Archaeology
Britain
- Catterick Camp
Most of today's UK papers (even the Guardian) have been unable
to resist the invitation to the innuendofest of the century as a result
of publication of a catalogue of recent archaeological discoveries at
Catterick (now, as then - when it was Cataractonium - an important army
centre in North Yorkshire). You expect better from the Classics Pages
- so here are the facts. "Among a huge number of finds was the
skeleton of a male wearing several items of jewellery: necklaces and
bracelets made of jet [a semi-precious stone available locally], a shale
armlet, and an expanding bronze anklet. He appears to have been buried
with two pebbles in his mouth."
The rest is speculation: as Sarah Kennedy said on Radio 2 this morning
- "how do they know?" If he was a priest of Cybele - yes, an altar to
Cybele was found at Corstopitum (Corbridge) further north on Hadrian's
Wall - he would have been a eunuch - yes, a castration clamp has been
found in London, - and he could well have worn a wig and female dress
(but don't many Christian priests today wear sexually ambiguous robes?).
[May 22, 2002]
- Cave canes!
The long-standing"dead
dogs of Silchester" mystery has only become more impenetrable with the
discovery of a unique ivory knife-handle showing two copulating dogs.
Professor Michael Fulford and his team have puzzled for years over the
strange dog burials in Calleva Atrebatum (a wealthy regional capital of Roman Britain which
was never resettled - now usually known by the name of a nearby village,
Silchester). Once believed to be pets lovingly interred when the city
was deliberately abandoned, but now perhaps to be seen as part of some
extraordinary cult. Why was a dog carefully buried "standing up"? Why
are there three graves where two dogs are buried together, and one where
a dog is buried with a child? How did this beautiful and expensive knife
(possibly several hundred years old when the dogs were buried) come
to be in a dogs' grave? [report on the Guardian January 1, 2002]
- A colorful mosaic accidentally unearthed
The 1,640-year-old mosaic, which at 32 feet by six feet is the 10th
largest discovered in Britain, was found by workers constructing a drive
for an office building near Ilminster in Somerset, English Heritage
said. The find was completely unexpected as there were no other indications
of Roman remains nearby. Unusually for a mosaic found in Britain, this
one depicts a dolphin and does not have the strong geometrical pattern
of others discovered in southwest England. Archeologists plan to rebury
the mosaic, made of red, white and blue blocks of Somerset limestone
and tiles, to preserve it for the winter. They will start working on
it next spring. David Neal, a mosaic expert who dated the find, said
the site "was clearly one of considerable status, likely to be a substantial
villa." The mosaic is thought to have formed a floor, or possibly a
courtyard, in a villa close to the Fosse Way - a Roman road now known
as the A303 - which ran from Lincoln in eastern England to Exeter in
the southwest and was one of the major routes in Roman Britain. Workmen
also dug up some purple and green fragments of painted wall plaster,
which are considered extremely rare. A number of wealthy people are
known to have built large villas along the Fosse Way, but many have
been damaged by building work or plowing. [The Associated Press LONDON
(November 7, 2001 11:15 a.m. EST]
- Inventive Romans kept water flowing
(Filed: 27/09/2001) A FEAT of Roman engineering that was unsurpassed
for more than 1,000 years has been unearthed beneath London. http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2001/09/27/nwaterbig.jpeg Archaeologists have discovered two "outstanding" water wheels, powered
by a treadmill and capable of bringing 60,000 gallons of water to the
surface each day. The bucket-chains are the most complete and best preserved
Roman water lifting machinery ever found and may have supplied London's
public buildings, bath houses or factories. Experts believe the wheels
are so sophisticated that Britain's first industrial revolution can
be said to have taken place in the first century. The machinery was
discovered in two infilled wells in Gresham Street in the City of London
earlier this summer. The site was at the heart of Roman London, close
to its amphitheatre and near a bath house. Tree-ring dating has shown
that the earliest well and wheel was built around 63AD, shortly after
Boudicca's rebellion left much of the city in ruin. The 20ft well may
have been part of its rebuilding. Water was drawn using around two dozen
boxes, carved from oak and each able to hold three pints. They were
fixed together in a loop using wooden and metal pins. Although nothing
remains of the lifting mechanism, contemporary accounts suggest that
a treadmill powered by a slave would have hauled the chain. The well
was used for about 10 years but collapsed and was filled in by 71AD.
The second wheel was built around 109AD and was used for several decades
until it was destroyed by fire. Its chain was far more sophisticated
and was made from links of wrought iron, many of which are still intact.
"Nobody has ever discovered anything like this in Britain," he said.
"This is of the quality of Medieval Europe or even the Industrial Revolution."
The remains, which include intact wooden buckets, metal links and oak
planks used to line the well, are now on display at the Museum of London.
[Daily Telegraph 27 Sept 2001]
- Segedunum is open for business
A £9m project opened this week in North East England near the
end of Hadrian's Wall - at Wallsend. The vast site includes a complete
section of the wall itself, the first Roman cavalry barracks to be
excavated in Britain - and a fully recontructed operational bath house.
Prebooked paries will actually be able to go through the complete
ritual of the ancient thermae - frigidarium, caldarium, cold plunge
- the lot. [Guardian June 2000]
- Welsh rugby kicked into touch?
A £5m National Rugby Centre for Wales may not now be built, because
Roman remains have been found on the 28 acre site near Caerleon. Conservationists
and local residents were already opposed to the development - the discovery
of a Roman road and civilian buildings (part of the town which grew
up to service the legionary base at Castra Legionum) may be the answer
to their prayers.[The Guardian December 2 1999]
- Londinium Lady
The lid was opened on Wednesday (14 April 1999) on a find that could
rewrite the history of Roman London. Under full glare of media attention,
and live TV coverage, a massive Roman stone sarcophagus containing a
beautifully decorated lead coffin was opened for the first time since
the 4th century BC. Inside, preserved by the fine silt which had entered
the coffin soon after burial, turned out to be the perfectly preserved
skeleton of a wealthy young woman. Stone and lead were signs of exceptional
wealth in days when even a wooden coffin was the mark of a rich person.
Archaeologists expect to find jewellery, scaps of textile, and maybe
her shoes (a beautiful glass vial, and a thread of gold, and even leaves
from the garland that was on her head have already been recovered from
the mud) - but they are having to work against the clock - as the skeleton
began drying out as soon as the lid was lifted. It is certain that the
young woman must have belonged to one of the leading families of Londinium.
She's on display at the Museum of London until 25 April only. [The
Guardian - article and picture - Friday April 16 1999]
- Swindon was once an architectural rival to Bath
One of England's least exciting towns (hitherto famous mainly as the
birthplace of the pneumatic Melinda Mesenger) was, in Roman times, site
of a huge complex of international importance. Geophysical surveys have
detected a temple (probably to a water-nymph whose spring still causes
boggy patches in the field), and a host of buildings along a well-terraced
hillside. Although there have been significant finds of fresco, mosaic
tesserae and a silver bowl, there are no plans to excavate. Instead
it will remain a green hillside, where visitors will be able to borrow
equipment to trace the underground lines of the walls. [The Guardian
- article and picture Friday 21 May 1999]
- But is it Art?
Archaeologists have unearthed yet another "find of a lifetime". Digging
near Tintagel, Cornwall (whose inhabitants have long had a nice little
earner selling "King Arthur" mementoes) thay have found a piece of slate,
with the following scratched on it:
pateri
coliavificit
artognov
col
ficit
The script is 6th century AD, and it looks like Latin (just about).
At any rate the letters A_R_T are believed to be the first actual proof
for the existence of the legendary King of Camelot (traditionally identified
with Tintagel). This does not of course have any bearing on the authenticity
of the legends (Merlin, Excalibur, Guinevere etc) - which appear first
in Malory, but it would back up Geoffrey of Monmouth's references to
Artorius, who would have been a Romanised Briton, possibly a local warlord,
leading opposition to the infiltration of invaders from the continent.
(Guardian 7 August 1998)
- The Ancient Britons had hot baths 1000 years before the Greeks
Once seen as the unique Greek contibution to human decadence (see Aristophanes,
Juvenal, Martial and other great ancient moralists), it can now be revealed
that the clean-living Celts invented the sauna around 3500 years ago.
Tim Laurie, an archaeologist has indentified 64 heaps of stone scattered
over North Yorkshire, England, as proving these primitive Yorkshiremen
were as decadent as any Roman emperor. Apparently they heated the rocks
up on a fire, chucked them into a cistern of water, and had bathtime
fun. Then they chucked the rocks away, where they formed the piles found
today. (But why didn't they just recycle the same rock?)(The Guardian
11th February 1998)
- No more tin
The worst blow to the Cornish economy since Augustus opened up the Spanish
tin-mines has just been announced. The last working tin mine in Cornwall
(South West England) will close within six months. Tin has been mined
in the region since prehistoric times - and what may be the earliest
mention of the British Isles (by Herodotus - of course - book 3.115)
calls them the "Tin Islands" (Kassiterides). Certainly by the time of
Caesar most of the tin used in Western Europe and the Mediterranean
came from Cornwall. (Tin + Copper = Bronze). The industry recovered
from competition from Spain - but the falling world price of tin has
finally killed this ancient industry. [Guardian August
8 1997]
- The First Concentration Camp?
A building recently excavated near the Vindolanda fort on Hadrian's
Wall may have been a prison-camp for rebel Britons. At any rate the
back-to-back hits are unique in the Roman Empire, and it's hard to think
of a better explanation. [Guardian August 2 1997]
- Oldest British Doctor
Guardian and Daily Telegraph] The grave of
a medical man from the middle of the first century AD has been discovered
near Colchester, Essex. The occupant, presumably a surgeon from the
interesting collection of 13 medical instruments (scalpels, tweezers,
retractors and a saw) was also interested in gambling (a spectacular
gaming-board was found in the same grave last year) and possibly told
fortunes on the side (if this is what two puzzling sets of bronze and
copper rods may be for), and good wine (imported from Spain).
If this medical man was British (why else locally made instruments?
A Roman with the army would have brought his with him), he had expensive
tastes, and a lifestyle which would have made him a prime target for
Boudicca's freedom-fighters. Her "rebellion" was in 61 AD, and began
only 50 miles away. Details
here[Guardian July 10 1997]
- Captain's Log: Stardate 4000 BC
A 6000-year-old piece of shaped timber found by divers in the Solent
(Hampshire, England) has been carbon-dated to about 4000 BC. Apparently
there's a lot more where it came from, and marine archaeologists are
speculating whether it may be part of the oldest known boat. Hopes that
it might have been Roman are dashed - but it could turn out to be Egyptian
(although it woyld antedate the Pyramids - as well as Stonehenge - by
2000 years) - but some are claiming a southern hemisphere origin for
the wood - which is from an unknown species of tree. Gopher wood? [UK
Press May 7th 1997. The Daily Mail has a complete Kon-Tiki
like reconstruction based on this one piece of wood which may not even
be from a ship!]
- Romans in Ireland?
A recent claim in the London Sunday Times that evidence
has been found for existence of a 40 acre Roman fort dating from the
1st and 2nd centuries AD at Drumanagh 15 miles north of Dublin is rubbished
in the current issue of Archaeology.
Evidence seems to point to Roman trade, rather than occupation - but
items which could prove things one way or the other are unavailable
to archaeologists. As they were allegedly looted from the site using
a metal detector, they are being held by the police as "evidence" in
a forthcoming prosecution! [May 3rd 1996]
