Description
In this issue:
– The real Upstairs, Downstairs: exploring the use of technology in Britain’s country houses
– Druce Farm Villa: luxury living in Roman Dorset
– Investigating an unusual Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Barber’s Point
– Celtic from the West: in search of the archaeology of a language
– The bodies in the bailey: uncovering enigmatic graves at Halton Castle
– CA Live! 2017: conference details, and award nominees
Plus: News, Reviews, Comment, Sherds, Odd Socs, and more!
From the Editor:
Our cover feature takes us inside a well-appointed Roman villa in Dorset. There we find many of the sumptuous, if occasionally garish, decorative touches favoured by the elites in Roman Britain. Alongside the mosaics, painted wall plaster, and showy roofing are more intimate details. One mosaic had to be patched after it was worn down, perhaps by the feet of a couch, while possible fireplaces suggest humble measures to take the edge off chilly weather.
Seeing beyond the luxury is also important to understanding country houses from more recent centuries. Although the no-frills approach to servants’ quarters can leave them looking like much of a muchness, the enthusiasm with which newly developed mod cons were employed to assist their chores varied considerably. We examine the collision between technology and tradition.
At Aldeburgh, in East Anglia, it is the collision between pagan and Christian traditions that has been under the microscope. The region is renowned for clinging to the old gods, and excavation of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery has revealed that Christian graves may lie beside an earlier burial conducted according to traditional rites.
Trying to determine when, where, and how one prehistoric language evolved into another is also fiddly, as there are by definition no written clues to guide the way. Attempts to reconstruct the emergence of the Celtic family of languages, though, could revolutionise our view of prehistoric Europe by pointing to the existence of a remarkable Bronze Age lingua franca.
Finally, we travel to Halton, where two burials have been discovered in the castle bailey. Why might people have been laid to rest there?
Matt Symonds
Cover Date: Feb-2017, Volume 27 Issue 11