Martin Henig

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

The report is focused on excavations in a suite of four rooms in the villa dating to the late third or early fourth century, associated with a plunge-pool excavated in the nineteenth century; the excavations were undertaken in advance of consolidation work. The rooms overlay a second- century bath-house also known from earlier work. The most important find was a hoard of fourth-century counterfeit coins which had been deposited in one of the rooms after it had gone out of use.

Pagans Hill Revisited

This report reviews and updates the evidence from the Roman temple site of Pagans Hill, Chew Stoke, North Somerset, which was partly excavated between 1949 and 1953. This includes a revised terminus post quem for the initial building of the temple complex of c. A.D. 262 and an emphasis of the importance of the location of the well on the axis of a planned layout. This is accompanied by a resume of a reassessment by George Boon of the sculpture of the torso of a dog found in the well in 1951; this was formerly dated to the sixteenth century, but is now redated to the Roman period, and assigned to a group of temple sculpture. This has also stimulated discussion about the dedication of the temple, possibly to Apollo Cunomaglus. There is also a new review by Professor Vera Evison of the Anglo-Saxon glass jar from the temple well and other comparable vessels.A further excavation in 1986 clarified certain ambiguous points in the earlier work, and added some new data, notably of prehistoric (Neolithic/Early Bron...

A New Roman Rider-Relief from Stragglethorpe, Lincolnshire

N November 1977, a large relief sculpture of Roman date was discovered during drainage work on farmland in the parish of Brant Broughton and Stragglethorpe in Lincolnshire.1 The sculpture had been unearthed by a mechanical excavator in the process of recutting the sides of a field-boundary dyke. Although it was not possible to examine the sculpture in situ, it had apparently been found lying face downwards in a shallow scoop in the subsoil below a residual east-west plough ridge of the broad ridge-and-furrow cultivation which until recently had covered the field. Apart from a fine follis of Licinius I (A.D. 308-324), the sculpture was not found in association with any other Roman material. Part of a worn and battered Roman altar and heavy concentrations of Romano-British pottery and building stone were later found after ploughing some 200oo m to the north-west, and fieldwork has located a series of such concentrations in the surrounding fields.2 Air photographs of the immediate area show an enclosurecomplex together with a pit-alignment nearby.3 Two kilometres to the west aerial photography has pin-pointed enclosures of probable Romano-British date in the parish of Beckingham and occasional finds of Roman material have been recorded over the years in Brant Broughton.4 In its wider context the settlement at Stragglethorpe lies some 20 km to the south-south-west of Lincoln, and about 12 km to the north-west of Ancaster. Smaller Roman settlements lie within io km on the lines of Ermine Street and the Foss Way.5

A Hoard of Late Roman Bronze Bowls and Mounts from the Misbourne Valley, near Amersham, Bucks

The discovery of a hoard of bronze bowls and of two bronze human-headed terminals in the vicinity of Amersham is of some importance. In the following account, the context of the finds is discussed by Michael Farley, the bowls and the coins by John Taylor and the heads by Martin Henig.

A Gilt-Bronze Arm from London

The left hand and forearm from a slightly over life-size bronze or copper-alloy arm was excavated during 2001 at 20–30 Gresham Street, within the City of London. It was discarded in a quarry pit, which fooded with groundwater turning it into a pond and was subsequently backflled C.A.D. 60–70. The arm was presumably part of a public statue, perhaps of an emperor or god, which had been deliberately broken up. The Boudican revolt of A.D. 60/1 is one possible context for the destruction of Roman statuary in London, but the end of Neros reign, some ten years later, is another period when any statues of this very unpopular emperor could have been broken up. The article includes a catalogue of previous fnds of bronze statuary from London (where more fragments of arms and hands have been recovered than anywhere else in Britain), the results of metallurgical examination of the arm, and a discussion of iconoclasm in Roman Britain.

Alchester, a Claudian ‘Vexillation Fortress’ near the Western Boundary of the Catuvellauni: New Light on the Roman Invasion of Britain

Recent excavations at Alchester have shown that this Roman small town in Oxfordshire with its rectangular ground-plan had a military predecessor. It was preceded by one, possibly two, successive vexillation fortresses. Parts are buried deep beneath the civilian occupation layers of the later town. However, west of the late second-century town walls, a significant amount of the earlier vexillation fortress (or a large annexe to such) are more easily accessible to archaeological investigation. This paper focuses on the excavations in 1999, the first ever to take place within the vexillation fortress (or its annexe). The main emphasis is on the military phase. The discoveries from Alchester have major implications for the history of the Roman invasion of Britain. Although the investigations are still in progress and are to continue until 2003, analysis of the mid-first-century finds is well advanced so that there is little doubt about the general historical interpretation.

The Origin of Some Ancient British Coin Types

It has always been apparent that some (probably the majority) of the classicizing coin types of the British kings were taken from Roman republican and imperial issues. The best known example is, perhaps, the reverse of a stater of Tincommius which is thought to be the work of a Roman engraver. It shows a horseman with a javelin and is copied from a denarius of P. Crepusius. For cases of similar borrowings we may cite the head of Jupiter Ammon on bronze coins of Cunobelin, which appears on certain late republican denarii and aurei; the standing figure of Hercules on a silver coin issued by the same king, which was taken from a denarius of C. Vibius Varus; and a running lion on the reverse of a silver coin struck by Verica, that was almost certainly adapted from the reverse of a denarius issued in Gaul by Augustus for Legio XVI. This by no means exhausts the list, which also includes Neptune standing with his trident on another silver coin of Verica; the butting bull on issues of Tasciovanus, Cunobelin and Eppillus; the capricorn on a coin of Eppillus; Victory sacrificing a bull on an issue of Cunobelin; and virtually all the classicizing portraits on the obverses of the British dynastic coins.

The Veneration of Heroes in the Roman Army: The Evidence of Engraved Gemstones

Religious beliefs current in the Imperial army are attested by numerous inscriptions. The Roman soldier was probably no more superstitious than his civilian counterpart but the dangers to which he was exposed rendered him in especial need of divine assistance, and so, in Britain at any rate, a large percentage of the extant dedications to gods and goddesses were erected by men from the legions or the auxiliaries. Other related aspects of military thought have received less attention however. Particularly worthy of examination in this connection is the attitude of the officer class within the army to the great heroes of the past. Even the slightest knowledge of Ancient epic must have been enough to ensure that the officers in both legions and auxiliaries (and almost certainly other ranks in the legions, as well) were acquainted with such events as the Trojan War and the foundation of Rome. It would have been natural for these men to have seen themselves as the inheritors of a glorious tradition established by heroes who had overcome all difficulties.

A Hoard of Military Awards, Jewellery and Coins from Colchester

A hoard of objects found at the early Roman colony at Colchester in a small hole scraped into the floor of a house destroyed during the Boudican revolt includes a group of high-quality gold jewellery, three silver military awards, a bag of coins, an unusual silver-clad wooden box and other items. Buried in haste as the British approached, they provide a remarkably clear image of one couples background, achievements, taste and social standing. A bulla shows that the man was a Roman citizen, the awards that he was a veteran soldier of some distinction, while parallels for the womans jewellery suggest that it was acquired in Italy.

Mithras in Scotland: a Mithraeum at Inveresk (East Lothian)

Excavations to the east of the Roman fort of Inveresk in 2010 partly uncovered remains of a Mithraeum — the first from Scotland and the earliest securely dated example from Britain. A large rectangular sunken feature with lateral benches contained two altars buried face down at its north-western end. One was dedicated to Mithras, with iconography of both Mithras and Apollo as well as libation vessels. The other was dedicated to Sol, with a frieze above showing the Four Seasons. The Sol altar had a recess in the rear for a light which would have shone through his pierced rays, eyes, mouth and nose. Remains of an iron rod behind the nose hint at a more complex arrangement to create special visual or acoustic effects. Paint and plaster traces were recorded on both altars. The dedicator, G(aius) Cas(sius) Fla(…), a centurion, may have been in command of the garrison or of a legionary detachment. Stylistic links, especially in letter form, connect the work to sculptors of Legio XX. The stones and pigments are most likely from local sources. Little of the setting could be explored but there were traces of a precinct. A pit beside the Mithraeum included a large part of a well-used fineware beaker, which represented a deliberate offering. The Supplementary Material available online (http://journals.cambridge.org/bri) contains detailed descriptions of the altars, observations on the stone-working technology, lithology and pigment analysis, with extensive illustrations.