Excavations carried out at the Latin city of Gabii between 2012 and 2019 have contributed new data to a number of debates around the emergence, lived experience, maintenance, decline, and resilience of cities. Gabii's urban trajectories demonstrate both seemingly familiar forms of urbanism and, on closer study, many locally circumscribed elements. Specifically, the Gabii Project excavations have uncovered an early Iron Age (8th-5th centuries B.C.) hut complex that has provided evidence for architecture, funerary rites, and quotidian activities during the initial polynuclear settlement at urbanizing Gabii. A unique monumental complex constructed in the 3rd century B.C. has been identified and is interpreted as a public structure potentially used for ritual activities; the study of this complex raises questions about the creation and reception of markers of civic identity. Excavation data has further characterized the reorganizations that took place during the first centuries A.D., when Gabii's settled area contracted. Rather than unidirectional decline, evidence for industrial activities increases, and elite investments in the city persist, especially in the mixed-use elite domestic and agricultural complex. These results provide detailed evidence for how ancient cities developed and transformed in the face of shifting local and regional conditions, especially smaller urban centers (Gabii) at the periphery of mega-urban centers (Rome).
INTRODUCTION (FIG. i) E valuation excavations undertaken in early 1994 1 revealed elements of a ditch system and a pottery kiln within the confines of RAF Catterick (NGR SE 24350 96900). 2 The site is located on river gravels close to their interface with the Boulder Clays that occupy the areas to the west and south. The River Swale lies some 700 m to the east and the site forms part of the Roman roadside settlement known at Bainesse Farm 3 located on Dere Street some 2 km south of Cataractonium Roman town. Other work undertaken as part of the evaluation programme demonstrated that the roadside settlement extended for up to 750 m south of Bainesse Farm, which indicates that the site extends for approximately 1 km along Dere Street. 4 There is little or no evidence for the presence of structures on side roads away from Dere Street, although the work undertaken in 1981-82 did demonstrate the existence of two strip-buildings, set one behind the other, in some of the building plots. 5 The kiln site lies on the eastern periphery of the settlement and is quite possibly part of a zone of industrial activity around the fringes of the site. The latter suggestion arises from the discovery of a scatter of slag during fieldwalking undertaken as part of the evaluation that appeared to define the limits of the settlement to the south and west. 6 THE EXCAVATION The kiln was located at the eastern limit of the evaluation area in the northernmost of five trial trenches opened within RAF Catterick (Trench 1) (FIG. 2b), where the area available for evaluation was confined to a narrow strip between the highway boundary to the west and the airfield perimeter road to the east. The southern three trenches (Trenches 3-5) were
An excavation was undertaken by CFA Archaeology Ltd (CFA) between August and November 2010 on the site of the new Musselburgh Primary Health Care Centre. The site, which lies to the south of Inveresk Road, is centred on NGR 33430 67224. Until its demolition, the area had been occupied by Brunton Wireworks. The Scheduled Monument of Inveresk Roman Fort lies at the top of the steep slope c 50m to the south of the excavation site. The excavation identified six phases of activity on the site, the earliest being a Mesolithic flint scatter (Clarke & Kirby forthcoming). The area was used as a burial ground in the Iron Age and a ring ditch may also be of prehistoric date. Later, six Roman inhumation burials (four of which had been decapitated) and a horse burial were interred, and a possible Roman fortlet was constructed. Across the site, a network of interconnected ditches formed part of a Roman-period field system, which cut through the rampart of the possible fortlet, and through a number of the graves. Along the southern boundary of the site a large accumulation of Roman midden deposits overlay features associated with the field system, although it may have started to build up while the latter was still in use. A post-built structure was also found, one post of which cut a ditch of the field system. The midden deposits extended along the full length of the southern boundary of the site, measuring 110m long by up to 20m wide. Numerous artefacts were recovered, representing the rubbish and discarded personal belongings of the fort occupants. The pottery included samian bowls with personal names scratched on the bases. Evidence from these, together with isotopic analysis of the human skeletons, shows that the ethnic origin of those living in the fort was diverse, as would be expected for the Roman army.
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