Roman Britain in 1975

Abstract

Plots 3 and 5 respectively) were excavated immediately west and east (FIG. 4) of the possible bath-house site, 8 and immediately south of the known fortlet. 9 The earliest feature was an Iron-Age type four-post structure of side 25 m on Plot 3. On Plot 5 (FIG. 5) the earliest feature was a pair of east-west military ditches which may be part of an auxiliary fort of Flavian date. Outside these was a north-south cobbled road, much disturbed, a slate-lined cistern (perhaps associated with the baths), an oven and parts of two stake-built structures. Recent activity had destroyed the relationship of the ditches to other features. The fort was apparently replaced by the fortlet (on a new alignment) in the late Trajanic period. A timber range with four or more rooms was erected, having wall-trenches carrying upright stakes. Two furnaces or smithinghearths and the large stone-lined pit were associated. The pit was 2 m deep with an arched inlet in the unlined end and a partially-preserved timber floor. It was used until c. 110-30. The building is thought to have been a fabrica and the pit used for tanning. The area was then levelled, the fort ditches finally filled with baths debris, and a stone structure c. 105 by 5 m built on the south side of the fabrica. A roughlymade road ran from east to west to the north of this structure; the road was also found in Plot 3, where a post-and sleeper-built structure c. 4 5 by 75 m lay on its south side. Occupation ceased in the early Hadrianic period. 10 (2) Llanfor (SH 938361): aerial reconnaissance 11 has revealed a fort near the confluence of the Dee and the Tryweryn and near the east end of Bala Lake, on a river terrace 2-3 m above the flood-plain. The rampart is visible as a low mound, now spread to c. 13 m wide. The area is c. 3 3 ha (just over 8 acres) over the ramparts. Parch-marks show three ditches and internal timber buildings including a granary and barrack-block. 12 (3) Pennal fort (SH 705001): aerial observation revealed a road running (probably from the south gate) towards a presumed ford across the river Dovey near Llugwy (712996). 13 Another road left the north gate, north-westwards towards Pennal village. The porta principalis dextra thus lies directly beneath the modern farm building and the principia faced west. The parch-marks indicated this to be of stone, but other internal buildings of timber. Northwest of the west gate was seen the bath-house, apparently of reihentyp plan. 14 MONTGOMERYSHIRE [POWYS] Forden Gaer (SO 208989): survey and excavation 15 150 m south of the fort, on the north bank of the Severn, has produced evidence of second-and third-century occupation, including a building with stone-footed walls, roofing tiles of local shale and a clay floor in which was a pit 1 5 m deep and 1 m in diameter. Iron slag and dross was noted in the latest levels and first-century pottery and other foundations to the west. The road south from the fort was not located. 8 Britannia vi (1975), 222 n. 3, now built over. 9 V. E. Nash-Williams, The Roman frontier in Wales...

"Pars Pro Toto" and Personhood in Roman Cremation Ritual: New Bioarchaeological Evidence for the Rite of "Os Resectum"

“…The burial deposit was donated to the Lincolnshire Museum (now The Collection) in 1953 but appears not to have been recorded by publication. Several years later two late second to mid-third century cremations, interred in cooking pots, were found approximately 100 m away (Goodburn et al 1976), and a fragment of a Roman tombstone was later recovered very close to the previous finds (White 1977 The total weight of all the cremated materials in the Broadway burial was 376 g with the total weight of the cremated bone 371 g. The latter value is substantially below the expected weight of a modern adult cremation (approximately 1000-2400 g), but is within the observed range of Romano-British cremation burials (McKinley 1993(McKinley , 2004b. At the time of analysis, the largest bone fragment had a maximum dimension of 42 mm, which is close to the average maximum fragment size reported by McKinley (1994b) for British cremation burials of 45 mm.…”

Provenance of chalk tesserae from Brading Roman Villa, Isle of Wight, UK

“…Between AD 250 and 270 a phase of newly built and expanded villas and farmsteads reflects a period of increased prosperity: substantial Roman stone-built farmsteads or villas are known at Bowcombe (Sydenham, 1945); Brading (Price and Price, 1881;1890); Carisbrooke (Spickernell, 1859;Rigold, 1969); Clatterford (Kell, 1856;Busby et al,. 2001); Combley (Sydenham, 1945;Fennelly, 1969Fennelly, , 1971; Gurnard (Kell, 1866); Rock (Goodburn et al, 1976;Tomalin, 2006) and Shide, at Newport (Sherwin, 1929;Stone, 1929). There is another possible villa site at Watergate Newport (Frere and Tomalin, 1991).…”

North Leigh Roman Villa, Oxfordshire: A Report on Excavation and Recording in the 1970s

“…The project was under the overall direction of Jeffrey West, then the area's Inspector of Ancient Monuments, now English Heritage's regional director of Historic Properties (Midlands). For interim notes see Goodburn 1976, 337, Frere 1977, 400, and Goodburn 1978 century, based on pottery evidence from beneath the Period 1 bath-house and on the two-colour mosaics from the early west range buildings. Period 2 remains undated although a third-century rather than second-century date seems the more likely.…”