Description
In this issue:
– THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF ANARCHY: Investigating England’s first civil war
– WORLDS APART?: The Romans in Ireland
– FINDS FIT FOR A KING?: Uncovering signs of luxury living at Lincoln Castle
– LETTERS FROM LONDINIUM: Reading the earliest writing from Roman Britain
Plus: News, Reviews, Comment, Sherds, Odd Socs, and more!
From the Editor:
The early years of London seem both uncannily familiarand unimaginably distant. Today, no one would bat aneyelid at Tacitus’ description of a settlement heaving with’businessmen and commerce’. Accounts of reckless loans,eye-watering debt, and advice to maintain a stiff upper lip(or at least ‘not to appear shabby’) in the face of adversityreinforce a sense that some things never change. But this was also a world whereslaves conducted their master’s business, and opportunistic traders followed hoton the heels of the legions.
Everyday life during Britain’s first civil war is also under the spotlight in this issue.The chaos of King Stephen’s reign was memorably summed up by one chroniclerwho lamented that ‘Christ and his Saints slept’. But did the king and his cousin’sbattle for power leave a lasting archaeological legacy?
In Ireland, the search has been on for aftershocks from the Roman annexationof Britain. Tantalising clusters of finds, graves of people who seem to have beenborn in Britannia, and coastal emporia doing a roaring trade in Roman-style artefactssuggest that not all traders waited for the legions to get there first.
Recent excavations in Lincoln castle may have uncovered traces of a rathermore august visitor: King Henry II. What can table scrapsreveal about feasting that was fit for a king?
Matt Symonds
Cover Date: Aug-2016, Volume 27 Issue 5