Ancient Rome

Cleopatra’s children: The last of the Ptolemies

Diana Bentley traces the fates of the four children of Cleopatra VII following the Roman invasion of Egypt in 30 BC.

The Association for Roman Archaeology

One of archaeology’s distinctive features has always been the lack of hard boundaries between professional and amateur. Archaeology is perhaps unique in the degree to which anyone can participate in the discipline, even at the highest level. That is especially…

The ancient world’s largest fortresses: Persia’s northern defences in late antiquity

In the 4th to 6th centuries AD, Persia was under attack from the north by the ‘White Huns’ and other powerful groups of steppe warriors. Persia’s response was to create a massive fortification belt – unsurpassed in scale anywhere in the ancient and medieval world, with only the possible exception of China. Eberhard Sauer, Jebrael Nokandeh, Hamid Omrani Rekavandi, Mohammadreza Nemati, and Mehdi Mousavinia have explored the backbone of the system: the densest concentration of mega-fortresses in the late antique world, in the Gorgan and Tehran Plains of Iran.

The Past

Roman military camps identified in the Arabian desert

Three Roman fortified camps have been identified in southern Jordan through satellite imagery surveying, with research suggesting that they represent evidence of an undocumented military campaign linked to the Roman annexation of the Nabataean kingdom at the beginning of the…

Above The new project at Pompeii is excavating a previously unexplored area of the site.

New archaeological work begins at Pompeii

The excavations are only in their early stages, but already signs of the upper parts of ancient buildings are beginning to emerge.

Broken links and smashed glass

Far into the Middle Ages, glass-workers produced beads using techniques eerily similar to those employed 2,000 years earlier in Amarna.

Battle Elephants and Flaming Foxes: animals in the Roman world

Review by Chris Epplett Over the past few years, there has been an increasing number of books and studies written on humankind’s interactions with and exploitation of the natural world. The book under review, drawn from the author’s background as…

Right Surveying work being carried out at the site of Carleith Farm, where the remains of the Roman fortlet were recently found.

Roman fortlet rediscovered on Scotland’s Antonine Wall

The discovery is only the tenth known fortlet to have been found along the wall.

Opposite Looking across the remains of Richbrough Roman fort, towards the reconstructed gateway that was recently built on the site. above The on site museum’s displays have been completely transformed to offer a more representative selection of the tens of thousands of finds that have been excavated at Richborough.

Gateway to Britannia: reimagining Richborough Roman fort

Richborough in Kent was one of the key locations in the early stages of the Roman invasion of Britain, later flourishing into a wealthy port town and then a significant military site. Over the last century, excavations have provided an extraordinary array of insights into the experiences of people who lived and worked within its walls – now, following a transformation of the on-site museum and the presentation of the outdoor archaeology, what new stories are there to tell? Carly Hilts visited to find out more.

Opposite A reconstruction by Alan Duncan of a late Roman hunting party returning to Whitley Grange villa with their quarry. right The remarkably clear results of a geophysical survey of the St Laurence School villa, Bradford on Avon.

Rural Romanitas: rethinking the role of villas

It has been an undergraduate essay topic for the last 50 years and is a question that continues to challenge archaeologists studying the history of Roman Britain: what exactly is a villa, and is there even a simple definition that fits them all? The Association for Roman Archaeology recently brought together 20 experts to consider new discoveries, new interpretations, and the role of the villa in Romano-British culture, religion, and landscape. Their conclusions have just been published, as Chris Catling reports.

The Past

Coastal erosion threatens archaeological sites in Libya

The study suggests that the archaeological sites of Apollonia, Ptolemais, and Tocra are at risk of extensive erosion.

Opposite Detail of a lararium (small shrine for the household gods) from the House of the Wooden Shrine, Herculaneum,1st century AD. Size: 163 x 73cm above The ruins of Herculaneum, with the modern town above the site.

Wooden wonders of Herculaneum

An astonishing array of wooden objects has survived from Herculaneum, carbonised by the volcanic eruption that destroyed the town. This invaluable material may be less showy than the celebrated marble and bronze statuary, but it was still used for everything from beams and boats to purses and small shrines, as Dalu Jones finds out.

Unusual artefact from Vindolanda re-investigated

Researchers suggest that this could have been some kind of sexual implement, something that is rarely considered among archaeological artefacts

Treasures of Roman Yorkshire

Review by Peter Halkon As the cover note states, this is an accessible introduction to the major artefacts and sites within the county. As Adam is a member of the curatorial staff at the Yorkshire Museum in York, the book’s…

Spring cleaning at Fishbourne Roman Palace

Fishbourne Roman Palace in West Sussex is home to the largest collection of in situ Roman mosaics in Britain – including the famous ‘Cupid on a Dolphin’ mosaic seen here. There are 29 such floors on display. In advance of…

Asterix’s legacy at Alésia

Richard Hodges explores Alésia in Burgundy and the legacy of Julius Caesar’s defeat of Vercingétorix and the Gauls.

Water in the Roman World: engineering, trade, religion, and daily life

Review by Dylan K Rogers To say that the Roman world was overflowing with water is an understatement. Recently, scholarship has increasingly begun to explore the numerous ways water impacted the lives of ancient Romans, from understanding the design of…

Qasr Bshir: conserving a special Roman fort

Deep in the Jordanian desert lies an extraordinary ruin. It is a Roman fort that can stake a claim to being the best-preserved example anywhere in the former empire. But this relic of imperial power is in urgent need of conservation work. David Breeze, Mark Driessen, and Fawzi Abudanah discuss why Qasr Bshir is special, and the challenges that lie ahead.

The Past

Roman and Saxon cemetery unearthed in Leeds

The 1,600-year-old site has yielded the remains of a high-status Roman woman interred in a lead coffin.

The Past

Excavations in Germany reveal Roman military camps and wooden defences

Such wooden defences have been referenced in literature and by Julius Caesar, though no other examples are known to have survived.

The Past

Gladiators Quiz

Which Roman general defeated a major slave uprising led by the escaped gladiator Spartacus?

Facing the Enemy? A GIS study of 1st century Roman fortifications in the Scottish landscape

Review by Kathryn Murphy In Facing the Enemy, Andrew Tibbs presents analysis of Roman fortifications and the Scottish landscape, focusing on the positioning, intervisibility, orientation, and interconnectivity of Flavian sites. Stemming from his PhD thesis, this volume discusses one of…

Left Room N6 in Phase 3 (AD 200 250) was given a floor made of red ceramic tesserae cut from roof and box flue tiles. The room was heated by a fireplace built into the eastern wall, visible at the top of the photograph. below left Room N7 in Phase 3 (AD 200 250), with the surviving third of a chequerboard mosaic floor bordered by a meander pattern. Fragments of wall plaster showed that the room had cream coloured walls with a pink stripe.

Druce Farm Roman villa: celebrating a community dig in the heart of Dorset

Roman villas are rarely excavated these days, because we already ‘know about them’. Yet when a villa is excavated – in part or as a whole – what we find defies what we think we know. The report on Druce Farm Roman villa, excavated between 2012 and 2018 by volunteer members of the East Dorset Antiquarian Society, has been published in quick time and in exemplary form. As Chris Catling discovers, it makes us think again about what defines a villa.

Left The main courtyard of the renovated Farnese home in Parma, the Palazzo della Pilotta, with contemporary artist Maurizio Nannucci’s neon installation Time Past, Present, and Future.

Palatial pleasures in Parma

The former palace of the Farnese family in Parma contains no fewer than five cultural institutions. Dalu Jones is our guide to the recently renovated Pilotta complex, where the dukes of Parma put art, archaeology, and theatre to use.

World news in brief: hominin footprints and hunter-gatherer cooking practices

A round-up of some of the latest archaeological news from across the globe, including: Etruscan bronze statues found in Italy; a hominin footprint found in Spain; and a study of hunter-gatherer cooking practices.

Roman women: tracing female archaeologists of the Roman frontiers

David Breeze, Tatiana Ivleva, and Rebecca Jones consider the contribution made to the study of Roman frontiers by Brenda Heywood, who died last December, and other contemporary female archaeologists.

Excavations at Chester: Roman land division and a probable villa in the hinterland of Deva – excavation at Saighton Army Camp, Huntington, Chester

Review by Andrew Tibbs The importance of Chester in the Roman period cannot be overestimated. Not only was it an important military centre with the establishment of a legionary fortress (Deva) in the 1st century, but the subsequent development of…

Gladiators: a cemetery of secrets

Almost 20 years ago, York Archaeological Trust were excavating part of a Roman cemetery when they uncovered dozens of decapitated skeletons. Were these the remains of gladiators? An exhibition at Cirencester’s Corinium Museum sets out the evidence, as Carly Hilts reports.

Left The bronze statues were exceptionally well preserved thanks to the conditions in the thermal spring.

Spectacular bronzes found in Italy

Archaeologists uncovered 24 finely worked bronze statues – the largest deposit of Etruscan and Roman bronze statues ever found in Italy.

Below An aerial view of the Aqueduct of Valens or Bozdog˘an Kemer in Istanbul, seen from the south, looking towards the Golden Horn. The 4th century bridge is 971m long and was used up to the early 20th century.

‘The city thirsts’: water in Istanbul: past, present, and future

Supplying Constantinople with water was a monumental challenge that received a monumental solution. Examining the extraordinary remains of aqueducts, bridges, and cisterns reveals the ingenuity – and expense – committed to sating a thirsty ancient metropolis, as James Crow explains.

Seasons and the city

Even reputable observers like Pliny the Younger often ended up at the mercy of the competence of later scribes. As his writings only survive as copies, it may be no more than a scribal slip of the hand that immortalised August as the month when Pompeii met its fate.