Also Seen: Charlotte Higgins on Caractacus
Another one that was lost in my mailbox for a couple of weeks: Caractacus: Britain’s Osama bin Laden? (Guardian)
Missing Bits from the Cadeby Hoard Turn Up
Adrian Murdoch mentioned this one on Twitter … from the Star: PART of a treasure-trove dating back to Roman times has mysteriously surfaced at an antiques fair – almost 30 years after the rest of it was found in a Doncaster wood. A silver bracelet dating back to the third century is now wanted by [...]
Moles at Epiacum
Years ago it was all about badger, badger, badger … now, it seems, moles are digging up Roman artifacts at Epiacum … from the Journal: EARTH burrowing moles are responsible for digging up some of Roman Britain’s deepest secrets in a remote corner of West Northumberland. They may be the bane of farmers across the [...]
Caistor St Edmund Dig Update
A very nice report from the Evening News … note the link at the end to the project’s blog: They have been excavating for just a week, but already members of an archaeological team at a Roman town on the outskirts of Norwich have found “huge quantities” of artefacts. A thousand visitors have been to [...]
Roman Socks and Sandals Rereredux
Newspapers in the UK are starting to get agog over a recent find … the Telegraph seems typical: New evidence from an archaeological dig has found that legionnaires wore socks with sandals. Rust on a nail from a Roman sandal found in newly discovered ruins in North Yorkshire appears to contain fibres which could suggest [...]
Pre Roman Remains at Brading Roman Villa
From the County Press: THE third phase of the Big Dig at Brading Roman Villa may well have been one of the toughest excavations eminent archaeologist Sir Barry Cunliffe had ever undertaken but it has yielded some treasures and a greater understanding of Brading’s history up to its Roman occupation. With the three-week dig ending [...]
Yewden ‘Brothel’ Followup
Remember that claimed brothel site with the 97 infant burials from the Yewden Villa in Hambleden? Here’s an incredibly interesting followup: ARCHAEOLOGISTS investigating a mass burial of 97 infants were ‘horrified’ to find what they believe to be the skeleton of a dismembered child. Chiltern Archaeologists suspect the site in Hambleden could have been a [...]
Did Pertinax Sleep at Lullingstone Roman Villa?
Image via Wikipedia An uncharacteristically-not-sensational item from the Daily Mail: Historians are becoming increasingly convinced that a villa uncovered 20 miles from London was once home to Britain’s Roman Governor. Since Lullingstone Roman Villa was first uncovered in the 1930s experts believed it was once the home of a leading Roman or wealthy Briton, but [...]
Mosaics at Chedworth Roman Villa
From the BBC: More Roman mosaics have been uncovered at Chedworth Roman Villa in Gloucestershire. The mosaics have been hidden for centuries but have now been unearthed by archaeologists. They will now be permanently displayed as part of a £3million project to develop the ancient site. The work is all part of a project to [...]
Restoring Eastgate Roman Tower
From the BBC: A Lincolnshire hotel is working with English Heritage to restore one of the county’s most important Roman sites. The North Tower of the East Gate in Lincoln is one of only a few surviving Roman gates in Britain. It was first excavated in the 1960s, but now requires major restoration work to [...]
Romans in Wales
Wow … the archaeologist types in Wales keep coming up with discoveries. In the past week, I’ve read of three major finds … typically, things from Wales don’t seem to make it beyond the local papers, but the first two items are a bit different. Here’s the Telegraph coverage about a Roman villa find in [...]
First Elephant in Britain?
Image via Wikipedia As I dig deeper into my pile of things I’ve marked with little purple question marks, I find an interesting item I first came across toward the end of May. Something called the Londonist had a feature called An Historic London Elephant Parade which included this in its timeline: 43 AD: Emperor [...]
Asterix Update
No, not the loveable short Gaul, but the shipwreck. From the BBC: Dr Jason Monaghan said Asterix is the most historically valuable Roman artefact in northern Europe. He said a public private partnership could be the way forward. Dr Monaghan said: “It’s a very exciting idea, but Guernsey is actually quite a small place and [...]
Latest from Silchester
The incipit of a piece in the Guardian: A battered and corroded thumb-sized piece of bronze has turned out to be a unique find, the earliest representation of an Egyptian deity from any site in Britain – and appropriately, after almost 2,000 years hidden in the ground, it is Harpocrates, the god of secrecy and [...]
York Gladiators Redux
The BBC has a very nice little slideshow of some of the skeletons from that dig at York which are claimed to be of gladiating victims. There’s actually some good stuff here, and since I can’t really embed the slideshow, I do want to make some comments (the numbers refer to the slide): 1. 60 [...]
Roman Remains from Caistor
A late-Roman/Christian (?) cemetery … here’s some coverage: ARCHAEOLOGISTS have found what is thought to be a late-Roman cemetery in a county village. So far, a total of 46 human remains have been excavated and archaeologists say they expect to have found more than 50 by the time they finish next week. The discovery was [...]
Roman Villa + Burial from Bredon’s Norton
A potentially-interesting find due to waterworks construction: A 2,000-YEAR-OLD human skeleton has been unearthed alongside Iron Age artefacts near Tewkesbury. Archaeologists uncovered signs of the ancient Roman villa in a field on the edge of Bredon’s Norton. It is thought the finds could be of national importance. Metal detector hunts in recent years had led [...]
Latest Arthurian Round Table with a Roman Connection?
Image via Wikipedia An item in the Daily Mail (hyping a television program, as often) seems to be causing some excitement: His is among the most enduring legends in our island’s history. King Arthur, the gallant warrior who gathered his knights around the Round Table at Camelot and rallied Christian Britons against the invading pagan [...]
Massive Roman Coin Find from Wiltshire
What will likely be a pile of coverage just starting on this one … here’s the incipit what the Telegraph says: David Crisp, a 63-year-old hospital chef, located the 52,503 coins in a single earthenware pot in a field near Frome, Somerset. Mr Crisp, from Devizes in Wiltshire, said his detector gave a “funny signal” [...]
Buckinghamshire’s Earliest ‘Recorded’ Resident
Here’s an incredibly interesting followup to that purported brothel/infanticide story from t’other day which likely isn’t going to make it beyond the local press: A ROMAN woman living around 150-200 AD has become the earliest named Buckinghamshire resident ever to be recorded, Archaeologists say. Siitomina, who is thought to have lived at the Yewden Villa [...]
Another Gladiator Grave Claim — This Time Female?
The BBC seems to be first off the mark with this one, and it will likely be picked up: Archaeologists in Herefordshire have uncovered the remains of what could possibly be a female gladiator. Amongst the evidence of a Roman suburb in Credenhill, they have found the grave of a massive, muscular woman. She was [...]
Infanticide at Buckinghamshire Brothel? I Doubt It …
As is typical, when life is most hectic comes the time when the most interesting bloggables start flashing past me on Twitter, Facebook, and in email. I can’t get to them all today, but I do want to quickly comment an item from the Telegraph regarding possible evidence of infanticide associated with remains of a Roman [...]
Roman Fort in Cornwall?
Image via Wikipedia From the Telegraph: Pottery and other evidence suggesting the presence of an ironworks have been found at the undisclosed location near St Austell, Cornwall. Experts say the discovery challenges the belief that Romans did not settle in the county and stopped in neighbouring Devon. The site had previously been regarded as an [...]
Gladiators in York: Followup
Image via Wikipedia Brief item from York Press: A SKELETON – thought to be the remains of a Roman gladiator – has gone on display in York. The skeleton is on display at the Jorvik Viking Centre from today. It is one of 80 skeletons unearthed in the city by York Archaeological Trust over the [...]
Roman Villa from Berkeley?
Image by Dave ® via Flickr No … not the one in California (although I’m sure someone will misread this and use it as additional ‘proof’ that the Romans reached the Americas) … I think this must be the one in Gloucestershire, which is interesting because it doesn’t appear to have been a Roman settlement [...]
