Following the Eagle, After the Fire, and Treasure: Hidden, Lost, Found
CA recently visited exhibitions at three sites in the care of North East Museums, with displays exploring Roman military life and ideas of ‘treasure’.
Roman Empire
From the fringes of the Roman Empire: Locally crafted empires
In our high-speed modern world, it can be easy to forget that the ancient world was experienced at a slower speed. Rubina Raja shares the insights that can spring from exploring the edges of the Roman world on foot.
Roman Roads Research Association
By AD 150, the Roman road system extended for some 300,000km (more than 186,000 miles – 7.5 times the circumference of the earth). This comprehensive transport infrastructure underpinned the mobility and trade that characterised the Roman Empire. Later, it enabled…
England’s Saxon Shore forts: Excavating the CA archive
The Saxon Shore (litus Saxonicum) was a military command consisting of fortifications built on both sides of the English Channel, which were established in the late 3rd century AD to defend Britain against the incursion of Saxon raiders. Its nine English forts are mentioned in the Notitia Dignitatum, a document that details the administrative organisation of the late Roman Empire.
Domination: the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity
Through her TV work and writing, Professor Alice Roberts is a powerful and effective advocate for archaeology in the public realm. In Domination, she extends her coverage to explore Christianity in Late Antiquity, unpicking the intimate connection between the spread of…
Between Sahara and Sea: Africa in the Roman Empire
REVIEW BY ANDREW SELKIRK The Roman province of Africa was famed as being the ‘breadbasket’ of the ancient city, for Africa produced the huge quantities of grain needed to feed the plebs of Rome. But why was this region so…
Corinth’s greatest treasure
In the first of a two-part piece, Richard Hodges visits Corinth for a conversation with its legendary excavator Charles K Williams.
Reframing the ‘Desert Frontier’: studies in the ancient Near East and northern Arabia in honour of David Kennedy
REVIEW BY MATTHEW SYMONDS This volume honours Professor David Kennedy, a pioneering scholar of ancient Arabia and Rome’s eastern frontier, by bringing together 21 scholarly contributions examining both the archaeology of the wider region, and the way that it is…
Excavations in the Roman Legionary Fortress at Caerleon: the Priory Field store building
REVIEW BY TOBY DRIVER From the outset, the authors of this impressive research report remind us of the importance both of Caerleon Roman fortress and of the excavations and evaluations carried out in the Priory Field between 2007 and 2010.…
Finds Tray: Ware bowl
Found late last year on the Thames foreshore, this is the base of a small Samian ware bowl with a maker’s stamp. Based on its size, approximately 42.5mm (1.7in) in diameter, it is likely to be one of the smaller…
The Trading and Consumption of Roman Glass in Britain 43-500 CE
REVIEW BY RACHEL TYSON This study analyses the glass from 29 sites across Roman Britain to provide us with a picture of its consumption within different socio-economic groups and gain a better understanding of the trade and distribution of glass…
A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks
REVIEW BY LISA BRIGGS It has been 15 years since A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor was first published and introduced readers to a novel method of breaking down world history into bite-sized, easily digestible…
Birthing Romans
REVIEW BY PAULINE RIPAT Roman legends stressed the importance of babies in the foundation of Rome and its destiny to dominate. The unlikely birth of the twins Romulus and Remus from a Vestal Virgin, and their even more improbable survival…
Egypt in Constantinople
Aidan Dodson looks at material in Istanbul linking ancient Egypt with the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.
Fortress of the East
Recent excavations at Tell Abu Saifi in the Qantara region (Ismailia) have revealed new military architecture at the site of two fortresses dating back to the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Located in the northern Sinai Desert, the ‘Fortress of the…
Roman miniature padlock
A unique find, this tiny object is very finely crafted. What is it? This Roman miniature padlock, comprising a gold exterior and an iron core, measures just 1.2cm by 1.1cm. It is similar in form, technical structure, and decorative style…
Phillips Payson O’Brien
The American-born writer and academic Phillips Payson O’Brien on an admirable dictator, and his fascination with failure.
Roman coin hoard discovered in Barton Bendish
A coin hoard spanning more than 200 years of Roman history has been found near the village of Barton Bendish in Norfolk. Discovered by metal-detectorists, the 16 coins are all silver denarii minted in Rome, and are thought to have…
Egyptian ginger cats: Honorary Soldiers of Rome
W Benson Harer Jr says we should thank the Roman legionaries for our ginger feline friends.
The Rocks at the Edge of the Empire: 50 extraordinary rocky places that tell the story of the Romans and the landscape of their northern frontier
REVIEW BY ROB IXER Many recent popular archaeology books are text-heavy, with indifferently reproduced black-and-white illustrations printed on poor-quality paper, and with a few token colour plates. This wonderful paperback, a landscape book in both senses of the word, is…
Britain’s largest Neronian coin hoard on display
Britain’s largest-known coin hoard from the reign of Emperor Nero (AD 54-68) has gone on display at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum for the first time since its discovery. Known as the Worcestershire Conquest Hoard, the collection of 1,368…
Collapse and decline
Few experiences seem to bring us closer to people in the past than literally following in their footsteps on the streets of abandoned ancient cities, among the ruins of what they once called home. The effect can be dampened, though, when we reflect that these remains only exist because at some point the population left their houses, temples, palaces, and plazas for better or – more likely – worse.
Antinoöpolis: Why did Emperor Hadrian build a city in Egypt?
Barbara Gai explores Hadrian’s obsession with a young Greek boy and the events that led to the founding of Antinoöpolis in Middle Egypt.
Searching for Severus: Did a Roman emperor visit Carlisle?
Last month, CA 418 reported on excavations uncovering a sumptuous 3rd-century building at Carlisle Cricket Club. Its date coincides with the period when Septimius Severus and his family are known to have been in northern Britain, and of the emperor’s military campaigns in Caledonia. One translation of the Historia Augusta states that Severus travelled to Luguvalium, Roman Carlisle, during this visit – but is it correct? David Breeze and Alan Wilkins investigate the documentary evidence.
Tracing the international food trade of Iron Age Ireland
Excavations at an Iron Age fort in County Dublin have uncovered evidence of the exotic tastes of its inhabitants, including the earliest archaeological remains of a fig discovered in Ireland. Drumanagh promontory fort consists of c.46 acres of land enclosed…
Early Roman waterfront development: Excavations at Regis House, City of London, 1994-6
REVIEW BY RP The site of Regis House (encompassing 41-46 King William Street and adjoining properties in EC4, London) was extensively excavated between 1994 and 1996 by the Museum of London Archaeology Service (MoLAS, now MOLA). This new report by…
CWA #127 crossword, and answers to crossword #126
Your observations, your objections, and your opinions: send them to cwaletters@world-archaeology.com
The last of the Romans
Flavius Aetius is little known today, unlike his nemesis Attila the Hun. But, says Tim Newark, it was the Roman general who triumphed over his notorious adversary in a battle that decided the fate of the Roman Empire.
Science Notes: Reading Roman water mills using carbonate deposits
Researchers from the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, along with colleagues from Austria and France, have used carbonate deposits recovered from Roman water mills in Barbegal, near the city of Arles in the south of France, to reconstruct the development and…
Only UK example of Tyrian purple found in Carlisle
Testing on organic matter discovered by archaeologists from Wardell Armstrong has identified it as the first example of Tyrian purple pigment found not just in the UK, but in the whole of northern Europe. This exciting find was unearthed during…
The other Pompeii: Common lives in the shadow of Vesuvius
An exhibition at Pompeii explores the less glamorous side of life in the ancient city.
In View
MHM’s round-up of the latest military history titles.
CWA #123 crossword, and answers to crossword #122
Across 5 Egyptian falcon-headed god also known as Horus (8)8 Roman goddess of the dawn (6)9 English river taking its name from the Old English for ‘winding’ (6)10 Spanish cave system containing Palaeolithic art (8)11 Building in Oxford housing varied…
War of words – ‘Gothic’
With Marc DeSantis
CA 406 Letters – December
Your thoughts on issues raised by CA.
Finds tray: Roman tortoise
This is a Roman tortoise or turtle figurine that was recently found by a metal-detectorist near Wickham Skeith in Suffolk. Cast in copper-alloy, it has a flat base with no evidence of having once had a fixing, suggesting that it…