Felix Oswald

The pottery of a Claudian well at Margidunum

At Margidunum (Notts), halfway between Leicester and Lincoln, I have been carrying on excavations for several years, through the kindness of the owner, Mr. F. W. Dobson, J.P., in one of the three fields of the site, the only field at present available. Although much remains to be done, my results serve already to substantiate the surmise that this camp formed a link in the chain of Claudian frontier-posts established by P. Ostorius Scapula in A.D. 47, between the Severn and the Trent, when (according to Bradleys generally accepted emendation of Tacitus, Annals , xii, 31, 32) detrahere arma suspectis cunctaque cis Trisantonam et Sabrinam fluvios cohibere parat . Nothing was known of this camp beyond the name Margidunum, which occurs twice in the Antonine Itineraries (Iter 6 from London to Lincoln, and Iter 8 from York to London). It is about 8 acres in extent, and is rhomboidal in outline (plan, plate VIII), recalling in this respect the Claudian camp of Hofheim. The Fosse Way, which now traverses it diagonally, was not the original Roman road. In those days, undrained marshes protected the camp on the south, and the approach from this direction was by a short causeway (bordered by ditches), which can still be traced from a natural ridge that comes near the SE. angle of the camp. Thence the main road of the camp ran diagonally across it to NW., and from the NW. angle another well-marked causeway leaves the camp and can be traced for a considerable distance to the NE.; it is still so conspicuous that it is known locally as the ‘hump.’ The entrances to the camp have not yet been explored, for the fields in which they occur are unfortunately not available for excavation.

Bowls by Acavnissa from Birdoswald, Mainz and Cologne

An interesting bowl in terra sigillata (form 37) with the cursive signature ACAVNISSA was found last year in excavating Birdoswald; and, since the only other known bowls by this potter, were found at Mainz and Cologne, a description of these two bowls may be of some interest, especially from a chronological point of view. The glaze of the Birdoswald bowl is poor and the figures are in places somewhat blurred. The decoration consists of an alternation of two panels separated by bead-rows ending in rosettes (pl. IV, nos. 1 and 2). In the first panel there is a medallion of ‘cog-wheel’ pattern with inner concentric ring; it encloses a bird (to right) with upstretched wings, similar to Dech. 1010, but slightly smaller. This bird was first used at Lezoux by the Trajanic potters LIBERTVS and BVTRIO and later by the Hadrian-Antonine potters ALBVCIVS, ADVOCISVS, MERCATOR (not the South Gaulish potter of this name), PAVLLVS, PATERNVS, SERVVS and CINNAMVS; in its smaller form it occurs on a bowl by MAPILLVS (37 MAPILL OF at Corbridge).