Issue 68

December 2002

Contents

news

Scatness dates push back history of brochs

Archaeology awards 2002

'Londoners' stone sheds light on city's cosmopolitan ways

Ivory plane from Roman settlement in the North East

Wealthy trading suburb excavated near Roman fort

History from pig fields, beaches and back gardens

features

Roman Britons after 410
Martin Henig on how Roman culture never left Britain

Bear pit to zoo
Hannah O'Regan on th history of wild animal collections

Great sites
Gustav Milne on the excavations on London's waterfront

letters

Roman roads, talismans, animal bones and Tolkien (again)

issues

George Lambrick on the pillage of the warship 'Sussex'

Peter Ellis

Regular column

books

Two visions of Avebury

Kent or Sussex

Role of castles

Archaeology of war

CBA update

favourite finds

Bill Putnam on a World War II fork in a 'prehistoric' ditch

ISSN 1357-4442

Editor Simon Denison

Roman roads

From Mr Jim Gould

Sir: In his feature on Roman roads ('Roads from Rome', October), Hugh Davies emphasises the quality of the main military-built roads in Britain including Watling Street. But all is not as it first appears.

Near Letocetum (Wall, in Staffordshire), a kilometre of very badly made Watling Street was abandoned some time after the 3rd century - possibly long after. Part of this length was built over a peat bog that could have been easily avoided. Excavation has shown that instead of removing the peat which was shallow at this point, a thin layer of sand was spread over the top of the peat, and gravel with some sand was heaped over to form a low agger.

In the centre of Letocetum coin evidence suggests that the road was first metalled about AD 70. Roadside settlement suggests that the section of bad road continued in use for at least 200 years. It could not have supported heavy traffic.

But was Roman traffic heavy? The posting system used light two-wheeled carts, whilst the 4th century imperial edicts of the Codex Theodosianus prohibited wagons from carrying loads exceeding 11 hundredweights (560 kg), probably because the wooden hubs revolving on wooden axles could not stand heavier loads. Much was probably moved by packhorse or water.

Why then were so many substantial roads built? Was this the army, with excess manpower during periods of peace, keeping soldiers and gangs of natives busy and out of mischief?

Yours sincerely,
Jim Gould
Walsall
12 October

From Mr Arthur Jordan

Sir: Hugh Davies explains that 'wagons need twice their width in order to turn through a right-angle'. Assuming 'wagon' to mean a four-wheeled vehicle, how was such a turn achieved? The free-turning forecarriage was unknown until the 15th century.

Four-wheeled vehicles depicted in a relief in Klagenfurt Museum in Austria and another in the Musée St. Didier, Langres, show the front wheels of Roman vehicles to be of the same diameter as the rear wheels and too high to pass under the floor of the vehicle. No wonder Roman roads were made straight!

Yours sincerely,
Arthur Jordan
Gretton, Northants
17 October

Talismans

From Mr Rod Cooke

Sir: An interesting connection runs through three separate news articles in the October issue of British Archaeology. Your story, 'Hopeful dead clutching their tickets to heaven' mentions 'angels', the gold coins handed out by Henry VIII as talismans, which bear an image of St George killing a reptilian beast.

In the piece 'All the emotions on display in Southwark Roman Cemetery' you describe a ring that has an amber coloured stone intaglio 'displaying a human head with wild hair'. Thirdly, in the news story 'Treasure Act brings in the gold and silver once again', you mention 'a gold phallic pendant or amulet', a Roman find from Braintree in Essex.

The connection between these three is the use of symbols as protective, or apotropaic, devices. The St George symbol for example can be seen as the 'horseman in triumph', which has been traced back to the Testament of Solomon and was particularly used to ensure the good health of the womb and healthy and successful childbirth. The Southwark intaglio could indicate a Chnoubis, or Gorgon, a type of head which was well used in Late Antiquity as an apotropaic device whose protective power concerned the abdomen.

A good example of the use of both these symbols together is a 7th-8th century amulet from the eastern Mediterranean, depicted in E Maguire's Art and Holy Powers in the Early Christian House (University of Illinois Press, 1989). One side of the circular amulet shows the horseman in triumph, or 'holy rider', spearing a demon with a snake-like body. The other side of the amulet has a human, Chnoubis, head that radiates 'snake-like' tentacles instead of hair.

Perhaps the phallic pendant needs little mention, as this device is well known in the symbolism of Late Antiquity and earlier as a bringer of good fortune. Home grown examples can be seen on Hadrian's Wall at Chesters and Birdoswald.

The written record confirms that much faith was placed in the power of such protective symbols; Alexander of Tralles, a 6th century doctor, prescribed apotropaic devices to his patients. Interestingly, around 1,000 years separate the two 'horseman in triumph' examples mentioned above.

Yours faithfully,
Rod Cooke
Ellingham, Norfolk
12 October

Tolkien's home

From Mr David Cox

Sir: As Editor of The Blackcountryman, the quarterly journal of the Black Country Society, I would dearly love to claim JRR Tolkien as an eminent Black Country man, as Fred Mustill does in his letter concerning the possible inspiration for hobbit holes (Letters, October), but I'm afraid that it would be stretching the boundaries of the area a little too far.

Tolkien's home ground was not, as Mr Mustill states, on the southern outskirts of the Black Country, but rather some miles to the east, in the Rednal and Coleshill villages to the south of the Birmingham conurbation.

However, Mr Mustill's proposition that the Holy Austin rock houses on Kinver Edge may have been the inspiration for hobbit holes is otherwise an intriguing one. These houses retain an air of mystery and defy efforts to date them. They are now fully restored and are open to visitors. The large underground factory that Mr Mustill refers to was in fact a World War II 'shadow factory', later converted to a secret centre of regional government in the event of nuclear war. The vast underground complex was decommissioned in the early 1990s and is occasionally opened to visitors.

Yours sincerely,
David Cox
Stourbridge, West Midlands
12 October

Animal bones

From Ms Dale Serjeantson

Sir: In your news report of the excavation and finds from a Romano-British village at North Cave, Humberside (News, August), you wrote that the absence of animal bones indicated that 'the occupants of the village subsisted mainly by arable farming'. I am sure that they did live mainly from cereals, but not for the reason given.

There are many reasons why a site may have few animal bones, even when the sediments are calcareous and bone might be expected to survive. There may have been few contexts in which the bones that were thrown away were protected from destruction. Most of them may have been put onto a midden which was later strewn on the fields. These seem to be reasons why bones are never very common on medieval rural sites. The archaeological deposits may have suffered from water percolation or rootlet action. Both are destructive even on chalky soils, especially if bones were near the ground surface. The least likely explanation for a dearth of bone at a settlement is that few or no bones were discarded there.

It sounds like a typical Romano-British settlement, so the villagers must have had some stock, even if not many. It was near the Wolds which must have had good soils for growing cereals, but it is highly unlikely that anyone attempted to grow cereals at this time without the use of cattle for ploughing and sheep to manure the fields. They may have sold the young animals, and they may have eaten more dairy products than meat, but they surely also ate some meat, if only from the old animals that had been kept for other purposes.

Yours sincerely,
Dale Serjeantson
University of Southampton
3 September

We welcome letters from readers. They may be emailed to Mike Pitts the Editor at editor@britarch.ac.uk or faxed to 01904 671384. They may be edited.

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