Fishing in the Northern Isles: a Case Study Based on Fish Bone Assemblages from Two Multi-period Sites on Sanday,Orkney

Abstract

We describe six cervid bones — a distal humerus, three distal tibiae, and two astragali — from two Roman sites, São Pedro Fronteira and Torre de Palma, in the Alentejo of Portugal. They are identified on morphological and osteometric grounds as fallow deer, Dama dama. They represent the earliest Holocene evidence for this species in Portugal, and it is suggested that, like the camel, the Romans were responsible for its spread within their Empire. While remains of this animal have not so far been reported in any Moslem period assemblages, there is documentary evidence for the existence of fallow deer in Portugal in the 12th and 13th centuries AD, although the possibility that fallow deer disappeared with the end of Roman rule should be considered.     

Peterborough Abbey and the Peterborough Psalter in Brussels

Abstract

New investigations at Wenlock Priory serve to allow a reinterpretation of the earlier excavations of Cranage (1901) and of Jackson and Fletcher (1962–3). A number of walls exposed in earlier excavations, and thought to be Saxon, seem to have comprised part of a Roman complex, whose abandonment is represented by a layer of collapsed plaster in the latest work.

The abandoned Roman buildings were re-occupied in the seventh century when a double monastery was founded here. The topography of the site, the location of the two churches and the extent of the monastic precinct are examined.

The plan of the Romanesque church, published by Jackson and Fletcher, and by them dated to before the Conquest, is revised and sculptural evidence, radiocarbon determinations from burials and documentary sources are used to suggest rather that Roger de Montgomery was the builder after the Conquest.     

The Chester Congress of 1849

Abstract

Two Roman polychrome mosaics, depicting Europa and Orpheus, are preserved in their original settings in a town house of Roman Sparta. Discovered last century, they have been inventoried, but not studied in detail. Probably both were produced by the same local workshop in the third to fourth century, sharing characteristics peculiar to Greek mosaic. They appear to mirror each other. The depiction of Europa near Orpheus occurs rarely in the classical repertory. This collaborative research defines the pictorial originality of each mosaic. Europa, an archaic image, reflects the iconography of the Nereids. Orpheus may have copied a lost painting. The choice of motif and possible symbolic readings are examined. Perhaps the tenets of Orphic thought pervaded the images. Such a combination might bear witness to tastes and attitudes in Greece during the late Roman period.     

Saxon Emmer Wheat from the Upper and Middle Thames Valley,England

Abstract

Discoveries of Triticum dicoccum (emmer wheat) on two middle Saxon settlements in the Thames Valley point to the re-introduction of this crop to Britain after the end of the Roman period. Radiocarbon determinations on charred glumes confirm the dating of the remains.     

Crossing the rubicon: fact or fiction in Roman re-enactment

Abstract

This paper discusses the role and use of Roman re-enactment as a means of engaging with, visualizing and interpreting Roman material culture, and how this is translated into presentation material for public display. The paper raises several issues on the use of re-enactors to interpret a specific period from the past, and reflects on why people actively participate in re-enactment, with an emphasis on accuracy and authenticity.     

Archaeological wells in southern France: Late Neolithic to Roman plant remains from Mas de Vignoles IX (Gard) and their implications for the study of settlement,economy and environment

Abstract

A study of plant remains from seven archaeological wells at Mas de Vignoles IX, near Nîmes, southern France, was used to shed light on a current gap in the archaeological record caused by erosion and modern agriculture. The analysis also explored the reliability of these sources for palaeoenvironmental and palaeoeconomical information. Significant results on the spatial organization of human habitation, economic activities, and on the environment and its exploitation were obtained for the Middle Neolithic to Roman periods. Furthermore, the Neolithic wells also provided the first early finds of fig seeds in France. The abundance of weed and ruderal plants up to the Iron Age is consistent with data from other studies and their dramatic decrease during the Roman period may have resulted from radical changes in land management. The study marks the first time, in southern France, that a group of wells from a single site have provided a complete record throughout the later prehistoric and Roman periods.     

Inaugural Address at Durham

Abstract

The documented gift of Kilpeck church to St Peter's Abbey (now the Cathedral), Gloucester, is taken as the starting-point for the examination of sculptural and architectural links between Gloucester and Gloucestershire churches, on the one hand, and Kilpeck and Herefordshire churches, on the other. Technical aspects of the so-called Dymock School of Sculpture emphasise its importance in the formation of the Herefordshire School. Aspects of Roman and Anglo-Saxon heritage are also considered.     

Conversion front Greek Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism in the Fourteenth Century

Abstract

Several prominent Byzantines, including the Emperor John V Palaiologos, converted to Roman Catholicism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This may seem an odd sort of conversion. After all, if the fundamental tenets of the Christian faith are contained in the Nicene Creed, then Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic believers differ on only one tenet: whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father or from the Father and the Son – the Filioque issue. For a Christian to admit the double procession of the Holy Spirit is hardly on the same level as admitting that Mohammed is the prophet of the one God. Indeed, many members of each church have been willing to call the procession of the Holy Spirit unknowable and leave it at that.     

Big fish and great auks: Exploitation of birds and fish on the Isle of Portland,Dorset, during the Romano-British period

Abstract

The paper considers the assemblage of bird and fish bones from a Romano-British settlement on the Isle of Portland, on the southern coast of England. Compared with contemporary sites, the assemblage includes an unusually large number of fish bones from a wide range of marine species, including large cod, other Gadidae, several species of seabream, scad and bass. The bird assemblage includes bones of a butchered great auk. This provides the first evidence that this extinct species was nesting off the shores of central southern England and being exploited for food in this period. Other seabirds identified included razorbill, great northern diver and gannet. The species represented are discussed in relation to other Romano-British sites, particularly the Roman town of Dorchester, situated 15 km away. Many of the species have been discovered on only a few contemporary sites and the presence of the seabream in particular indicates that seawater temperatures may have been warmer than until very recently. Possible cultural changes in diet and food procurement in the Roman period are also considered.     

Dimensional variations of Roman masonry subjected to wetting-drying cycles

Abstract

Many Roman monuments made of opus caementicium are subjected to wetting and drying phenomena caused by water or/and humidity from the ground. The action of water impregnation on the hypothetical dimensional changes in this Roman concrete has not been considered in the literature and no experimental data are available.

The purpose of this work was the evaluation of the effect of wetting and drying cycles in a number of cores taken from an ancient Roman monument (Domus Tiberiana in the Palatine, Rome). The concrete samples were made of a pozzolanic mortar with large pieces of tuff, marble and bricks.

In spite of some differences in their composition, the behaviour of the cores was similar and, generally, quite constant during the experimental cycles. On the average, the length variation was about 3–4%,or 3–4mm for each metre and, when related to high structural walls and monuments, the possible dimensional changes were quite impressive.     

Religion,toleration, and religious liberty in republican empire

ABSTRACT

The essay considers the nature and extent of toleration extended by Roman authorities to the religious pluralism of the empire. Roman legal instruments and works of law and political theory identify religion not as a concern of individuals but communities, and above all of juridically-constituted communities. As a related matter, classical and Christian Latin employs the language of political belonging, most notably that of republican citizenship, as its dominant apparatus for discussing religious affiliation. These related conceptual apparatus placed considerable limits on Romans’ ability to afford liberty in matters of religion to individuals.     

Comparison of Original and Modern Mortars at the Herculaneum Archaeological Site

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to evaluate mineralogical, elemental, and thermal differences among original Roman joint mortars and those used in twentieth-century restoration campaigns taken from different areas at the Herculaneum archaeological site. The purpose is to improve the compatibility of restoration mortars. Roman and modern mortars were studied with petrography, thermal analysis and x-ray fluorescence investigations. The results indicate significant differences between the Roman and modern mortars which could facilitate the degradation process. Roman mortars, in particular, were composed of a coarser aggregate which was present in a lower ratio with binder in comparison with modern mortars.     

Church and Empire: Free-Church Ecclesiology in a Global Era

Abstract

Jesus was cruelly executed as the alleged "king of the Jews" because of his efforts for grassroots religious renewal and resistance to Roman rule in Palestine through local religious-political elites. By the fourth century CE, however, Christianity had become the official religion of the Roman imperium. An ambiguous account of both resisting and supporting imperialism has shaped all church history. Today the United States of America is widely recognized as the central power in a new global empire.     

Synônê: re-considering a problematic term of middle Byzantine fiscal administration

Abstract

The history of Byzantine fiscal administration, as is well-known, is still an area in which many problems remain to be resolved. In 1880 the Russian Byzantinist V. G. Vassilievsky, one of the first historians to address them seriously, described Byzantine fiscal structures as labyrinthine; other scholars have not disagreed. But as a result of the work of successive generations, we are in a much better position today to understand the fundamental lines of development of late Roman and Byzantine fiscal arrangements, and in particular to follow the evolution of middle and later Byzantine fiscal administrative structures out of the situation that prevailed in the later Roman period, especially from the fifth and sixth centuries. Many problems remain, of course, and in the present contribution I would like to re-examine the term synônê, which has a technical significance in late Roman and Byzantine texts. The exact meaning of the word remains disputed and this has led to conflicting opinions among those who have attempted to interpret its application in the sources. The resolution of some of these questions has important consequences for our understanding of how the state's fiscal structures operated over the period in question.     

The idea of freedom in the writings of non-Chalcedonian Christians in the fifth and sixth centuries

ABSTRACT

This article examines how Christians who had been deprived of the direct sponsorship of the state articulated their claims for political and religious freedom. I examine four cases from the fifth and sixth century in the Eastern Roman Empire and Sasanian Iran. Here I argue that Scriptural models provided an important reservoir of political ideas that could be used by clerics to undermine state authority, whether to underscore the conditional nature of Roman claims to authority or to deny an equality of religious freedom to non-Christian co-citizens.     

Fragments of Boats from the Canale Anfora of Aquileia,Italy, and Comparison of Sewn‐Plank Ships in the Roman Era

Fragments of Roman sewn‐plank boats have been found, during rescue excavations, in the Canale Anfora, an artificial channel used by Roman ships to enter the Roman city of Aquileia. Remains were found in both 1988 and 2005 at the same site. Elements of what were probably two boats are analysed and compared to other finds of Roman sewn boats found along the coast of the Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia regions. They are evidence of the use of this technique, instead of the more widespread mortise‐and‐tenon system, in the quite limited area of the Northern Adriatic. These boats were used both for inland and for maritime navigation.     

Roman and Byzantine Settlements in the Region of West Irbid

Abstract

It was always clear that for practical reasons any new region-based study of the Roman and Byzantine periods in north-western Jordan would have to rely on existing evidence from archaeological surveys and excavations. The concentration of previous archaeological survey work in parts of the region of West Irbid in Jordan, and especially the surveys made by N. Glueck in the 1940s and S. Mittmann in the 1960s, made this area especially attractive for archaeologists. In this paper, the aim was to analyze the results of the West Irbid survey, particularly of the Roman and Byzantine periods, made during September 2005. The information gathered was of great help, enabling the classifi cation of sites into groups according to the nature of occupation, and analyzing the discovered architectural remains to provide a broader context for interpretation of the nature of Roman and Byzantine settlements in the surveyed region.     

The Fabulous Tales of the Common People,Part 2: Encountering Hadrian's Wall

Abstract

In 2003, the Hadrian's Wall National Trail was opened, providing a 135 km (84 mile) public footpath along the length of the Roman frontier from Wallsend to Bowness-on-Solway. Each year, thousands of visitors walk the Trail from end-to-end and many more make day trips to visit specific locations within the wider World Heritage Site. In the second of two related papers (see Witcher, 2010), consideration turns from professional and popular visual representations of Hadrian's Wall to the ways in which visitors physically experience the monument and its landscape. The paper explores how embodied and sensory encounters produce and reproduce understandings which are charged with cultural and political meaning. Specifically, the elision of visitors and Roman soldiers through a process of embodied empathy/sympathy is outlined. It is argued that the way in which Western society assumes familiarity with an ancestral Roman Empire actively reduces the interrogative potential of encounters with the monument and limits visitors' ability to reflect on the significance of the Wall. The paper goes on to consider alternative modes of visual and physical engagement, drawing inspiration from virtual communities including geocachers who have used Information Technology such as Global Positioning Systems and Web 2.0 functionality to develop innovative modes of representation and encounter.     

The Caesarea Ancient Harbor Excavation Project (C.A.H.E.P.): Preliminary Report on the 1980–1983 Seasons

Abstract

Underwater and shoreline survey and excavation at the Herodian harbor of Sebastos, the port of Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean coast of Israel, have provided important new information on Roman harbor design and construction. Local and imported materials were carefully selected and used to construct two immense breakwaters that framed outer and inner basins. Hydraulic concrete was used in a sophisticated manner, and ingenious sluice gates and a subsidiary breakwater provided protection against siltation and storm damage.