This volume presents the results of published and unpublished excavations in Roman Great Chesterford and an account of the origins and development of the town. The principal archive sources were the antiquarian excavations of the mid-19th century, mainly by the Hon R. C. Neville; rescue excavations by Major J. G. S. Brinson in the late 1940s; and the Great Chesterford Archaeological Society excavations of the 1970s-90s. Great Chesterford is sited on the north-western boundary of Essex in the valley of the River Cam. It is a strategically important site that commands the entrance to the Fens through the gap in the low chalk hills, as well as a number of significant routeways and the tribal boundary between the Trinovantes and the Catuvellauni.
This comparison of the archaeological evidence from the fourth to seventh centuries AD in the Chilterns and Essex regions focuses on the considerable body of place–name data from the area. The counties of Hertfordshire, Middlesex, Essex, and parts of Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, and Cambridgeshire are included.
The Small Towns of Roman Britain surveys a wide range of Roman town sites, answering many questions about their character and the archaeological problems they raise. The past thirty years have seen a dramatic increase in the quality of the evidence on these sites gained from fieldwork, excavation, and aerial archaeology. Because there is almost no documentary or epigraphic material of any real value on the small towns, this archaeological evidence provides a heretofore unavailable perspective. Authors Barry Burnham and John Walker have organized the information in a manner that is both useful to scholars and stimulating to history buffs or walkers interested in touring these sites. Each site is illustrated with a site plan, and many aerial photographs are provided as well. Introductory chapters provide an overview of the origins, development, and morphology of the towns; the special religious, governmental, or industrial significance of many sites; and the economic functions common to all. A comprehensive bibliography completes the volume. This is the eagerly awaited companion volume to John Wacher's watershed study The Towns of Roman Britain, which was highly praised for "its clean prose, excellent illustrations and fascinating story, . . . a most important contribution to scholarship, while remaining eminently attractive to the general reader." (Barry Cunliffe, Times Literary Supplement). The Small Towns of Roman Britain surveys a wide range of Roman town sites, answering many questions about their character and the archaeological problems they raise. The past thirty years have seen a dramatic increase in the quality of the evidence on these sites gained from fieldwork, excavation, and aerial archaeology. Because there is almost no documentary or epigraphic material of any real value on the small towns, this archaeological evidence provides a heretofore unavailable perspective. Authors Barry Burnham and John Walker have organized the information in a manner that is both useful to scholars and stimulating to history buffs or walkers interested in touring these sites. Each site is illustrated with a site plan, and many aerial photographs are provided as well. Introductory chapters provide an overview of the origins, development, and morphology of the towns; the special religious, governmental, or industrial significance of many sites; and the economic functions common to all. A comprehensive bibliography completes the volume. This is the eagerly awaited companion volume to John Wacher's watershed study The Towns of Roman Britain, which was highly praised for "its clean prose, excellent illustrations and fascinating story, . . . a most important contribution to scholarship, while remaining eminently attractive to the general reader." (Barry Cunliffe, Times Literary Supplement).
Excavations at Mucking, Essex, between 1965 and 1978, revealed extensive evidence for a multiphase rural Romano-British settlement, perhaps an estate center, and five associated cemetery areas (170 burials) with different burial areas reserved for different groups within the settlement. The settlement demonstrated clear continuity from the preceding Iron Age occupation with unbroken sequences of artefacts and enclosures through the first century AD, followed by rapid and extensive remodeling, which included the laying out a Central Enclosure and an organized water supply with wells, accompanied by the start of large-scale pottery production. After the mid-second century AD the Central Enclosure was largely abandoned and settlement shifted its focus more to the Southern Enclosure system with a gradual decline though the 3rd and 4th centuries although continued burial, pottery and artefactual deposition indicate that a form of settlement continued, possibly with some low-level pottery production. Some of the latest Roman pottery was strongly associated with the earliest Anglo-Saxon style pottery suggesting the existence of a terminal Roman settlement phase that essentially involved an ‘Anglo-Saxon’ community. Given recent revisions of the chronology for the early Anglo-Saxon period, this casts an intriguing light on the transition, with radical implications for understandings of this period. Each of the cemetery areas was in use for a considerable length of time. Taken as a whole, Mucking was very much a componented place/complex; it was its respective parts that fostered its many cemeteries, whose diverse rites reflect the variability and roles of the settlement’s evidently varied inhabitants.
This book considers the cemetery uncovered outside the north gate of Venta Belgarum, Roman Winchester, 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.
An archaeological dig in the English countryside might be considered the safest of pastimes, but not for Simon Tappins. His life is turned upside down when a dramatic discovery sends him back two thousand years into a world time forgot. He is plunged into a dangerous period of British history, a pivotal point when the Roman Empire is collapsing and Saxon hordes are invading, sweeping aside the last legions. Simon is caught between the approaching Saxons and the ferocious but futile last stand of a Roman governor who, with the support of Germanic mercenaries, is intent on escaping with the wealth he has accumulated. Through all this runs Simons quest to solve a mystery. Only the lost crystal of Thar Cernunnos has the power to take him back to his own time, but while clues crop up regularly, they are always enigmatic, often cryptic, and seemingly impossible to solve. However, it is his emotional involvement with native girl Senicca that presents the greatest challenge. If he makes the wrong decision now, in two thousand years time, the consequences will be fatal. In accurate and fascinating detail many aspects of everyday life in these times are disclosed. The story explores what it was really like to live in a Roman town. The principal character experiences the sounds of the market place, the smells from the wine bars and food shops, and the choking smoke from the industrial quarter. But it is the people and their cultural and political organization which reveals the unique economic ambience of the town during this dangerous period. The story also weaves a strange tale of unearthly powers of priests, the terrifying predictions of Celtic Gods and the struggles, perils and small triumphs of surviving in a time filled with savage conflict.
"An examination of the transformations in lowland Britain's material culture over the course of the long fifth century CE during the late Roman regime and its end"--
