and deaths of these men.

Above Writing equipment from a votive pit at a villa in Marktoberdorf, Bavaria. The cache includes an inkwell (back), a spatula (middle), and a small knife (front). The presence of this kit might suggest that writing played a role in the rites. ABOVE RIGHT A doctor’s grave from Vindonissa, Switzerland, where a cremation burial was accompanied with two scalpels (right), tweezers (centre), and an inkwell. Although in such cases the deceased are usually assumed to be men, detailed study of the skeletal material revealed the presence of a woman and child.

Age of ink: inkwells and writing in Roman Britain

The power of the Vindolanda and Bloomberg tablets to evoke our Roman past has made them justly famous, but just how widespread were writers in Roman Britain? Hella Eckardt reveals what inkwells can tell us about the arrival of literacy.

Unpicking the Leominster hoard

The cache – a lump of fused coins, about the size of a rugby ball – was block-lifted so its contents could be teased apart under controlled conditions.

Roman riches at Scotch Corner

A range of artefacts were discovered during the excavation, many of which hint at the wealth of some of the settlement’s inhabitants.

Right The Western Road graves appeared almost random in their distribution, but closer investigation revealed method in the apparent madness.

Buried between road and river: investigating a Roman cemetery in Leicester

Until recently, Leicester’s Roman cemeteries had seen little major excavation, and their burial practices were poorly understood. Now an investigation in the city’s West End has given a wealth of new insights into the Roman town’s diverse population, as Mathew Morris reveals.

Above Adam Wightman, pictured excavating the Fenwick Treasure.

The Fenwick Treasure: Colchester during the Boudiccan War of Independence

Excavations in Colchester have revealed where a couple stashed their valuables before Boudicca sacked the city. These artefacts, and the charred debris found strewn above them, provide a poignant insight into those on the receiving end of the Iceni’s wrath. First, Philip Crummy and Adam Wightman shed light on a dark day in Colchester’s past, and then Nina Crummy guides us through the treasure itself.

Above Despite being a native settlement in the northern frontier zone, Faverdale contained a small Roman bathhouse. This reconstruction imagines business being conducted inside over a drink and some oysters. The design of the wall plaster has been based on some surviving fragments.

Roman Faverdale: a frontier trading settlement

What impact did the Roman army have on the native population living in the military north? The recent publication of the report on a settlement at Faverdale, Darlington, by Jennifer Proctor provides some unexpected answers.

Above Roman diplomacy in action? The lefthand panel on the Bridgeness slab commemorates completion of the east end of the Antonine Wall. It is a typical propaganda view, with Roman cavalry riding down dejected locals. Opposite An Iron Age mould for forging Roman coins.

War and diplomacy on the edge of the Roman world

What effect did the Roman occupation have on the peoples beyond Hadrian’s Wall? Fraser Hunter examines how the construction of a frontier and the garrisoning of thousands of soldiers forged new societies north of the Wall.

RIGHT The face of Late Roman Winchester? This skull from a 26 to 35 year old male hints at a multicultural 4th century AD city. A number of features including the low bridged nose, slightly projecting jaw, and small brow ridges are more in keeping with Black and Asian groups than Caucasians.

Lankhills: ethnicity and death in Late Roman Winchester

Lankhills, Winchester, is a landmark site for Roman cemetery studies. Excavations there in the 1960s set new standards and explored the evidence for different ethnic groups. More recent redevelopment provided an opportunity for Oxford Archaeology to test these findings, and make major new discoveries. The final report by Paul Booth, Andrew Simmonds, Angela Boyle, Sharon Clough, Hilary Cool, and Daniel Poore cements Lankhills’ status.

The Past

Digging Binchester

Former CA Editor Lisa Westcott spent an inspiring week in the trenches, brushing up on her digging skills and meeting volunteers.

Below A view of Vindolanda looking towards the 3rd century fort from the apse of the bath house.

A Roman clock at Vindolanda

In CA 224 we reported a splendid new discovery from Vindolanda. The excavators – and just about everyone else – thought it was part of a calendar. Not so, says leading ancient technology specialist Michael Lewis. It is something much more spectacular. The 8cm-long bronze fragment turns out to be part of one the most sophisticated technical devices known to antiquity: an anaphoric water-clock.