In 2020, we reported on intriguing discoveries emerging from a Roman villa site near Corby, Northamptonshire. Now further excavations have been carried out at Priors Hall, illuminating the area’s industrial heritage, its interconnectivity with other villa sites, and its Iron Age origins. Paddy Lambert reports.
Review by Andrew Tibbs In Roman times, water was an important resource, but also had symbolic importance. Waterways acted as arterial routes of the Empire, used by the military, traders, and civilians to move resources and people, while on dry…
This past summer, the team returned to explore other buildings on the site, in order to learn more about the complex as a whole.
Among the early Christian catacombs in northern Rome, beyond the walls of the ancient city, are those of the Sant’Agnese fuori le mura complex. It is here along the via Nomentana that St Agnes of Rome is said to have…
As we enter a new year, many of us find ourselves both reflecting on the past and making plans for the future. This dual outlook is embodied by the two-faced god Janus, who governed the first month of the year in ancient Rome
Archaeological investigations have revealed more than 20 large statues dating from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD, as well as thousands of bronze, silver, and gold coins, and many votive objects
Richly painted frescoes enlivened the often dark and claustrophobic rooms of Roman houses. How was this interior world of colour created? Dalu Jones celebrates the triumph of Pompeii and Herculaneum’s frescoes.
The temple is believed to date to around the end of the 6th or beginning of the 5th century BC.
Between 2016 and 2018, Cotswold Archaeology’s excavation of disused rugby pitches in Stoke Gifford, just north of Bristol, provided the opportunity to explore the layout of a Roman villa estate. Clare Randall describes some of the key findings.
Review by Al McCluskey The Roman Frontiers in Wales is one of the latest tranche of publications in the ‘Frontiers of the Roman Empire’ series. Co-authored by David Breeze and Peter Guest, this neat, informative, and accessible volume brings a…
Review by Claire Hodson Over the last decade, numerous studies have challenged the traditional assumptions that the words ‘Roman Britain’ may incite. Included within this re-evaluation has been the increase in osteological analyses to reveal further insights into those working,…
A round-up of some of the latest news from the world of ancient Egypt.
The excavations revealed at least 50 burials dating to the Roman period, including inhumation graves, cremation urns, and signs of funerary pyres.
Excavation work at Traprain Law, an Iron Age hillfort in East Lothian, some 30km east of Edinburgh, was interrupted by the turmoil of the First World War. Two weeks after work began again on 12 May 1919, George Pringle loosened the soil with the tip of his pick and pulled out a Roman silver vessel. This was the first artefact to be found from what would prove to be the largest hoard yet known of Late Roman hacksilver – silver which has been chopped, cut, and crushed. More than a century later, an equally massive 784-page study has been published that tells us what the hoard represents in terms of the art and lifestyles of people from both sides of Hadrian’s Wall, as Chris Catling reports.
Distinctive tiles stamped with the name and titles of the Roman emperor Nero have been found at only two sites from Roman Britain, both in Hampshire. Michael Fulford explores what this might mean.
The dates listed below may have changed since we went to print. Check the websites of the museums for the most up-to-date information and bookings.
Review by Sadie Watson Scholars of Roman London might wait years for a major synthesis such as Dominic Perring’s London in the Roman World to be published. This is hardly surprising when you consider the amount of research that has…
What name is given to the king of Rome's gods?
An exhibition at the Musée Saint-Raymond explores the Roman cult of Mithras. Gillis Kersting visited to find out more about this enigmatic religion.
Crossword, cartoon, and more
Review by Roger Bland. This volume, based on a conference that was held in 2016, is the first publication to come out of the Coin Hoards of the Roman Empire project, which is creating a record of all coin hoards…
Review by Diana Bentley. Few episodes in antiquity are more gripping than the epic struggle for political supremacy and survival between Octavian, heir of Julius Caesar; his rival, politician and general Mark Antony; and Cleopatra, ruler of Egypt. In his…
Ancient Rome’s enthusiasm for all things Greek is well known, and archaeological echoes of these influences can be found across the Empire. Looking in the other direction, though, what traces did the Romans leave in Athens, the city at the heart of their idealised view? Carly Hilts reports.
For me, the crux of this book comes on page 132. Peter Davenport explains that ‘the plan of the Classical temple [was altered] into something quite similar to the more usual plan of temples in the north-west of the empire,…
Excavations in advance of HS2 construction in Northamptonshire have uncovered the remains of a previously unknown Iron Age village that grew into a flourishing Roman trading settlement. Carly Hilts spoke to James West to find out more.
We all gathered round on another day, when a whoop of excitement emerged from the next-door shop, where Professor Frend was working in a cellar. He had just found the lovely bronze statuette of Venus, now a proud exhibit in the Verulamium Museum
Marcus Claudius Marcellus asked the Senate to grant him a triumph. He was refused because the fighting in his former province of Sicily was still ongoing, and his army was not with him to support his claim. Instead, he was given only an ovation.
Few figures in history have seen their reputation rise and fall quite like Domitian (AD 51-96). The third and final ruler of the dynasty founded in AD 69 by his father Vespasian, he became one of the longest-serving emperors, praised during his 15-year reign as a living god, but later remembered as corrupt, murderous and deeply depraved.
Are bad Roman emperors really that different from good Roman emperors? Nathalie de Haan and Eric M Moormann look at the case of Domitian, an accomplished military man and prolific builder who emulated Augustus but was reviled as a new Nero.
And here’s another point to take note of, that not everything people laugh at is witty.
Wax tablet archives revealed that the deceased was a public slave and a custodian of the Temple of Venus.
Built in AD 122, Hadrian’s Wall stretched 73 miles from the North Sea to Solway Firth and marked the furthest limit of the Roman Empire.
Writing a book about the history of a Roman town in Britain is not an easy task. To create a readable and balanced account, an author has to contend with various levels of knowledge, inevitably glossing over or filling in…
And pretty Samos, and the palace of Croesus at Sardis,What of Smyrna and Colophon – better or worse than their fame?Or are they all as dirt beside the Campus and the Tiber’s stream?Or does one of the cities of Attalus…
In this stimulating addition to the burgeoning literature of Hadrian’s Wall, Matthew Symonds, editor of Current World Archaeology, brings fresh emphases to the study of this endlessly fascinating Roman monument in the north of Britain, and in doing so shows…
Roman literature gives us an overwhelmingly negative view of Nero, but was there any good to this matricidal ruler? As a new exhibition on the emperor opens at the British Museum, Minerva's Editor Lucia Marchini speaks to curators Thorsten Opper and Francesca Bologna to find out more about how and why this figure, popular with the people, came to be known as an enemy of the Senate and the state.