Produced by Ted Garvin, David Garcia and the Online
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[Illustration: FIG. 1. POTTERY STAMPS AND STAMPED POTTERY FROM HOLT.
(A) Head of Silenus (1/1). Probably an artist's die, for casting stamps
for stamped ware (p. 20)
(B) Fragment of stamped ware (1/1), with ornament imitated from Samian
(p. 19)
(C) STAMP FOR MORTARIUM (1/1)]
THE BRITISH ACADEMY
SUPPLEMENTAL PAPERS. III
Roman Britain in 1914
By Professor F. Haverfield
Fellow of the Academy
London: 1915
Published for the British Academy
By Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press
Amen Corner, E.C.
[Transcribers Note: Professor Francis Haverfield]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 4
PREFACE 5
A. RETROSPECT OF FINDS MADE IN 1914 7
(_a_) Raedykes, near Stonehaven; Wall of Pius; Traprain Law;
Northumberland (Featherwood, Chesterholm, Corbridge);
Weardale (co. Durham); Appleby; Ambleside (fort at Borrans);
Lancaster; Ribchester; Slack (near Huddersfield); Holt;
Cardiff; Richborough.
(_b_) Wroxeter; Lincoln; Gloucester; London; country houses
and farms; Lowbury (Berkshire); Beachy Head, Eastbourne;
Parc-y-Meirch (North Wales) 21
B. ROMAN INSCRIPTIONS FOUND IN 1914 29
Balmuildy (Wall of Pius); Traprain Law; Featherwood (altar);
Chesterholm (two altars); Corbridge (inscribed tile); Weardale
(bronze _paterae_); Holt (centurial stone and tile); Lincoln;
London; rediscovered milestone near Appleby.
C. PUBLICATIONS RELATING TO ROMAN BRITAIN IN 1914.
1. General 38
2. Special sites or districts 41
APPENDIX: LIST OF PERIODICALS HAVING REFERENCE TO ROMAN BRITAIN 64
INDEX OF PLACES 67
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
1. Pottery-stamps and stamped pottery from Holt
(see p. 19) _Frontispiece_
2. Plan of Roman Fort at Borrans, Ambleside. From a plan
by Mr. R. G. Collingwood 10
3. Sketch plan of Principia (Praetorium) of Roman Fort at
Ribchester. After a plan by Mr. D. Atkinson and
Prof. W. B. Anderson 13
4. Sketch plan of part of the Roman Fort at Slack. From a plan
by Messrs. A. Woodward and P. Ross 14
5. Holt, plan of site 16
6. Holt, plan of barracks 17
7. Holt, plan of dwelling-house and bath-house 17
8. Holt, plan of kilns 18
9. Holt, reconstruction of the kilns shown in fig. 8 18
10, 11. Holt, stamped 'imitation Samian' ware 20
(Figs. 1 and 5-11 are from photographs or drawings lent by
Mr. A. Acton, of Wrexham)
12. Sketch plan of Roman bath-house at East Grimstead, after
a plan by Mr. Heywood Sumner 24
13. Sketch plan of Romano-British house at North Ash, after a
plan prepared by the Dartford Antiquarian Society 25
14. Plan of Romano-British house at Clanville. After a plan by
the Rev. G. Engleheart, in _Archaeologia_ 26
15. Fragment of inscription found at Balmuildy 29
16. Altar found at Chesterholm, drawn from a photograph 31
17-19. Graves and grave-nails, Infirmary Field, Chester.
From drawings and photographs by Prof. Newstead 41-2
20-22. The Mersea grave-mound. From the Report of the Morant
Club and Essex Archaeological Society 43
23, 24. Margidunum, plan and seal-box. From the _Antiquary_ 51
25-28. Plan, section and views of the podium of the temple at
Wroxeter. From the Report by Mr. Bushe-Fox 53
29. General plan of the Roman fort and precincts at Gellygaer.
After plans by Mr. J. Ward 59
30. Postholes at Gellygaer 63
For the loan of blocks 14, 17-20, 21-2, and 23-4, I am indebted
respectively to the Delegates of the Clarendon Press, Prof. Newstead,
and the Liverpool University Press, the Morant Club and the Essex
Archaeological Society, and the publisher of the _Antiquary_.
PREFACE
The contents of the present volume are of much the same character as
those of its predecessor, 'Roman Britain in 1913'. The first section
gives a retrospect of the chief finds made in 1914, so far as they are
known to me. The second section is a more detailed and technical survey
of the inscriptions found in Britain during that year. The third and
longest section is a summary, with some attempt at estimate and
criticism, of books and articles dealing with Roman Britain which
appeared in 1914 or at least bear that date on cover or title-page.
At the end I have added, for convenience, a list of the English
archaeological and other publications which at least sometimes contain
noteworthy articles relating to Roman Britain.
The total, both of finds and of publications, is smaller than in 1913.
In part the outbreak of war in August called off various supervisors
and not a few workmen from excavations then in progress; in one case
it prevented a proposed excavation from being begun. It also seems to
have retarded the issue of some archaeological periodicals. But the
scarcity of finds is much more due to natural causes. The most extensive
excavations of the year, those of Wroxeter and Corbridge, yielded
little; they were both concerned with remains which had to be explored
in the course of a complete uncovering of those sites but which were not
in themselves very interesting. The lesser sites, too, were somewhat
unproductive, though at least one, Traprain Law, is full of promise for
the future, and good work has been done in the systematic examination
of the fort at Ambleside and of certain rubbish-pits in London. In one
case, that of Holt (pp. 15-21), where excavations have for the present
come to an end, I have thought it well to include a brief retrospect
of the whole of a very interesting series of finds and, aided by the
kindness of the excavator, Mr. Arthur Acton of Wrexham, to add some
illustrations of notable objects which have not yet appeared elsewhere
in print.
A. RETROSPECT OF FINDS MADE IN 1914
i-xiv. FINDS RELATING TO THE ROMAN MILITARY OCCUPATION.
(i) The exploration of the Roman-seeming earthworks in northern Scotland
which Dr. Macdonald and I began in 1913 at Ythan Wells, in Aberdeenshire
(Report for 1913, p. 7), was continued in 1914 by Dr. Macdonald at
Raedykes, otherwise called Garrison Hill, three miles inland from
Stonehaven. Here Roy saw and planned a large camp of very irregular
outline, which he took to be Roman.[1] Since his time the ramparts have
been somewhat ploughed down, but Dr. Macdonald could trace them round,
identify the six gateways, and generally confirm Roy's plan, apart from
its hill-shading. The ramparts proved to be of two kinds: part was built
solidly of earth, with a deep ditch of Roman shape strengthened in
places with clay, in front of it, while part was roughly piled with
stones and defended only by a shallow rounded ditch. This difference
seemed due to the differing nature of the ground; ditch and rampart were
slighter where attack was less easy. The gateways were wide and provided
with traverses (_tituli_ or _tutuli_), as at Ythan Wells. No small finds
were secured. The general character of the gateways and ramparts seemed
to show Roman workmanship, but the exact date within the Roman period
remained doubtful. It has been suggested that the traverses indicate
Flavian rather than Antonine fortifying. But these devices are met with
in Britain at Bar Hill, which presumably dates from about A.D. 140, and
on Hadrian's Wall in third-century work.
[Footnote 1: _Antiquities_, plate 50. Roy does not notice it in his
text, any more than he notices plate 51 (Ythan Wells camp). They are the
two last plates in his volume; as this was issued posthumously in 1793
(he died in 1790), perhaps the omission is intelligible.]
(ii) _Wall of Pius and its forts._ At Balmuildy, north of Glasgow
(see Report for 1913, p. 10), Mr. Miller has further cleared the baths
outside the south-east corner of the fort and the adjacent ditches.
The plan which I gave last year has now to be corrected so as to show
a triple ditch between the south gate and the south-east corner and a
double ditch from the south-east corner to the east gate. This latter
section of ditch was, however, filled up at some time with clay, and the
bath planted on top of it. At presumably the same time a ditch was run
out from the south-east corner so as to enclose the bath and form an
annexe; in this annexe was found a broken altar-top with a few letters
on it (below, p. 29). Search was also made for rubbish-pits on the north
side of the fort, but without any result.
On other parts of the Wall Dr. Macdonald has gained further successes.
Evidence seems to be coming out as to the hitherto missing forts of
Kirkintilloch and Inveravon. More details have been secured of the fort
at Mumrills--fully 4-1/2 acres in area and walled with earth, not with
the turf or stone employed in the ramparts of the other forts of the
Wall. The line of the Wall from Falkirk to Inveravon, a distance of four
miles, has also been traced; it proved to be built of earth and clay,
not of the turf used in the Wall westwards. Dr. Macdonald suggests that
the eastern section of the Wall lay through heavily wooded country,
where turf was naturally awanting.
(iii) _Traprain Law._ Very interesting, too, are the preliminary
results secured by Mr. A. O. Curie on Traprain Law. This is an isolated
hill in Haddingtonshire, some twenty miles east of Edinburgh, on the
Whittingehame estate of Mr. Arthur Balfour. Legends cluster round it--of
varying antiquity. It itself shows two distinct lines of fortification,
one probably much older than the other, enclosing some 60 acres. The
area excavated in 1914 was a tiny piece, about 30 yards square; the
results were most promising. Five levels of stratification could be
distinguished. The lowest and earliest yielded small objects of native
work and Roman potsherds of the late first century: higher up, Roman
coins and pottery of the second century appeared, and in the top level,
Roman potsherds assigned to the fourth century. One Roman potsherd, from
a second-century level, bore three Roman letters IRI, the meaning of
which is likely to remain obscure. As the inscribed surface came from
the inside of an urn, the writing must have been done after the pot was
broken, and presumably on the hill itself. Among the native finds were
stone and clay moulds for casting metal objects. The site, on a whole,
seems to be native rather than Roman; it may be our first clue to the
character of native _oppida_ in northern Britain under Roman rule;
its excavation is eminently worth pursuing.
(iv) _Northumberland, Hadrian's Wall._ On Hadrian's Wall no excavations
have been carried out. But at Chesterholm two inscribed altars were
found in the summer. One was dedicated to Juppiter Optimus Maximus;
the rest of the lettering was illegible. The other, dedicated to Vulcan
on behalf of the Divinity of the Imperial House by the people of the
locality, possesses much interest. The dedicators describe themselves as
_vicani Vindolandenses_, and thus give proof that the civilians living
outside the fort at Chesterholm formed a _vicus_ or something that could
plausibly be described as such; further, they teach the proper name of
the place, which we have been wont to call Vindolana. See further below,
p. 31.
North of the Wall, at Featherwood near High Rochester (the fort
Bremenium) an altar has been found, dedicated to Victory (see p. 30).
(v) _Corbridge._ The exploration of Corbridge was carried through its
ninth season by Mr. R. H. Forster. As in 1913, the results were somewhat
scanty. The area examined, which lay on the north-east of the site,
adjacent to the areas examined in 1910 and 1913, seems, like them, to
have been thinly occupied in Roman times; at any rate the structures
actually unearthed consisted only of a roughly built foundation (25 feet
diam.) of uncertain use, which there is no reason to call a temple, some
other even more indeterminate foundations, and two bits of road. More
interest may attach to three ditches (one for sewage) and the clay base
of a rampart, which belong in some way to the northern defences of the
place in various times. The full meaning of these will, however, not be
discernible till complete plans are available and probably not till
further excavations have been made; Mr. Forster inclines to explain
parts of them as ditches of a fort held in the age of Trajan, about A.D.
90-110. Several small finds merit note. An inscribed tile seems to have
served as a writing lesson or rather, perhaps, as a reading lesson: see
below, p. 32. The Samian pottery included a very few pieces of '29', a
good deal of early '37', which most archaeologists would ascribe to the
late first or the opening second century, and some other pieces which
perhaps belong to a rather later part of the same century. The coins
cover much the same period; few are later than Hadrian. Among them was
a hoard of 32 denarii and 12 copper of which Mr. Craster has made the
following list:--
_Silver_: 2 Republican, 1 Julius Caesar, 1 Mark Antony, 1 Nero,
1 Galba, 3 Vitellius, 13 Vespasian, 3 Titus, 6 Domitian,
1 unidentified.
_Copper_: 3 Vespasian, 1 Titus, 2 Domitian, 3 Nerva, 1 Trajan,
2 unidentified.
The latest coin was the copper of Trajan--a _dupondius_ or Second
Brass of A.D. 98. All the coins had been corroded into a single mass,
apparently by the burning of a wooden box in which they have been kept;
this burning must have occurred about A.D. 98-100. Among the bronze
objects found during the year was a dragonesque enamelled brooch.
(vi) In Upper _Weardale_ (co. Durham) a peat-bog has given up two bronze
_paterae_ or skillets, bearing the stamp of the Italian bronze-worker
Cipius Polybius, and an uninscribed bronze ladle. See below, p. 33.
(vii) Near Appleby, at Hangingshaw farm, Mr. P. Ross has come upon a
Roman inscription which proves to be a milestone of the Emperor Philip
(A.D. 244-6) first found in 1694 and since lost sight of (p. 35).
(viii) _Ambleside Fort._ The excavation of the Roman fort in Borrans
Field near Ambleside, noted in my Report for 1913 (p. 13), was continued
by Mr. R. G. Collingwood, Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, and others
with much success. The examination of the ramparts, gates, and turrets
was completed; that of the main interior buildings was brought near
completion, and a beginning was made on the barracks, sufficient to show
that they were, at least in part, made of wood.
[Illustration: FIG. 2. BORRANS FORT, AMBLESIDE
(I. Granaries; II. Head-quarters; III. Commandant's House; A. Cellar;
B. Hearth or Kiln; C. Deposit of corn; D. Ditch perhaps belonging to
earliest fort; E. Outer Court of Head-quarters; F. Inner Court)]
The fort, as is now clear (fig. 2), was an oblong enclosure of about 300
× 420 feet, nearly 3 acres. Round it ran a wall of roughly coursed stone
4 feet thick, with a clay ramp behind and a ditch in front. Turrets
stood at its corners. Four gates gave access to it; three of them were
single and narrow, while the fourth, the east gate, was double and was
flanked by two guard-chambers. As usual, the chief buildings stood in a
row across the interior. Building I--see plan, fig. 2--was a pair of
granaries, each 66 feet long, with a space between. They were of normal
plan, with external buttresses, basement walls, and ventilating windows
(not shown on plan). The space between them, 15 feet wide, contained
marks of an oven or ovens (plan, B) and also some corn (plan, C) and may
have been at one time used for drying grain stored in the granaries; how
far it was roofed is doubtful. Building II, the Principia or Praetorium,
a structure of 68 × 76 feet, much resembled the Principia at Hardknot,
ten miles west of Ambleside, but possessed distinct features. As the
plan shows, it had an entrance from the east, the two usual courts (EF),
and the offices which usually face on to the inner court F. These
offices, however, were only three in number instead of five, unless
wooden partitions were used. Under the central office, the _sacellum_ of
the fort, where the standards and the altars for the official worship of
the garrison are thought to have been kept, our fort had, at A, a sunk
room or cellar, 6 feet square, entered by a stone stair. Such cellars
occur at Chesters, Aesica, and elsewhere and probably served as
strong-rooms for the regimental funds. At Chesters, the cellar had stone
vaulting; at Ambleside there is no sign of this, and timber may have
been used. In the northernmost room of the Principia some corn and
woodwork as of a bin were noted (plan, C). The inner court F seemed to
Mr. Collingwood to have been roofed; in its north end was a detached
room, such as occurs at Chesters, of unknown use, which accords rather
ill with a roof. In the colonnade round the outer court E were vestiges
of a hearth or oven (plan, B). Building III (70 × 80 feet) is that
usually called the commandant's house; it seems to show the normal plan
of rooms arranged round a cloister enclosing a tiny open space. In
buildings II and III, at D, traces were detected as of ditches and
walling belonging to a fort older and probably smaller than that
revealed by the excavation generally.
Small finds include coins of Faustina Iunior, Iulia Domna, and Valens,
Samian of about A.D. 80 and later, including one or two bits of German
Samian, a silver spoon, some glass, iron, and bronze objects, a leaden
basin (?), and seven more leaden sling-bullets. It now seems clear that
the fort was established about the time of Agricola (A.D. 80-5), though
perhaps in smaller dimensions than those now visible, and was held till
at least A.D. 365. Mr. Collingwood inclines to the view that it was
abandoned after A.D. 85 and reoccupied under or about the time of
Hadrian. The stratification of the turrets seems to show that it was
destroyed once or twice in the second or third centuries, but the
evidence is not wholly clear in details. The granaries seem to have been
rebuilt once and the rooms of the commandant's house mostly have two
floors.
(ix) _Lancaster._ In October and November 1914, structural remains
thought to be Roman, including 'an old Roman fireplace, circular in
shape, with stone flues branching out', were noted in the garden of St.
Mary's vicarage. The real meaning of the find seems doubtful.
(x) _Ribchester._ In the spring of 1913 a small school-building was
pulled down at Ribchester, and the Manchester Classical Association was
able to resume its examination of the Principia (praetorium) of the
Roman fort, above a part of which this building had stood. The work was
carried out by Prof. W. B. Anderson, of Manchester University, and Mr.
D. Atkinson, Research Fellow of Reading College, and, though limited in
extent, was very successful.
The first discovery of the Principia is due to Miss Greenall, who about
1905 was building a house close to the school and took care that certain
remains found by her builders should be duly noted: excavations in
1906-7, however, left the size and extent of these remains somewhat
uncertain and resulted in what we now know to be an incorrect plan. The
work done last spring makes it plain (fig. 3) that the Principia
fronted--in normal fashion--the main street of the fort (gravel laid on
cobbles) running from the north to the south gate. But, abnormally, the
frontage was formed by a verandah or colonnade: the only parallel which
I can quote is from Caersws, where excavations in 1909 revealed a
similar verandah in front of the Principia[2]. Next to the verandah
stood the usual Outer Court with a colonnade round it and two wells in
it (one is the usual provision): the colonnade seemed to have been twice
rebuilt. Beyond that are fainter traces of the Inner Court which,
however, lies mostly underneath a churchyard: the only fairly clear
feature is a room (A on plan) which seems to have stood on the right
side of the Inner Court, as at Chesters and Ambleside (fig. 2, above).
Behind this, probably, stood the usual five office rooms. If we carry
the Principia about 20 feet further back, which would be a full
allowance for these rooms with their walling, the end of the whole
structure will line with the ends of the granaries found some years ago.
This, or something very like it, is what we should naturally expect. We
then obtain a structure measuring 81 × 112 feet, the latter dimension
including a verandah 8 feet wide. This again seems a reasonable result.
Ribchester was a large fort, about 6 acres, garrisoned by cavalry;
in a similar fort at Chesters, on Hadrian's Wall, the Principia measured
85 × 125 feet: in the 'North Camp' at Camelon, another fort of much the
same size (nearly 6 acres), they measured 92 × 120 feet.
[Footnote 2: I saw this verandah while open. The whole excavations at
Caersws yielded important results and it is more than regrettable that
no report of them has ever been issued.]
[Illustration: FIG. 3. RIBCHESTER FORT, HEAD-QUARTERS]
(xi) _Slack._ The excavation of the Roman fort at Slack, near
Huddersfield, noted in my report for 1913 (p. 14), was continued in 1914
by Mr. P. W. Dodd and Mr. A. M. Woodward, lecturers in Leeds University,
which is doing good work in the exploration of southern Yorkshire. The
defences of the fort, part of its central buildings (fig. 4, I-III), and
part of its other buildings (B-K) have now been attacked. The defences
consist of (1) a ditch 15 feet wide, possibly double on the north (more
exactly north-west) side and certainly absent on the southern two-thirds
of the east (north-east) side; (2) a berme, 8 feet wide; and (3) a
rampart 20-5 feet thick, built of turf and strengthened by a rough stone
base which is, however, only 8-10 feet wide. Of the four gates, three
(west, north, and east) have been examined; all are small and have
wooden gate-posts instead of masonry. On each side of the east gate,
which is the widest (15 ft.), the rampart is thought to thicken as if
for greater defence. The absence of a ditch on the southern two-thirds
of the east side may be connected with some paving outside the east gate
and also with a bath-house, partly explored in 1824 and 1865, outside
the south-east (east) corner; we may think that here was an annexe. The
central buildings, so far as uncovered, are of stone; the Principia
(III) perhaps had some wooden partitions. They are all ill-preserved and
call for no further comment. West of them, in the rear of the fort, the
excavators traced two long narrow wooden buildings (B, C), north of the
road from the west (south-west) gate to the back of the Principia; on
the other side of the road they found the ends of two similar buildings
(D, E). This looks as if this portion of the fort was filled with four
barracks. On the other side of the row of buildings I-III remains
were traced of stone structures; one of these (F) had the L-shape
characteristic of barracks, and indications point to two others (G, H)
of the same shape. This implies six barrack buildings in this portion
of the fort and ten barrack buildings in all, that is, a cohort 1,000
strong. But the whole fort is only just 3 acres, and one would expect a
smaller garrison; when excavations have advanced, we may perhaps find
that the garrison was really a _cohors quingenaria_ with six barracks,
as at Gellygaer. Close against the east rampart, and indeed cutting
somewhat into it, was a long thin building (K), 12-16 feet wide, which
yielded much charcoal and potsherds and seemed an addition to the
original plan of the fort.
[Illustration: FIG. 4. PART OF SLACK FORT
(I. Granaries; II. Doubtful; III. Head-quarters; A. Shrine in III; B, C,
D, E. Wooden buildings in western part of fort; F, G, H, K. Stone
buildings in eastern part)]
The few small finds included Samian of the late first and early second
centuries (but no '29'), and a denarius of Trajan. In respect of date,
they agree with the finds of last year and of 1865, and suggest that
the fort was established under Domitian or Trajan, and abandoned under
Hadrian or Pius; as an inscription of the Sixth Legion was found here in
1744, apparently in the baths, the evacuation cannot have been earlier
than about A.D. 130. The occupation of Slack must therefore have
resembled that of Castleshaw, which stands at the western end of the
pass through the Pennine Hills, which Slack guards on the east. If this
be so, an explanation must be discovered for two altars generally
assigned to Slack. One of these, found three miles north of Slack at
Greetland in 1597 among traces of buildings, is dated to A.D. 205 (CIL.
vii. 200). The other, found two miles eastwards, at Longwood, in 1880
(Eph. Epigr. vii. 920), bears no date; but it was erected by an Aurelius
Quintus to the Numina Augustorum, and neither item quite suits so early
a date as the reign of Trajan. The dedication of the first is to the
goddess Victoria--_Vic_(_toria_) _Brig_(_antia_)--that of the second
_deo Berganti_ (as well as the _Numina Aug._); so that in each case a
local shrine to a native deity may be concerned. It is also possible
that a fort was built near Greetland, after the abandonment of Slack,
to guard another pass over the Pennine, that by way of Blackstone Edge.
It is to be hoped that these interesting excavations may be continued
and completed.
(xii) _Holt._ At Holt, eight miles south of Chester on the Denbighshire
bank of the Dee, Mr. Arthur Acton has further explored the very
interesting tile and pottery works of the Twentieth Legion, of which I
spoke in my Report for 1913 (p. 15). The site is not even yet exhausted.
But enough has been discovered to give a definite picture of it, and as
it may perhaps not be possible to continue the excavations at present,
and as the detailed report which Mr. Acton projects may take time to
issue, I shall try here, with his permission, to summarize very briefly
his most noteworthy results. I have to thank him for supplying me with
much information and material for illustrations.
Holt combines the advantages of excellent clay for pottery and tile
making,[3] good building stone (the Bunter red sandstone), and an easy
waterway to Chester. Here the legion garrisoning Chester established, in
the latter part of the first century, tile and pottery works for its own
use and presumably also for the use of other neighbouring garrisons.
Traces of these works were noted early in the seventeenth century,
though they were not then properly understood.[4] In 1905 the late Mr.
A. N. Palmer, of Wrexham, identified the site in two fields called Wall
Lock and Hilly Field, just outside the village of Holt, and here, since
1906, Mr. Acton has, at his own cost, carefully and systematically
carried out excavations.
[Footnote 3: A Bronze Age burial (fig. 6, D) suggests that the clay may
have been worked long before the Romans.]
[Footnote 4: References are given by Watkin, _Cheshire_, p. 305,
and Palmer, _Archaeologia Cambrensis_, 1906, pp. 225 foll.]
[Illustration: FIG. 5. ROMAN SITE NEAR HOLT
(1. Barracks?; 2. Dwelling and Bath-house; 3. Kiln; 4. Drying-room, &c.
5. Kilns; 6. Work-rooms?; 7. Clay-pits)]
The discoveries show a group of structures scattered along a bank about
a quarter of a mile in length which stands slightly above the Dee and
the often flooded meadows beside it (fig. 5). At the west end of this
area (fig. 5, no. 1, and fig. 6) was a large rectangular enclosure of
about 62 × 123 yards (rather over 1-1/2 acres), girt with a strong wall
7 feet thick. Within it were five various rows of rooms mostly 15 feet
square, with drains; some complicated masonry (? latrines) filled the
east end. This enclosure was not wholly explored; it may have served
for workmen's barracks; the contents of two rubbish-pits (fig. 6,
AA)--bones of edible animals, cherry-stones, shells of snails, and Dee
mussels, potsherds, &c.--had a domestic look; mill-stones for grinding
corn, including one bearing what seems to be a centurial mark, and
fragments of buff imported amphorae were also found here. Between this
enclosure and the river were two small buildings close together (fig.
5, no. 2 and fig. 7). The easternmost of these seems to have been a
dwelling-house 92 feet long, with a corridor and two hypocausts; it may
have housed the officer in charge of the potteries. The western building
was a bath-house, with hot-rooms at the east end, and the dressing-room,
latrine, and cold-bath at the west end; one side of this building was
hewn into the solid rock to a height of 3 feet. Several fibulae were
found in the drains of the bath-house.
[Illustration: FIG. 6. BARRACKS (?), HOLT
(A. Rubbish pits; B. Latrines?; C. Water-pipe; D. Bronze Age burial)]
[Illustration: FIG. 7. DWELLING-HOUSE AND BATH-HOUSE, HOLT]
The other structures (3, 4, 6, 7) served industrial purposes. No. 4
(fig. 5) contained a hypocaust and was perhaps a workroom and drying
shed. At 6 were ill-built and ill-preserved rooms, containing puddled
clay, potsherds, &c., which declared them to be work-sheds of some sort.
Finally, at 3 and 5 we have the kilns. No. 3 was a kiln 17 feet square,
with a double flue, used (as its contents showed) for potting, and
indeed for fine potting. No. 5 (figs. 8, 9) was an elaborate 'plant' of
eight kilns in an enclosure of about 55 × 140 feet. Kilns A, B, F, H
were used for pottery, C, D, E for tiles, F for both large vessels and
tiles; the circular kiln G seems to be a later addition to the original
plan. The kilns were thus grouped together for economy in handling the
raw and fired material and in stacking the fuel, and also for economy
of heat; the three tile-kilns in the centre would be charged, fired,
and drawn in turn, and the heat from them would keep warm the smaller
pottery-kilns round them. The interiors of the kilns contained many
broken and a few perfect pots and tiles; round them lay an enormous
mass of wood-ashes, broken tiles and pots, 'wasters' and the like.
The wood-ashes seem to be mainly oak, which abounds in the neighbourhood
of Holt. The kilns themselves are exceptionally well-preserved. They
must have been in actual working order, when abandoned, and so they
illustrate--perhaps better than any kilns as yet uncovered and recorded
in any Roman province--the actual mechanism of a Roman tile- or
pottery-kiln. The construction of a kiln floor, which shall work
effectively and accurately, is less simple than it looks; the adjustment
of the heat to the class of wares to be fired, the distribution of the
heat by proper flues and by vent-holes of the right size, and other such
details require knowledge and care. The remains at Holt show these
features admirably, and Mr. Acton has been able to examine them with the
aid of two of our best experts on pottery-making, Mr. Wm. and Mr. Joseph
Burton, of Manchester.
[Illustration: FIG. 8. PLAN OF KILN-PLANT AT HOLT (SEE p. 34, and FIG. 9)
(Except at kilns F, G, the letters on the plan are placed at the
fire-holes. In kilns A, B a small piece of the kiln floor (on which the
vessels were placed for baking) is shown diagrammatically, to illustrate
the relation between the hot-air holes in the floors and the passages in
the underlying heating-chambers)]
[Illustration: FIG. 9. RESTORATION OF THE HOLT KILN-PLANT, SHOWING THE
FLOORS ON WHICH THE TILES OR VESSELS WERE PILED FOR BAKING (p. 18)
The letters ABCDE are placed at the mouths of the stoke-holes of the
respective kilns. Kilns ABDFH were used for pottery, CDE for tiles, F
for large vessels and for tiles; G seems an addition to the original
plan.]
Smaller finds include two centurial stones (one found in 1914 is
described below, p. 34); a mill-stone with letters suggesting that it
belonged to a century of soldiers; several _graffiti_, mostly of a
military character, so far as one can decipher them (for one see my
Report for 1913, p. 30); a profusion of stamped tiles of the Twentieth
Legion, mostly 'wasters'; some two dozen antefixes of the same legion;
several tile and pottery stamps; about 45 coins of various dates; much
window glass, and an immense quantity of potsherds of the most various
kinds. Among these latter were Samian pieces of the late first century
(no '29', but early '37' and '78' and a stamp of CRESTO) and of the
second century (including the German stamp IANVF), and imitation Samian
made on the spot. A quantity of lead and of iron perhaps worked into
nails, &c., at Holt, and a few crucibles for casting small bronze
objects, may also be mentioned.
The Twentieth Legion tiles at Holt bear stamps identical with those on
its tiles at Chester; we may think that the legion made for itself at
Holt most of the tiles which it used in its fortress. Equal interest
and more novelty attaches to the pottery made at Holt. This comprises
many varieties; most prominent is a reddish or buff ware of excellent
character, coated with a fine slip, which occurs in many different forms
of vessels, cooking pots, jars, saucers, and even large flat dishes up
to 30 inches in diameter. Specimens of these occur also in Chester,
and it is clear that the legionary workmen made not only tiles--as in
legionary tile-works in other lands--but also pots, mortaria (fig. 1),
&c., for legionary use.
Perhaps the most remarkable pieces among the pottery are some stamped
pieces copied from decorated Samian, which I am able to figure here by
Mr. Acton's kindness (figs. 1, 10, 11). They are pale reddish-brown in
colour and nearly as firm in texture as good Samian; they are made (he
tells me) by throwing on a wheel a clay (or 'body') prepared from local
materials, then impressing the stamps, and finally laying on an iron
oxide slip, perhaps with a brush. Sir Arthur Evans has pointed out to me
that the stamp used for the heads on fig. 1 was a gem set in a ring; the
setting is clearly visible under each head. The shape and ornament have
plainly been suggested by specimens of Samian '37' bowls, probably of
the second century. How far the author tried to copy definite pieces of
Samian and how far he aimed at giving the general effect, is not quite
clear to me. The large circles on fig. 11 suggest the medallions of
Lezoux potters like Cinnamus; the palmettes might have been taken from
German originals. Very few of these interesting pieces were found--all
of them close to the kiln numbered 3 on fig. 5.
[Illustration: FIG. 10. HOLT, STAMPED WARE IN IMITATION OF SAMIAN, SHAPE
37 (1/1)]
An even more striking piece (fig. 1) is a 'poinçon' bearing the head of
Silenus in relief. It is believed to be the artist's die, from which the
potters' sunk dies would be cast; from such sunk dies little casts would
be made and 'applied' in relief to the outsides of the bowls, to the
handles of jugs, &c. It does not seem to have been intended for any sort
of ware made from a mould; indeed, moulded ware rarely occurs among the
products of Holt. It is far finer work than most Samian ornamentation;
probably, however, it has never been damaged by use. It was found, with
one or two less remarkable dies, in the waste round kiln 3.
[Illustration: FIG. 11. STAMPED WARE, IN IMITATION OF SAMIAN, SHAPE 37
(1/1). (See pp. 19, 20)]
Interest attaches also to various vessels, two or three nearly perfect
and many broken, which have been glazed with green, brown or yellow
glaze; some of these pieces seem to be imitated from cut glass ware.
Along with them Mr. Acton has found the containing bowls (saggars) and
kiln-props used to protect and support the glazed vessels during the
process of firing, and as the drip of the glaze is visible on the sides
of the props and the bottoms of the saggars, he infers that the Holt
potters manufactured glazed ware with success.
It is obvious that Mr. Acton's detailed report on Holt will be full of
important matter, and that further excavation of the site, whenever it
may be possible, will also yield important results.
(xiii) _Cardiff._ The widening of Duke Street, which fronts the eastern
half of the south side of Cardiff Castle, has revealed the south-east
angle of the Roman fort, on the top of which the castle stands, and has
revealed it in good preservation. Nothing, however, has come to light
which seems to increase or alter our previous knowledge of the fort.
Many small Roman objects are stated to have been found, Samian ware,
coins, brooches, beads, in the course of the work; these may belong to
the 'civil settlement' which, as I have said elsewhere, may have lain to
the south of the fort (_Military Aspects of Roman Wales_, p. 105). When
they have been sorted and dated, they should throw light on the history
of Roman Cardiff.
(xiv) _Richborough._ This important site has been taken over by H.M.
Office of Works, and some digging has been done round the central
platform, but (Mr. Peers tells me) without any notable result. The
theory that this platform was the base of a lighthouse is still the
most probable.
xv-xxv. FINDS RELATING TO CIVIL LIFE
(xv) _Wroxeter (Viroconium)._ The systematic excavation of Wroxeter
begun in 1912 by Mr. J. P. Bushe-Fox on behalf of the London Society of
Antiquaries and the Shropshire Archaeological Society, was carried by
him through its third season in 1914. The area examined lay immediately
north of the temple uncovered in 1913. The main structure in it was a
large dwelling-house 115 feet long, with extensions up to 200 feet,
which possessed at least two courtyards, a small detached bath-house,
various mosaic and cement floors, hypocausts, and so forth. It had been
often altered, and its excavation and explanation were excessively
difficult. Mr. Bushe-Fox thinks that it may have begun as three shops
giving on to the north and south Street which bounds its eastern end.
Certainly it became, in course of time, a large corridor-house with a
south aspect and an eastern wing fronting the street, and as such it
underwent several changes in detail. Beyond its western end lay a still
more puzzling structure. An enceinte formed by two parallel walls, about
13 feet apart, enclosed a rectangular space of about 150 feet wide; the
western end of it, and therefore its length, could not be ascertained;
the two corners uncovered at the east end were rounded; an entrance
seems to have passed through the north-east corner. It has been called
a small fort, an amphitheatre, a stadium, and several other things.
But a fort should be larger and would indeed be somewhat hard to account
for at this spot; while a stadium should have a rounded end and, if it
was of orthodox length, would have extended outside the town into or
almost into the Severn. Interest attaches to a water-channel along the
main (north and south) street. This was found to have at intervals slits
in each side which were plainly meant for sluice-gates to be let down;
Mr. Bushe-Fox thinks that the channel was a water-supply, and not an
outfall, and that by the sluice-gates the water was dammed up so as,
when needed, to flow along certain smaller channels into the private
houses which stood beside the road. If so, the discovery has much
interest; the arrangement is peculiar, but no other explanation seems
forthcoming.
Small finds were many and good. Mr. Bushe-Fox gathered 571 coins ranging
from three British and one or two Roman Republican issues, to three
early coins of the Emperor Arcadius, over 200 Samian potters' stamps,
and much Samian datable to the period about A.D. 75-130, with a few rare
pieces of the pre-Flavian age. There was a noticeable scarcity of both
Samian and coins of the post-Hadrianic, Antonine period; it was also
observed that recognizable 'stratified deposits' did not occur after the
age of Hadrian. Among individual objects attention is due to a small
seal-box, with wax for the seal actually remaining in it.
It appears that it will probably not be possible to continue this
excavation, even on a limited scale, next summer. Mr. Bushe-Fox's report
for 1913 is noticed below, p. 52.
(xvi) _Lincoln._ At Lincoln an inscribed fragment found in 1906 has now
come to light. It bears only three letters, IND, being the last letters
of the inscription; these plainly preserve a part of the name of the
town, Lindum. See below, p. 34.
(xvii) _Gloucester._ Here, in March 1914, a mosaic floor, 16 feet
square, with a complex geometrical pattern in red, white, and blue, has
been found 9 feet below the present surface, at 22 Northgate Street.
Some painted wall-plaster from the walls of the room to which it
belonged were found with it.
(xviii) Discoveries in _London_ have been limited to two groups of
rubbish-pits in the City, (_a_) At the General Post Office the pits
opened in 1913 (see my Report, p. 22) were further carefully explored
in 1914 by Mr. F. Lambert, Mr. Thos. Wilson, and Dr. Norman; the Post
Office gave full facilities. Over 100 'potholes' were detected, of which
about forty yielded more or less datable rubbish, mainly potsherds.
Four contained objects of about A.D. 50-80, though not in great
quantity--four bits of decorated Samian and eight Samian stamps--and
fourteen contained objects of about A.D. 70-100; the rest seemed to
belong to the second century, with some few later items intermixed.
One would infer that a little rubbish was deposited here before the
Flavian period, but that after about A.D. 70 or 80 the site was freely
used as a rubbish-ground for three generations or more. Two objects may
be noted, a gold ring bearing the owner's initials Q. D. D. and a bit
of inscribed wood from the lining of a well or pit (p. 35). (_b_) At the
top of King William Street, between Sherborne Lane and Abchurch Lane,
not so far from the Mansion House, five large pits were opened in the
summer of 1914, in the course of ordinary contractors' building work.
They could not be so minutely examined as the Post Office pits, but
it was possible to observe that their datable potsherds fell roughly
within the period A.D. 50-100, and that a good many potsherds were
earlier than the Flavian age; there must have been considerable deposit
of rubbish here before A.D. 70 or thereabouts, and it must have ceased
about the end of the century. A full account of both groups of pits was
given to the Society of Antiquaries by Mr. F. Lambert on February 11,
1915; illustrated notices of the Post Office finds were contributed by
Mr. Thos. Wilson to the Post Office Magazine, _St. Martin-le-Grand_
(January and July, 1914); Mr. D. Atkinson helped with the dating of the
pottery.
Much gratitude is due to those who have so skilfully collaborated to
achieve these results. So far as it is permissible to argue from two
sites only, they seem to throw real light on the growth of the earliest
Roman London. The Post Office pits lie in the extreme north-west of the
later Londinium, just inside the walls; the King William Street pits
are in its eastern half, not far from the east bank of the now vanished
stream of Wallbrook, which roughly bisected the whole later extent of
the town. It may be assumed that, at the time when the two groups of
pits were in use, the inhabited area had not yet spread over their
sites, though it had come more or less close. That would imply that the
earliest city lay mainly, though perhaps not wholly, on the east bank
of Wallbrook; then, as the houses spread and the town west of Wallbrook
developed, the King William Street pits were closed, while the Post
Office pits came more into use, during and after the Flavian age.
This conclusion is tentative. It must be remembered that the
stratification of rubbish-pits, ancient as well as modern, is often very
peculiar. It is liable to be confused by all sorts of cross-currents.
In particular, objects are constantly thrown into rubbish-pits many
years, perhaps even centuries, after those objects have passed out of
use. Whenever, even in a village, an old cottage is pulled down or a new
one built, old rubbish gets shifted to new places and mixed with rubbish
of a quite different age. At Caerwent, as Dr. T. Ashby once told me, a
deep rubbish-pit yielded a coin of about A.D. 85 at a third of the way
down, and at the very bottom a coin of about 315. That is, the pit was
in use about or after 315; some one then shovelled into it debris of
much earlier date. The London pits now in question are, however, fairly
uniform in their contents, and their evidence may be utilized at least
as a base for further inquiries.
(xix-xxii) _Rural dwellings._ Three Roman 'villas'--that is,
country-houses or farms--have been explored in 1914. All are small.
[Illustration: FIG. 12. BATH-HOUSE, EAST GRIMSTEAD]
(xix) At _East Grimstead_, five miles south-east from Salisbury, on
Maypole Farm near Churchway Copse[5], a bath-house has been dug out and
planned by Mr. Heywood Sumner, to whom I owe the following details. The
building (fig. 12) measures only 14 × 28 feet and contains only four
rooms, (1) a tile-paved apartment which probably served as entrance and
dressing-room, (2) a room over a pillared hypocaust, which may be called
the tepidarium, (3) a similar smaller room, nearer the furnace and
therefore perhaps hotter, which may be the caldarium--though really it
is hardly worth while to distinguish between these two rooms--and (4) a
semicircular bath, lined with pink mortar and fine cement, warmed with
flues from rooms 3 and with box-tiles, and provided with an outfall
drain; east of rooms 3 and 4 was the furnace. Small finds included
window glass, potsherds, two to three hundred oyster-shells, and five
Third Brass coins (two Constantinian, three illegible). Large stone
foundations have been detected close by; presumably this was the
detached bath-house for a substantial residence which awaits excavation.
Such detached bath-houses are common; I may instance one found in 1845
at Wheatley (Oxon.), which had very similar internal arrangements and
stood near a substantial dwelling-house not yet explored (_Archaeol.
Journal_, ii. 350). A full description of the Grimstead bath, by Mr.
Sumner, is in the press.
[Footnote 5: The words Church, Chapel, and Chantry often form parts of
the names of Roman sites, where the ruined masonry has been popularly
mistaken for that of deserted ecclesiastical buildings.]
(xx) Three miles south-west of Guildford, at Limnerslease in the
parish of _Compton_, Mr. Mill Stephenson has helped to uncover a house
measuring 53 × 76 feet, with front and back corridors, and seven rooms,
including baths. Coins suggested that it was inhabited in the early
fourth century--a period when our evidence shows that many
Romano-British farms and country-houses were occupied.[6]
[Footnote 6: I may refer to my _Romanization of Britain_ (third edition,
p. 77). This does not, of course, mean that they were not also occupied
earlier.]
[Illustration: FIG. 13. HOUSE AT NORTH ASH, KENT]
(xxi) A third house is supplied by Kent. This was found in June about
six miles south of Gravesend, near the track from _North Ash_ to
Ash Church, on the farm of Mr. Geo. Day. Woodland was being cleared for
an orchard, flint foundations were encountered, and the site was then
explored by Mr. Jas. Kirk, Mr. S. Priest, and others of the Dartford
Antiquarian Society, to whom I am indebted for information: the Society
will in due course issue a full Report. The spade (fig. 13) revealed a
rectangular walled enclosure of 53 × 104 feet. The entrance was at
the east end; the dwelling-rooms (including a sunk bath, 7 feet square,
lined with plaster) were, so far as traced, in the west and south-west
portion; much of the walled space may have been farmyard or wooden
sheds. Many bits of Samian and other pottery were found (among them
a mortarium stamped MARTINVSF), and many oyster-shells. Other
Romano-British foundations have been suspected close by.
The structure somewhat resembles the type of farm-house which might
fairly be called, from its best-known example--the only one now
uncovered to view--the Carisbrooke type.[7] That, however, usually has
rooms at both ends, as in the Clanville example which I figure here as
more perfect than the Carisbrooke one (fig. 14). One might compare the
buildings at Castlefield, Finkley, and Holbury, which I have discussed
in the _Victoria History of Hants_ (i. 302-3, 312), and which were
perhaps rudimentary forms of the Carisbrooke type.
[Footnote 7: It has been styled the 'basilical' type, but few names
could be less suitable.]
[Illustration: FIG. 14. FARM-HOUSE AT CLANVILLE, KENT (To illustrate
Fig. 13)]