Category: Romans in Britain

A Roman Curse Tablet from Kent (and a Phylactery from West Deeping)

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

This just in from the BBC … the salient bits:

A “curse tablet” made of lead and buried in a Roman farmstead has been unearthed in East Farleigh.

Inscribed in capital letters are the names of 14 people, which experts believe were intended to have bad spells cast upon them.

The tablet is being examined by a specialist from Oxford University.

It was discovered by the Kent Archaeological Society during a dig and has undergone a detailed series of tests.

Measuring 6cm (2.3in) by 10cm (3.9in) and 1mm thick, the tablet is extremely fragile.

Experts believe it would have been used by Romans to cast spells on people accused of theft and other misdeeds.

The tablets, which have been found throughout Europe, were rolled up to conceal their inscriptions, then hidden in places considered to be close to the underworld, such as graves, springs or wells.
‘Suspected of theft’

Dr Roger Tomlin, lecturer in late Roman history at Wolfson College, Oxford, and an authority on Roman inscriptions, spent four days examining the scroll.

He said it is difficult to date the tablet but believes it was made in the third century AD.
Dr Roger Tomlin Dr Roger Tomlin said the tablet is likely to date from the third century AD

“Lists of names are quite often found on lead tablets,” he said. “Sometimes they accompany a complaint of theft addressed to a god, and name persons suspected of the theft.

“In one case, a tablet found in Germany, the names were explicitly those of enemies.”

The tablet’s significance also lies in the fact that Romans were the first inhabitants of Britain who could read or write.

This means the tablet, along with other similar items, are among the earliest written records of British life.
‘Local community’

Only six of the 14 names are legible. The Roman names of Sacratus, Constitutus, Constan and Memorianus can be seen.

There are also two Celtic names – Atrectus and Atidenus – written on the tablet.

Dr Tomlin said the eight other names are incomplete, but further cleaning and testing could lead to them being transcribed.

He added: “If this is a curse tablet, which it seems to be, it is presumably a product of its local community – so it is a reasonable guess that the persons named on it lived there.” […]

There’s a photo that accompanies the original article; it is a bit too small to be useful alas …

FWIW, Roger Tomlin seems to be quite busy … just the other day he was mentioned in bloggish sort of thing reporting on a phylactery from West Deeping that has just on on display: Unique Roman prayer tablet goes on display

Remains of a Roman Road in Colchester

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

From the Daily Gazette:

ARCHAEOLOGISTS have unearthed a Roman road beneath a former Colchester pub.

A dig at the site of the Stockwell Arms, in West Stockwell Street, has revealed an unexpected glimpse into our history.

The discovery could mean historians have to revise their drawings of Colchester circa 40AD, after the road was found three metres away from where they thought it would be. The road would have run from north to south, through the ancient settlement of Camulodunum.

It was discovered by the Colchester Archaeological Trust ’s Adam Wightman as he excavated the ground behind the Grade II-listed building ahead of its refurbishment and relaunch as a restaurant and real ale house, called the Stockwell.

Mr Wightman said: “We knew the road would be here, but it has a slightly different alignment than expected.

“The original drawings would have been made after certain discoveries. There could be a number of reasons they were slightly out.

“Now they will have to be altered. The wall is definitely Roman and probably from the later period, but we can’t be more specific.”

The dig has also turned up pottery, plates and a pin believed to be from a piece of Roman jewellery. The artefacts will be placed inside the building when it opens in October.

Philip Crummy, archaeological trust director, said: “It sounds geeky and doesn’t look much, but this is a fundamental piece of archaeology.

“We can trace these roads back to the walls, where there could have been a gate to the town.” Owner Robert Morgan is spending £1million to bring the historic pub back to life. Work started in 2010.

He wants to preserve as much of the historical elements in the building as he can. The archaeological dig is taking place while work continues on an extension at the back of the pub. Mr Morgan said: “It is exciting they have been able to find it.”

[…]

Outside of the well-known Circus find from Colchester, there have been quite a few interesting Roman discoveries over the past few years (a selection; I’m sure I’ve missed some):

More from Silchester ~ I’m Confused

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

I think I’m missing something … the Guardian has another piece on recent finds at Silchester, and besides the hyped olive pit from a couple weeks ago, there is at least one other interesting find, plus a lingering problem for me … here’s an excerpt from this week’s coverage:

[…]

They feared gods who demanded sacrifices as startling as anything in a gothic novel. Ravens have been found buried across the site, as well as dozens of dog burials, not just slung into a well or cesspit but carefully buried, often with other objects, one with the body of an infant, one standing up as if on guard for 2,000 years. Another tiny skeleton, no bigger than a celebrity’s handbag dog, was one of a handful ever found in Europe from such an early date: the evidence suggests it lived for up to three years, and was then laid curled as if asleep into the foundations of a house. Only last Friday the skeleton of a cat turned up, carefully packed into a clay jar.

“We are only just beginning to get a handle on all this, as our excavation is really the first ever major modern exposure of a late Iron Age town in Britain, and we still have a long way to go,” says Fulford, who has been digging at Silchester since he was a junior lecturer in the 1970s, and expects the work to continue long after his day.

Fulford spends the winters brooding on each summer’s finds, and has reached the conclusion, startling even to him, that the town was at its height of population and wealth before the Romans arrived.

He believes it was founded around 50BC by Commius, an Atrobates leader once a trusted ally of Julius Caesar, who then joined an unsuccessful rebellion against him and had to leave Gaul sharpish. Whether Commius headed for an existing Atrobates settlement at Silchester, or started to build on a greenfield site, a defensible hill with excellent views, near the navigable Kennet and Thames, is, Fulford suggests, “a million-dollar question – why here?” They have found nothing earlier than 50BC – yet.

Commius’s town flourished, trading across Britain, Ireland and both Roman and Iron Age tribal Europe. The Callevans paid for their luxuries with exports of metalwork, wheat – the site is still surrounded by prime farm land, and there is evidence of grain-drying on an industrial scale – hunting dogs, and, almost certainly, slaves: British slaves and dogs were equally prized in continental Europe. They have also found evidence in little flayed bones for a more exotic craft industry, puppy-fur cloaks.

Commius was succeeded by three quarrelsome sons – significantly dubbing themselves on coins as “rex” or king – who successively deposed one another. The third, Verica, was toppled by local tribes and made a move that would change the course of British history: he fled to Rome and asked for help – and in AD43 the Romans came.

This summer the diggers are right down at the earliest Roman level, which suggests light, short-lived, possibly military buildings, in contrast with substantial pre-invasion structures including one massive rectangular house that may prove to be the largest Iron Age house in Britain. This week they are clearing a cesspit so neatly dug it must be military, so may soon know whether the Romans ate British wheat or Roman fish sauce.

The original article has a tiny photo of the folding knife, which is very interesting and which I hope will be given ‘bigger photo treatment’ somewhere so we can get a better look at it. That said, I think I must have missed something in translation of this story across the pond — twice. We are told of Julius Caesar’s relationship with Commius and know that Commius was there for Caesar’s invasions (both the 55 B.C. one and the ‘real’ one in 54 B.C.) of Britain. But we are continuously being given the impression that nothing before Claudius’ invasion before 43 B.C. ‘counts’. Am I missing something? (I genuinely don’t understand this … it’s almost as if this dig is trying to promote the idea that ‘we were cosmopolitan before the Romans came’, which is likely true, but why write the Romans out of the picture? It’s not as if Commius was originally from the blessed isle …).

By the way, if you’re wondering about the puppy reference: Pre Roman Silchester; and just so y’all know I’m not picking on the Guardian, I griped about the BBC’s coverage of this dig last year as well: Pre-Roman Silchester Town Planning? NOT NEWS!. Clearly they find interesting things every year, but what is being stressed almost comes across as the British equivalent of the ‘flower children’ Minoans which once was popular …

Latest from Silchester

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It  always bothers me when journalists feel a need to ‘overstate’ (for want of a better word) the recent discoveries at a particular site … last year around this time, the BBC’s coverage of the Silchester excavation was bothering me (Pre-Roman Silchester Town Planning? NOT NEWS!) … this year, the Guardian‘s follows suit:

Iron Age Britons were importing olives from the Mediterranean a century before the Romans arrived with their exotic tastes in food, say archaeologists who have discovered a single olive stone from an excavation of an Iron Age well at at Silchester in Hampshire.

The stone came from a layer securely dated to the first century BC, making it the earliest ever found in Britain – but since nobody ever went to the trouble of importing one olive, there must be more, rotted beyond recognition or still buried.

The stone, combined with earlier finds of seasoning herbs such as coriander, dill and celery, all previously believed to have arrived with the Romans, suggests a diet at Silchester that would be familiar in any high street pizza restaurant.

The excavators, led by Professor Mike Fulford of Reading University, also found another more poignant luxury import: the skeleton of a tiny dog, no bigger than a modern toy poodle, carefully buried, curled up as if in sleep. However it may not have met a peaceful end.

“It was fully grown, two or three years old, and thankfully showed no signs of butchery, so it wasn’t a luxury food or killed for its fur,” Fulford said. “But it was found in the foundations of a very big house we are still uncovering – 50 metres long at least – so we believe it may turn out to be the biggest Iron Age building in Britain, which must have belonged to a chief or a sub chief, a very big cheese in the town. And whether this little dog conveniently died just at the right time to be popped into the foundations, or whether it was killed as a high status offering, we cannot tell.

“The survival of the olive stone, which was partly charred, was a freak of preservation. But there must be more; we need to dig a lot more wells.”

Fulford has been leading the annual summer excavations at Silchester, which bring together hundreds of student, volunteer and professional archaeologists, for half a lifetime, and the site continues to throw up surprises. It was an important Roman town, but deliberately abandoned in the 7th century, its wells blocked up and its buildings tumbled, and never reoccupied. Apart from a few Victorian farm buildings, it is still open farmland, surrounded by the jagged remains of massive Roman walls.

Fulford now believes that the town was at its height a century before the Roman invasion in 43AD, with regularly planned, paved streets, drainage, shops, houses and workshops, trading across the continent for luxury imports of food, household goods and jewellery, enjoying a lifestyle in Britain that, previously, was believed to have arrived with the Romans.

This sodden summer have driven the archaeologists to despair, with the site a swamp of deep mud and water bubbling up in every hole and trench.

“Conditions are the worst I can ever remember. Ironically, the wells are the easiest to work in because we have the pumps running there,” Fulford said.

The tiny dog is one of dozens that the team has excavated here over the years, including one that was buried standing up as if on guard for 2,000 years. A unique knife with a startlingly realistic carving of two dogs mating was another of the spectacular finds from one of the most enigmatic sites in the country.

Yes, the olive stone is a significant find, but last year’s coverage (the BBC’s, referenced above … links to previous coverage there as well) mentions that the inhabitants of Calleva Atrebatum had imported olive oil and wine, so this really isn’t a stretch. What was bothering me last night as I was reading this between downs of a football game, was that there seems to be this belief that the Romans didn’t have any effect on the island until Claudius, as if that little foray by Julius Caesar didn’t open up some trade, if it wasn’t occurring already (eh Pytheas?). We should be using finds like this to marvel at ancient trade and what was traded, not use it to build up some lingering ‘mythology’ about how the folks of Britain were before the Romans ‘came’.

Roman Cemetery from Norfolk

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

Scouring my email box still … from the BBC a couple of weeks ago:

Archaeologists have discovered 85 Roman graves in what has been hailed as the largest and best preserved cemetery of that period found in Norfolk.

The site at Great Ellingham, near Attleborough, has been excavated over the last four months and the findings have now been revealed.

Among the skeletons, which have been exhumed for further study, there were some which were beheaded after death.

The cemetery is thought to date from the 3rd/4th Century.

The excavation was part of a planning process following an application for the residential development of a site in Great Ellingham.

Complete burials and isolated finds of human bones have been recorded at, and immediately adjacent to, the site since the late 1950s.

An archaeological evaluation by trial trenching in November 2011 by Chris Birks Archaeology revealed Roman burials and isolated finds of human bone, confirming the cemetery extended into the proposed development site.

The works have been co-funded by the landowner and developer.

Chris Birks said: “Even from the results of the evaluation, we never expected to find 85 burials, the most previously being recorded in Norfolk was about half this amount.”

He said one particular feature that had been identified from the excavations is the seemingly deliberate placement of flints around the skull.

One burial represents a decapitation burial where the head has been placed by the feet, which Mr Birks said was “surprisingly not an unknown type of burial from other Roman cemeteries”.

“Analysis and research by a human bones specialist will no doubt shed more light on these and the other burials,” said Mr Birks.

The only grave goods found at the site was an iron finger ring.

“The population represented by this cemetery was most probably a rural settlement reliant on farming practices though, at present, we don’t know where this settlement was,” said Mr Birks.

David Gurney, historic environment manager at Norfolk County Council, said: “Only 300 Roman burials have been found in Norfolk. This discovery is a fantastic opportunity to look at these skeletons, to find out clues about their life and diets.”

All the burials at Great Ellingham have now been removed.

The original BBC item does include a photo of the decapitation burial …