Ancient Roman jar full of holes baffles archaeologists. bit.ly/q9ZUTN #archaeology #roman—
Owen Jarus (@ojarus) August 18, 2011

… might have to take the drive to look at this one …

UPDATE (an hour or so of websurfing later): I don’t think the item in question is Roman … here’s some comparanda:

• 08-05-09/19 ISRAELITE VOTIVE GIFT 10TH-6TH BCE (from Jerusalem)

UPDATE III (a bit after that): I’m just going to start adding examples as I come across them below:

• Reconstructed urn, assembled from sherds found on the north end of Walney Island

UPDATE IV (the next day): maybe it is Roman … here’s something that occurred to me

Tip o’ the pileus to Vicky Alvear Shecter for this one … a very nicely-put-together article in History Today on the fire and the reactions to it:

• Galen and the Great Fire of Rome | History Today

… for my part, I was unaware of the letter mentioned; not sure how I missed it.

The Vindolanda Trust tweeted this item from Law Pundit … seems Apple needs to do some Classical archaeology courses:

• LawPundit: The “Wafer Thin” Writing Tablets of Vindolanda Precede in Design the Thin Tablet Design Claim of Apple for the iPad2 by ca. 2000 Years: Does Modern Greed Know No Bounds?.

In contrast to some of the other ones posted yesterday, this video from the Royal Ontario Museum is pretty good. Christopher Smith of BSR fame gives us an intro to Roman Religion:

… just a few posts from the end of the day; gotta keep the info flowing:

• Rome: These Being the Words of Marcus Tullius Cicero August 17, 2011  (Juliette)
• Modern-Day Amazons. Love it! August 15, 2011 Yurie Hong
• Increasing Fertility in the Roman Late Republic and Early Empire August 17, 2011 History of the Ancient World
• Shameless plug from your editor: See my name in print! Get your… August 17, 2011 (Francesca Tronchin)
• Study Latin because it is Alien? August 15, 2011 John Birchall

Hot off the Twitterfeed from the Caerleon dig (I’ll post some coverage on this dig later today, hopefully):

Hobnail footprint in a tile from trench 1 twitpic.com/67xf58—
Caerleon Dig (@CaerleonDig) August 18, 2011

Don Lavigne of Texas Tech tells us about his work with Archilochus (interesting ideas about performance in different contexts):

The BBC is really starting to bug me as regards coverage of archaeology. Of late, it appears the only things it feels worth covering are those which ‘happen’ to be associated with its Digging for Britain series. The problem is, of course, that there generally isn’t anything ‘new’ about it, but my email and social network feeds are all abuzz with the exciting ‘news’. A case in point is the latest thing clogging up the airwaves:

Archaeologists believe they have found the first pre-Roman planned town discovered in Britain.

It has been unearthed beneath the Roman town of Silchester or Calleva Atrebatum near modern Reading.

The Romans are often credited with bringing civilisation to Britain – including town planning.

But excavations have shown evidence of an Iron Age town built on a grid and signs inhabitants had access to imported wine and olive oil.

Prof Mike Fulford, an archaeologist at the University of Reading, said the people of Iron Age Silchester appear to have adopted an urbanised ‘Roman’ way of living, long before the Romans arrived.

“It is very remarkable to find this evidence of a planned Iron Age layout before the arrival of the Romans and the development of a planned, Roman town,” he said.

“Indeed, it would be hard to see a significant difference between the lifestyles of the inhabitants of the Iron Age town and of its Roman successor in the 1st Century AD.”

He said they seem to have been drinking wine and using olive oil and a fermented fish sauce called garum in their cooking, all imported from abroad.

Silchester is famous for the most complete Roman town walls in Britain.

After the Roman invasion, the town was used by its military, and there is evidence that Roman buildings were very swiftly built on top of Iron Age structures.

Prof Fulford believes that shortly before this, the town may have been taken over by the British Iron Age chieftain Caratacus – a leader of the Catuvellauni tribe – as his stronghold.

The evidence comes from coins minted by Caratacus in the area.

“Both their tight distribution in central southern England and their style point to Calleva as being the source of Caratacus’ coins,” he said.

Caratacus was a hero of the British resistance to Roman rule. He famously took on the invading Roman army at the Battle of Medway and after his capture was taken to Rome where he appeared so fearless that the Emperor Claudius was moved to spare his life.

As for the fate of the Roman town, a scorched layer within the archaeology suggests that it was actually burnt to the ground, and seems to have been abandoned for about 20 years.

It is possible that this destruction was carried out by the Queen of the Iceni tribe, Boudicca, or at least at the time of her anti-Roman rebellion in 60 – 61 AD.

It is known from the Annals of Tacitus that Boudicca and her army laid waste to the Roman towns of Colchester (Camulodunum), London (Londinium) and St Albans (Verulamium), but could Silchester have been a fourth, previously unknown Roman settlement to fall victim to Boudicca’s rebellion?

If these theories are correct, then within a single generation Silchester went through a period of turbulent evolution from a prosperous and sophisticated Iron Age town, to being under direct Roman army control to being burned to the ground and deserted.

 

via: ‘Britain’s first pre-Roman planned town’ found near Reading | BBC

Okay … I’m first to admit this is a very interesting story and in the past I’ve mentioned that Silchester must be an incredibly interesting dig. But let’s have a bit of a flashback:

• Boudicca at Calleva Atrebatum? … which suggested the presence of Boudicca at Silchester (April 2010).

• Pre Roman Silchester … which first mentions the pre-Roman town planning (and some puppy skinning too … remember that? (July 2009))

… I’m all for hyping Silchester and all the wonderful work Dr Fulford has been doing there for 13 or 14 years now (maybe more), but please do not present it as news!!!! At a bare minimum, in the ‘related stories’ box, link to your previous coverage BBC! It strikes me as intellectually dishonest not to …

Image via Wikipedia

ante diem xv kalendas septembres

• 29 B.C. — dedication of the Temple of Divus Julius (and associated rites thereafter)
• 2nd century A.D. — martyrdom of Florus and Laurus in Illyria
• 328 A.D. — death of Helena, mother of Constantine