Continuity and Religious Practices in Roman Britain: The Case of the Rural Religious Complex at Marcham/Frilford, Oxfordshire

Britannia ◽

10.1017/s0068113x10000036 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 41 ◽

pp. 95-125 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Zena Kamash ◽

Chris Gosden ◽

Gary Lock

Keyword(s):

Iron Age ◽

Preliminary Analysis ◽

Roman Period ◽

Religious Practices ◽

Roman Britain ◽

New Findings ◽

The Temple

ABSTRACTThis paper presents the interim results of Oxford University's on-going excavations at the Roman religious complex at Marcham/Frilford, Oxfordshire. This site has been the focus of debates about continuity from the Iron Age into the Roman period since the original excavations at the temple by Bradford and Goodchild in the 1930s. New findings from the current excavations are brought to bear on this question, in particular how the Iron Age activity influenced the design and layout of the Roman complex. In addition, the paper uses preliminary analysis of the finds from the excavations to discuss the nature of religious practices and activities at the site.

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Cemeteries and Funerary Practice

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199697731.013.025 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Jake Weekes

Keyword(s):

Iron Age ◽

Spatial Separation ◽

Roman Period ◽

Roman Britain ◽

Mortuary Ritual ◽

Late Iron Age ◽

The Dead ◽

Process Method

This chapter applies and attempts to contribute to the funerary process method of investigating late Iron Age and Roman period mortuary ritual in Britain. In this approach, evidence derived from archaeological contexts including tombstones and monuments, possible cemetery surfaces, cemetery boundaries, burials, pyre sites, and other features is reconsidered diachronically in relation to funerary schema. We therefore try to consider objects and actions in their correct funerary contexts, from the selectivity of death itself, through laying-out procedures, modification of the remains and other objects, degrees of spatial separation of the living and the dead, and types of deposition and commemorative acts. The development of tradition and diversity in funerary practice in Roman Britain is considered throughout, and the chapter concludes with a brief reconsideration of the multi-vocality of funerary symbolism.

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The Movement of Ideas in Late Iron Age and Early Roman Britain: An Imported Rotary Quern Design in South-Western England

Britannia ◽

10.1017/s0068113x19000114 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 50 ◽

pp. 393-402

Author(s):

Ruth Shaffrey

Keyword(s):

Thin Section ◽

Iron Age ◽

Roman Period ◽

Roman Britain ◽

Isle Of Man ◽

Late Iron Age ◽

North Eastern ◽

Thin Section Analysis ◽

Section Analysis ◽

Made In

ABSTRACTIn 2012, a complete upper stone of a rotary quern with a projecting lug for a vertical handle was found at Hinkley Point in Somerset, south-western England. It is the first late Iron Age to early Roman period quern of this form to be found in England. This note describes its form in detail and discusses its closest parallels in north-eastern Ireland, south-western Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man and Spain. It shows how thin-section analysis demonstrates the quern to have been locally made in Somerset and discusses the movement of ideas about quern design during the late Iron Age to early Roman period.

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The Plough in Roman Britain

The Journal of Roman Studies ◽

10.2307/298651 ◽

1964 ◽

Vol 54 (1-2) ◽

pp. 54-65 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

W. H. Manning

Keyword(s):

Iron Age ◽

Basic Structure ◽

Roman Period ◽

Peat Bogs ◽

Roman Britain ◽

Amount Of Information ◽

The Subject ◽

Available Information

The aim of this paper is to summarize the available information on the types of plough used in Roman Britain. There are a number of sources for such a study. Much of our knowledge of the basic structure of these early ploughs comes from the finely preserved Iron-Age examples which have been found in Scandinavian peat bogs. These also serve to supplement and clarify the most detailed surviving description of the Roman plough, which is given by Vergil in Georgics I. A few models of the Roman period have been found in Britain and Germany. Of major importance, of course, are the surviving parts of Romano-British ploughs (which are all, in fact, either shares or coulters), and material from Roman Europe can be used to amplify these. The Elder Pliny has a detailed, but difficult, section on the various types of share and occasionally he throws light on other aspects of the subject. Finally, a certain amount of information can be gained from comparisons with modern plough types.

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Médicaments et thermalisme à Pautalia, Thrace

Gesnerus ◽

10.1163/22977953-0570304007 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 57 (3-4) ◽

pp. 238-249

Author(s):

Valentina Grigorova

Keyword(s):

Iron Age ◽

Roman Period ◽

Surgical Instruments ◽

Thermal Springs ◽

A Site ◽

The Hill ◽

The Village ◽

The City ◽

The Temple ◽

The Town

The city of Pautalia (Kyustendil in Bulgaria) is located near thermal springs in the Strymon valley (Strouma),on a site occupied from the Iron Age onward by the Thracian tribe of Dentheletes. The temple of Asclepios and the walls of Pautalia, located on the hill of Hissarlaka, as well as the roman thermae in the center of modern Kyustendil are among the more important archaeological vestiges in the area. In 1990, near the village of Dragodan, district of Kyustendil, different surgical instruments in bronze were unearthed in a tumulus attributed to the roman period (Ilnd century A.D.). During the excavation of another tumulus in 1992, a truly exceptional discovery was made near the town of Kotcherinovo, district of Kyustendil: A variety of medicines were discovered in a small bronze case, dating from the roman period (Ilnd century A.D.). The complete results of the analysis of these substances and few hypotheses about their possible use are presented in this publication.

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Livestock Changes at the Beginning and End of the Roman Period in Britain: Issues of Acculturation, Adaptation, and ‘Improvement’

European Journal of Archaeology ◽

10.1017/eaa.2017.13 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 20 (3) ◽

pp. 535-556 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Mauro Rizzetto ◽

Pam J. Crabtree ◽

Umberto Albarella

Keyword(s):

Case Studies ◽

Iron Age ◽

Animal Husbandry ◽

Roman Period ◽

Economic Factors ◽

Roman Britain ◽

The Core ◽

South Eastern ◽

Livestock Management ◽

Core Characteristics

This article reviews aspects of the development of animal husbandry in Roman Britain, focusing in particular on the Iron Age/Roman and Roman/early medieval transitions. By analysing the two chronological extremes of the period of Roman influence in Britain we try to identify the core characteristics of Romano-British husbandry by using case studies, in particular from south-eastern Britain, investigated from the perspective of the butchery and morphometric evidence they provide. Our aim is to demonstrate the great dynamism of Romano-British animal husbandry, with substantial changes in livestock management occurring at the beginning, the end, and during the period under study. It is suggested that such changes are the product of interactions between different cultural and social traditions, which can be associated with indigenous and external influences, but also numerous other causes, ranging from ethnic origins to environmental, geographic, political, and economic factors.

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Iron Age and Roman Enclosed Settlement at Winchester Road, Basingstoke

Hampshire Studies ◽

10.24202/hs2019003 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 74 (1) ◽

pp. 36-97

Author(s):

Richard Massey ◽

Matt Nichol ◽

Dana Challinor ◽

Sharon Clough ◽

Matilda Holmes ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Iron Age ◽

Roman Period ◽

Field Boundary ◽

Crop Processing ◽

Late Iron Age ◽

Middle Iron Age ◽

Grave Goods

Excavation in Area 1 identified an enclosed settlement of Middle–Late Iron Age and Early Roman date, which included a roundhouse gully and deep storage pits with complex fills. A group of undated four-post structures, situated in the east of Area 1, appeared to represent a specialised area of storage or crop processing of probable Middle Iron Age date. A sequence of re-cutting and reorganisation of ditches and boundaries in the Late Iron Age/Early Roman period was followed, possibly after a considerable hiatus, by a phase of later Roman activity, Late Iron Age reorganisation appeared to be associated with the abandonment of a roundhouse, and a number of structured pit deposits may also relate to this period of change. Seven Late Iron Age cremation burials were associated with a contemporary boundary ditch which crossed Area 1. Two partly-exposed, L-shaped ditches may represent a later Roman phase of enclosed settlement and a slight shift in settlement focus. An isolated inhumation burial within the northern margins of Area 1 was tentatively dated by grave goods to the Early Saxon period.<br/> Area 2 contained a possible trackway and field boundary ditches, of which one was of confirmed Late Iron Age/Early Roman date. A short posthole alignment in Area 2 was undated, and may be an earlier prehistoric feature.

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Bronze Boar Figurines in Iron Age and Roman Britain

10.30861/9780904531749 ◽

1977 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Jennifer Foster

Keyword(s):

Iron Age ◽

Roman Britain

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Rekonstruktion des Ursprungs und Neudatierung zweier magischer Gemmen mit Hilfe einer Zauberzeichensequenz

Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde ◽

10.1515/zaes-2020-0033 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 147 (2) ◽

pp. 153-163

Author(s):

Kirsten Dzwiza

Keyword(s):

Comparative Study ◽

Fine Arts ◽

17Th Century ◽

The State ◽

Roman Period ◽

16Th Century ◽

New Findings ◽

State Museum ◽

Museum Of Fine Arts ◽

First Time

SummaryThere are only a few sequences of ancient magic signs known to us today that have been preserved on multiple artefacts. A previously unnoticed sequence of 17 signs on a gem in the Museum of Fine Arts in Vienna occurs with minor but significant variations on two other gems in the State Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich. The Viennese gem is dated to the 16th century and is documented as a drawing in a 17th century publication. The first Munich gem has been assigned to the Graeco-Roman period. The second gem, which, according to the inventory card of the museum, also belongs to the Graeco-Roman period, is published here for the first time. A comparative study of the three gems and the drawing has lead to a number of new findings, including the re-dating of the Munich gems.

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Late-Holocene forest resilience in the central Pyrenean highlands as deduced from pollen analysis of Lake Sant Maurici sediments

The Holocene ◽

10.1177/09596836211033207 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 095968362110332

Author(s):

Valentí Rull ◽

Núria Cañellas-Boltà ◽

Teresa Vegas-Vilarrúbia

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Middle Ages ◽

Iron Age ◽

Late Holocene ◽

High Elevation ◽

Roman Period ◽

High Mountain ◽

Southern Central ◽

Central Pyrenees ◽

The Middle Ages

Palynological analysis of the last ca. 4300 cal year BP using a sediment core taken from high mountain (ca. 1900 m elevation) Lake Sant Maurici sediments (southern-central Pyrenees) showed remarkable vegetation constancy during the Bronze Age and the Middle Ages. Records of the Iron Age and the Roman period were missing due to a major sedimentary gap. During the studied periods, the vegetation around the lake was largely dominated by pine ( Pinus) forests with birch ( Betula), oak ( Quercus) and hazel ( Corylus) trees, as is the case today. The composition of these forests and the abundance of their components remained quite stable, despite the occurrence of temperature and moisture shifts. The degree of human disturbance, notably that of pastoralism and cereal cultivation by scattered and temporary settlements, was very low and had little or no effect on the dominant forests. This situation contrasts with most high-elevation (subalpine and alpine) environments of the central Pyrenees that were massively anthropized during the Middle Ages. Further research should be aimed at finding sediments corresponding to the Iron Age and the Roman period to verify whether the vegetation constancy can be extended throughout the Late-Holocene. Past records of this type may allow the estimation of natural and anthropogenic thresholds for irreversible forest changes, which would be useful for conservation purposes.

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