A Roman Christian Silver Treasure from Biddulph, Staffordshire

1975 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. S. Painter
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Direct Link ◽  
East Mediterranean ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Made In ◽  
Late Roman

SummaryIn 1971 the British Museum bought a fourth-century silver spoon with Christian symbols. An undated document acquired with the spoon showed that it was the survivor of a hoard from Biddulph, Staffordshire. In 1973 notes made in January 1886, about the discovery of the spoon, were found in a notebook compiled by A. W. Franks. The newly acquired spoon proves to have been one of a hoard of four spoons found at Whitemore Farm, Biddulph. The find-place of the spoon suggests a possible direct link between Chester and Buxton, while its dating adds to the sparse testimony for late-Roman life in the north-west of the province. The style of the lettering may indicate that the spoon was made in the East Mediterranean, and the Christian symbolism adds to the stock of evidence about the cult in the western Roman Empire.

scholarly journals The Danube legions of the Late Roman Empire (I Italica and V Macedonica) during the second half and middle of the fourth c. a. d.: on the ways of interaction between the frontier and expeditionary armies

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 608-619
Author(s):  
Е.А. Mekhamadiev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Near East ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Roman Provinces ◽  
Military Campaigns ◽  
Military Units ◽  
Late Roman

Since 325 A. D., when the Emperor Constantine the Great established a self-sufficient and single expeditionary army of the Roman Empire (previously, before 353, it constantly had stood in Thrace, but then it was split in some smaller military groups), military units of this army have interacted to units of frontier armies during many military campaigns. But epigraphic data from the Lower Danube regions (the provinces of Lower Moesia and Dacia Ripensis (River)) give a chance to trace one another way of interaction, which was an absolutely disregarded before. The author means a food supply of frontier units from the provinces where the expeditionary troops (or imperial bodyguards) had their service. The inscriptions covered by this paper contain evidence about two important Danube frontier legions, that are I Italica (Lower Moesia) and V Macedonica (Dacia Ripensis (River)), which received a food from the Roman Near East provinces (the author means Hellespontus at the North-West of the Asia Minor and Syria Foenice and Syria Palestina just at the Persian frontier), but not from the Danube regions. As the author supposes, the reason of such a way of supply was that some military units (vexillations) detached from the staff of the Danube frontier legions served within the Near East Roman provinces, these vexillations moved at the Near East during the time of the Tetrarchy (293–324) or the sole reign of Constantine the Great (324–337). After their relocation to the Near East, vexillations of the Danube frontier legions have never returned in their home Danube provinces, in contrast, they were parts of the Near East expeditionary armies. But, as a matter of award for diminishing of their staff, the Danube frontier («maternal») legions received a food from the provinces, where their «child» vexillations located and served.

A gold diadem from Aegina

1987 ◽  
Vol 107 ◽  
pp. 182-182
Author(s):  
Reynold Higgins
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
British Museum ◽  
The South ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Middle Helladic ◽  
Dead Man ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Grave Goods

A recent discovery on the island of Aegina by Professor H. Walter (University of Salzburg) throws a new light on the origins of the so-called Aegina Treasure in the British Museum.In 1982 the Austrians were excavating the Bronze Age settlement on Cape Kolonna, to the north-west of Aegina town. Immediately to the east of the ruined Temple of Apollo, and close to the South Gate of the prehistoric Lower Town, they found an unrobbed shaft grave containing the burial of a warrior. The gravegoods (now exhibited in the splendid new Museum on the Kolonna site) included a bronze sword with a gold and ivory hilt, three bronze daggers, one with gold fittings, a bronze spear-head, arrowheads of obsidian, boar's tusks from a helmet, and fragments of a gold diadem (plate Va). The grave also contained Middle Minoan, Middle Cycladic, and Middle Helladic (Mattpainted) pottery. The pottery and the location of the grave in association with the ‘Ninth City’ combine to give a date for the burial of about 1700 BC; and the richness of the grave-goods would suggest that the dead man was a king.

The Roman Cemetery at Lankhills: Pre-Roman and Roman Winchester. Part II

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giles Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Special Interest ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
The Road ◽  
The Third ◽  
The North ◽  
Late Roman

Outside the north gate of Venta Belgarum, Roman Winchester, a great cemetery stretched for 500 yards along the road to Cirencester. Excavations at Lankhills from 1967 to 1972 uncovered 451 graves, many elaborately furnished, at the northern limits of this cemetery, and dating from the fourth century A.D. This book, the second in a two-part study of Venta Belgarum, which forms the third volume of Winchester Studies, describes the excavations of these burials and analyses in detail both the graves and their contents. There are detailed studies and important re-assessments of many categories of object, but it is the information about late Roman burial, religion, and society which is of special interest.

III.—A Portable Dial in the form of a book, with Figures derived from Raymond Lul

Archaeologia ◽  
1925 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 89-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. M. Dalton
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
Society Of Jesus ◽  
The North ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Lower Cover ◽  
Made In

The dial forming the subject of this paper, acquired by the British Museum in 1923, is of gilt copper, made in the form of a book, along the edges of which are inscribed in capitals the words: Lucerna instrumentalis | intellectus directiva | sive instrumentum sciendi. The dial-plate which is fixed in the interior has a compass and two very short gnomons. It is for use in the latitudes of 42 and 45, and would serve for Rome and one of the large towns in the North Italian plain, perhaps Milan or Venice. It was made at Rome in the year 1593, as shown by the inscription on the dial-plate. On the cover is a shield of arms, barry, and in chief the letters I H S surmounted by a cross, a feature perhaps indicating that the owner was a member of the Society of Jesus; a fuller device, in which the three nails of the Passion are seen below the sacred monogram and cross, occupies the centre of the figure on the outside of the lower cover. The identification of the arms presents difficulties. They might be those of the Caraffa (gules, three bars argent), a member of which family, Vincenzio Caraffa, was general of the Jesuits in 1645.

scholarly journals A Series of Humanly-Fashioned Flints Found in the Cliffs and on the Shore at Mundesley, Norfolk

1920 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-243
Author(s):  
J. Reid Moir
Keyword(s):  
Present Author ◽  
The South ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Made In

When visiting Mundesley, in Norfolk, in September, 1916, the present author found upon the shore, in close proximity to an exposure of clay which he now considers to be referable to the Cromer Forest Bed Series, a very finely-made and large flint flake, of human manufacture. This discovery induced him to again visit Mundesley, and during this year (1919) close upon three weeks have been spent in an examination of the stretch of cliffs and shore lying between Trimingham, to the north-west of Mundesley, and Bacton, which lies to the south-east.The author's researches have been greatly helped by the co-operation of three friends, Professor A. S. Barnes, Mr. Walter B. Nichols, and the Hon. Robert Gathorne-Hardy, who accompanied him to Mundesley, and to whom he offers his warmest thanks. He would, however, wish to make it clear that these gentlemen are in no way responsible for the statements made in this paper. For these the author is solely responsible.

Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity, 350-450

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maijastina Kahlos
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Religious Dissent ◽  
Roman Society ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Roman

Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity reconsiders the religious history of the late Roman Empire, focusing on the shifting position of dissenting religious groups. The groups under consideration are non-Christians (‘pagans’) and deviant Christians (‘heretics’). The period from the mid-fourth century until the mid-fifth century CE witnessed a significant transformation of late Roman society and a gradual shift from the world of polytheistic religions into the Christian Empire. This book demonstrates that the narrative is much more nuanced than the simple Christian triumph over the classical world. It looks at everyday life, economic aspects, day-to-day practices, and conflicts of interest in the relations of religious groups. The book addresses two aspects: rhetoric and realities, and consequently delves into the interplay between the manifest ideologies and daily life found in late antique sources. We perceive constant flux between moderation and coercion that marked the relations of religious groups, both majorities and minorities, as well as the imperial government and religious communities. Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity is a detailed analysis of selected themes and a close reading of selected texts, tracing key elements and developments in the treatment of dissident religious groups. The book focuses on specific themes, such as the limits of imperial legislation and ecclesiastical control, the end of sacrifices, and the label of magic. It also examines the ways in which dissident religious groups were construed as religious outsiders in late Roman society.

Till on Overthrust Gravels

1928 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-11
Author(s):  
Alfred C. Lane
Keyword(s):  
Critical Time ◽  
Harvard University ◽  
William Morris ◽  
Apartment House ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Unusual Combination ◽  
Made In

The Plate which accompanies this article, showing till over-riding and overthrusting in its readvance the gravels on which the yard of Harvard University is built, is of a temporary exposure. This was made in putting in a large apartment house at the north-west corner of Arlington Street and Massachusetts Avenue, North Cambridge. The camera was pointed north. Realizing its ususal character, I got my colleague, Prefessor M. S. Munro, who is a virtuoso with the camera, to take it, and have used it as a postcard to friends. One of them, my old teacher, William Morris Davis, said it was unexcelled, and urged its publication. That is the occasion of this article, for, when I came to think of it, to obtain such a photograph required an unusual combination of circumstances:—(1) The artificial excavation;(2) A strike that suspended work at the critical time (it is an ill wind that blows no one good);(3) Just such conditions of wind and drying out as to bring out the different beds in the sands. The coarser ones dry and crumble more rapidly, while the fine hold the dampness and stand out. We might add:—(4) A man living on the street (myself) to appreciate it, and(5) A friend who is an excellent photographer.

A Norman Pit at Pevensey Castle and its Contents

1958 ◽  
Vol 38 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 205-217
Author(s):  
G. C. Dunning
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
Forest Products ◽  
Short Account ◽  
North West ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Third ◽  
The North ◽  
Deep Pit ◽  
Public Museum ◽  
Made In

During the excavations conducted by Mr. L. F. Salzman, F.S.A., at Pevensey Castle in the winter of 1907–8, a deep pit was found and its filling dug out. The pit (called site VII) was located in the north-west quarter of the interior of the Saxon Shore fort, about 60 ft. south of the fort wall and nearly opposite the third bastion north of the Roman west gate. A short account of the pit was published in the excavation report, but the nature of the pit and the finds from it deserve more detailed study than they have yet received. The finds were divided between the Sussex Archaeological Society's Museum at Lewes and the Public Museum at Hastings; I am greatly indebted to the respective curators, Mr. N. E. S. Norris, F.S.A., and Mr. J. Manwaring Baines, F.S.A., for facilities to examine and make drawings of the objects, and permission to publish them here. Samples taken from the various wooden objects found in the pit were kindly identified by Mr. G. L. Franklin, of the Forest Products Research Laboratory, Princes Risborough, as noted in the descriptions of these objects. Acknowledgements for technical reports on the wattling are made in the text. Mr. Salzman has kindly supplied information and unpublished prints, valuable as a record of the bottom of the pit, of which the negatives are fortunately preserved at Hastings. Mr. Salzman has also read this report and approved of the interpretation placed on his findings. The following description of the pit and its contents is the result of correlating all the information now available.

X. Sennacherib's Campaigns on the North-West and his Work at Nineveh

1910 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 387-411
Author(s):  
T. G. Pinches
Keyword(s):  
Persian Gulf ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Considerable Importance ◽  
Historical Document ◽  
North West ◽  
Asiatic Society ◽  
The North ◽  
The Persian Gulf ◽  
Royal Asiatic Society

THE British Museum having been fortunate enough to acquire a new historical document from Assyria of considerable importance, it has been thought that (not withstanding that an excellent translation and commentary upon it, from the pen of the copyist of the text, Mr. L. W. King, of the British Museum, has been published) a few notes concerning it would not be without interest to the readers of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, and more particularly those whose studies deal with the pre-Christian Semitic East, especially the tract lying north-west of the Persian Gulf.

scholarly journals Vitalie Bârca, Notes on the origin and dating of the bone pyxides from the Sarmatian environment between the Don and the Prut

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-155
Keyword(s):  
Black Sea ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
New Wave ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Group Belonging ◽  
Local Work ◽  
Made In ◽  
Grave Goods

The object of this article is to discuss the bone pyxides discovered in the Sar¬matian graves from the north and north-west of the Black Sea. The study, with¬out being exhaustive, attempts a presentation of the graves where bone pyxides were identified, but also of the cultural environments where similar toiletry piec¬es were used. The conclusion is that bone pyxides in Sarmatian graves from the north and north-west Pontic territory are mainly Roman products. Nonetheless, it is not excluded that some pyxides are copies of the first, made in local work¬shops (north-Pontic). The author notes that all Sarmatian graves containing bone pyxides date, on the basis of grave goods, to the second half of the 1st – early/first decades of the 2nd c. AD. Furthermore, it is noted they are usually part of the grave group belonging to the new wave of Sarmatians arriving to the north-Pontic area starting with mid 1st c. AD from east of the Don and that in the second half of the 1st – first decades of the 2nd c. AD they form a well marked local cultur¬al-chronological horizon. Last but not least, the author notes that pyxides are part of funerary features dating to the period of major inflow of Roman artifacts to the Sarmatian environment set between AD 60/70 – 120/130.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document