Series:

Britannia Monographs

9 primary works

Book 22

Cover of Life and Labour in Late Roman Silchester
The Society of Antiquaries' excavation of Silchester's Insula IX in 1893-4 left most of the stratigraphy undisturbed. A new programme of work has shown that the Insula underwent radical change, c. AD 250/300, with the construction of new workshop and residential buildings on the orientation of the Roman street-grid, following the demolition of mid-Roman buildings arranged on different, pre- and early Roman alignments. The plans of several properties and individual buildings were recovered, and analysis of the rich range of artefactual and biological data has allowed a detailed and differentiated characterisation of the life and occupations of the inhabitants in the 4th century. The context of the 5th century ogham-inscibed stone is explored and the history of the insula is followed into the 5th/6th century.

Book 25

Cover of Silchester

Silchester

by Jenny Halstead and Michael Fulford

Published 1 December 1984
The Roman Town at Silchester, Calleva Atrebatum, was a working archaeological dig - the University of Reading Field School - which took place every summer for eighteen years. Taking advantage of the last opportunity to record 'life on the dig' in 2014, artist Jenny Halstead spent the summer creating and collating material for a beautiful and historic book. Jenny's superior draughtsmanship, her eye for colour and her wide variety of techniques produce evocative, lively images. The resulting book is a fitting and enduring record of this historic episode in the life of an ancient city.

Book 26

Cover of A Late Roman Town House and its Environs
This report publishes the 1937-8 excavations in Colliton Park, Dorchester, Dorset, which revealed one of the best preserved late Roman town houses so far discovered in Roman Britain. Extensively decorated with mosaics, the building has recently been re-displayed in a new cover building by Dorset County Council. In addition to the town house and its mosaics, the report publishes the surrounding buildings in the north-west quarter of the town, also mostly of late Roman date, and associated occupation along with an extensive collection of artefacts, including outstanding finds of coins, glass, iron and Kimmeridge shale.

Book 29

Cover of The Rural Settlement of Roman Britain
It has often been stated that Roman Britain was quintessentially a rural society, with the vast majority of the population living and working in the countryside. Yet there was clearly a large degree of regional variation, and with the huge mass of new data produced since the onset of developer-funded archaeology in 1990, the incredible diversity of Roman rural settlement across the landscape can now be demonstrated. A new regional framework for the study of rural Roman Britain is proposed, in which a rich characterisation has been developed of the mosaic of communities that inhabited the province and the way that they changed over time. Centre stage is the farmstead, rather than the villa, which has for so long dominated discourse in the study of Roman Britain; variations in farmstead type, building form and associated landscape context are all explored in order to breathe new life into our understanding of the Romano-British countryside.

Book 30

Cover of The Rural Economy of Roman Britain: New Visions of the Countryside of Roman Britain Volume 2
This second volume considers the rural economy of Roman Britain through the lenses of the principal occupations of agriculture and rural industry. It has two main concerns, the documentation of what is currently known of agricultural and industrial production in the countryside, and an exploration of the contribution that material culture can make to our understanding of how those resources moved across the province to feed and support military and civil populations and the development of towns and infrastructure between the mid-first century A.D. and the beginning of the fifth century A.D. At the same time, the classification and regional appraisal of rural settlement that is at the heart of Vol. 1, The Rural Settlement of Roman Britain, has enabled this study to provide a social context for rural production and consumption.

Book 31

Cover of New Visions of the Countryside of Roman Britain Volume 3: Life and Death in the Countryside of Roman Britain
This volume focuses upon the people of rural Roman Britain - how they looked, lived, interacted with the material and spiritual worlds surrounding them, and also how they died, and what their physical remains can tell us. Analyses indicate a geographically and socially diverse society, influenced by pre-existing cultural traditions and varying degrees of social connectivity. Incorporation into the Roman empire certainly brought with it a great deal of social change, though contrary to many previous accounts depicting bucolic scenes of villa-life, it would appear that this change was largely to the detriment of many of those living in the countryside.

Book 32

Cover of Late Iron Age Calleva
The late Iron Age oppidum of Calleva underlies the Roman town at Silchester. Excavation (1997-2014) of a large area (0.3ha) of Insula IX revealed evidence of a rectilinear, NE/SW-NW/SE-oriented layout of the interior of the oppidum, dating from 20/10BC, with the remains of the larger part of one compound separated from its neighbours by fenced trackways. Within the compound was a large, 47.5m long hall surrounded by smaller, rectangular buildings associated with groups of rubbish pits. A concluding discussion characterises the oppidum, integrating and contextualising a series of major contributions reporting the pre-conquest finds and environmental evidence with the structural story.

Book 33

Cover of Silchester Insula IX: The Claudio-Neronian Occupation of the Iron Age Oppidum
How did a major nucleated settlement respond to the Roman conquest? Occupation of Silchester (Calleva) after the Roman invasion of south-east Britain in A.D. 43 shows remarkable continuity from the pre-Roman Iron Age oppidum. Although the settlement was crossed by strategic Roman roads, the network of lanes and compounds, crowded with round and rectangular buildings, otherwise remained little changed until c. A.D. 85. The contents of rubbish pits and wells give remarkable insights into the diet, occupations, identity and ritualistic behaviour of the inhabitants, while the richly varied provenances of the pottery and other finds reveal the local, regional and long-distance connections of the community. Although there is clear evidence of investment in the town in the reign of Nero, the pre-existing settlement was not swept away until the Roman street grid was established c. A.D. 85.

This volume follows on from the publication of Late Iron Age Calleva, Britannia Monograph 32 (2018)

Book 36

Cover of The Emperor Nero's Pottery and Tilery at Little London, Pamber, by Silchester, Hampshire
Previously suspected on the basis of a tile stamped with the name and titles of the emperor Nero found alongside other brick and tile in the ploughsoil, excavation of two tile kilns at Little London near Silchester, Hampshire confirmed production during the reign of Nero. In addition to the manufacture of standard bricks and roofing materials, the kilns produced the more specialist materials required for building bath-houses. Work on the fabrics and distinctive, roller-stamped flue-tiles shows that products reached a wide variety of destinations between Cirencester, some 100 km to the north-west, and Chichester, on the south coast, though Silchester appears to have been the main market and is the only location where Nero-stamped tile has so far been found. A suggestion is made linking the stamped tile to the visit to Britain by the emperor’s trusted freedman, Polyclitus in the aftermath of the Boudican revolt. An unexpected discovery was the ancillary production from at least three pottery kilns of a wide range of pre-Flavian domestic wares, so far only identified in Silchester and its environs. Alongside the publication of the kilns there are illustrated catalogues of the complete range of brick and tile types produced as well as of the pottery. Other reports include analysis of the fuels used and a suite of radiocarbon dates which support the pottery evidence for production ceasing in the early Flavian period. Analysis of the numerous animal foot-impressions on the bricks presents one aspect of the environment of the kilns.