Roman Britain in 1914

Part 1

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(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.

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

Part 2

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. 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.

(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.

Part 3

(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.

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