Roman London

This paper discusses two fragmentary stone pillars, one decorated, which were recently discovered at Trefollwyn, near Llangefni, Anglesey. These are the first examples of their kind from Britain but they belong to a tradition of La Tène carved stone pillars from the Rhineland, Brittany, and Ireland. They may be connected with burial. In antiquarian sources an early Christian inscribed stone (fifth-sixth centuries A.D.), now lost, was reported from Capel Heilin in the same immediate vicinity and suggests that the area was used for burial in the early medieval period.     

Antiquarianism,archaeology, and aporetic immanence in Beckett’s prose

Beckett derides those antiquarians unaware of “the rupture of the lines of communication” between subject and object in his 1934 essay “Recent Irish Poetry”. However, Beckett will come to incorporate into the late prose specific terminology used by archaeologist, including those involved in the Ordnance Survey of Ireland, who were contemporaries of the same antiquarians he scorns so contemptuously in his early career. This paper traces and examines the Irish antiquarian elements in relation to megalithic archaeology in Beckett’s prose. The elements of antiquarian archaeology in Beckett function to present the existence of those populating the work as mediated by the aporia between ancient and modern epochs. Allusions to antiquarian and archeological terminology contribute to the issues of representation in Beckett’s work. Instances where historical material resides in Beckett’s prose will be analysed through the logic of reverberation. Based on the physics of sound, it will be argues that the fragments of historical material act like artefacts which do not represent historical discourse but reverberate within an aporia of chronological time.     

Music,antiquity and self-fashioning in the Accademia dei Lincei

The members of the Accademia dei Lincei are known chiefly for their achievements in early modern science, most notably supporting and funding Galileo’s projects. Their investigations of the natural world using both microscope and telescope were ground breaking, but potentially heretical. This article investigates aspects of their interest in the music of antiquity and its place in early modern Rome and Naples, presenting Fabio Colonna’s book La Sambuca lincea as a case study. The timing of the Lincean musical activities is juxtaposed with other significant events such as the injunctions against Galileo, throwing into relief some curious coincidences. The antique on the one hand evoked classical authority and was afforded due reverence, but could on the other, also provide the means of fashioning an outward identity different from internal intent. It will be suggested that elements of this antiquarian heritage are reflected in the patronage and cultural politics of the Accademia dei Lincei, whose participation in musica erudita, as evidenced in the work of Colonna, may have been part of a tacit display of corporate self-fashioning.     

Two Exhumations and an Attempted Theft: The Posthumous Biography of St Cuthbert in the Nineteenth Century and its Historicist Narratives

The tomb, body and relics of the Anglo-Saxon St Cuthbert (d. AD 687) are best known for their miraculous preservation and migration across North East England in flight from Viking raiders throughout the period AD 795–995, before coming to rest at Durham Cathedral (Cramp 1980; Campbell 1991, 79). Their current display emphasizes their role as ‘Treasures’ of the Cathedral and as symbols of England's conversion and early Christianity. What are not mentioned are the modern interactions with the tomb that led to the creation of their modern display as a key attraction of the World Heritage Site. As this article will argue, post-medieval examinations and uses of the tomb have also been important in attempts to control and produce very particular meanings at the site of display. I offer an examination of nineteenth-century engagements with the tomb and body of St Cuthbert, showing how the saint's remains were a locus of conflicting claims of authenticity and ownership. Through antiquarian practices of exhumation and detailed publications of their findings, curator-custodians were engaged in a distinctively local struggle to produce an authoritative narrative for the saint.     

Edward Kelley’s Danish treasure hoax and Elizabethan antiquarianism

ABSTRACT

In 1583, Edward Kelley claimed to have made a number of archaeological discoveries on Northwick Hill in Worcestershire, including a forged document, the “Northwick scroll”, purportedly giving the location of treasure hidden by the Danes. The scroll was subsequently deciphered by Kelley’s employer, John Dee. Kelley’s hoax, which had to fool one of the country’s most learned men, was carefully constructed and drew on recent antiquarian work. However, Kelley also relied on older traditions of magical treasure hunting, thereby combining two apparently antithetical approaches to the past. The article uses the example of Kelley’s hoax to argue that hoaxes served a useful and illuminating function in the early development of archaeology by testing the boundaries of plausibility. Furthermore, Kelley’s synthesis of learned antiquarianism and treasure hunting challenges the view that Elizabethan antiquaries were unwilling to excavate. Kelley’s methodologies in constructing the hoax echoed those of William Camden and others by linking excavated objects with chronicles and landscape features to create an integrated account of an imagined past. However, the hoax’s success also rested on Dee’s willingness to become a treasure hunter, demonstrating that elite learned antiquarian endeavours were not always distant from the aims of traditional “hill diggers”.     

Survey and Excavation at the Henges of the Wharfe Valley,North Yorkshire, 2013 – 15

Large scale geophysical survey has identified two classic henges in the Wharfe Valley and excavation at the henge at Yarnbury has proved its Bronze Age date, reuniting it with antiquarian finds hitherto lacking secure provenance. These henges are placed in their archaeological context suggesting that Wharfedale may have been an important route in cross-Pennine contacts during the third and second millennia BC and that the Neolithic archaeology of this upland region may be more mainstream than peripheral.     

On the Progress and Prospects of Science in Scotland at the Close of the Sixteenth and Commencement of the Seventeenth Centuries,as Compared with the same at Cambridge a Century Later: With Illustrations of Several Remarkable Coincidences Between The Genius,The Studies,and The Discoveries of Napier of Merchiston,and Sir Isaac Newton

In a recent paper in this journal, the crossing tower built at Rochester Cathedral in the early nineteenth century by L. N. Cottingham was identified as constituting an essay in the Perpendicular style and, furthermore, one based on elements from the medieval tower which it replaced. This paper identifies the style of the tower as Decorated and suggests that Cottingham's design was a specific response to context, one more strongly motivated by structural considerations than aesthetic theory or antiquarian or historicist attitudes.     

The Economy of the Irish Rath

THE DISCOVERY of a Viking-Age burial in the Kilmainham-Islandbridge cemetery, Dublin, comprising skeleton, spear, sword-fragments and beads, is described from antiquarian MSS sources. The surviving pieces are detailed and the deposit tentatively dated to the late 9th or early 10th century. The grave-goods indicate one, possibly two, burials, one female. A brief survey of similar pagan burials in the British Isles and a close examination of this one would suggest a mixed Irish-Scandinavian cultural milieu for it.     

Book-hunters and Book-huntresses: Gender and Cultures of Antiquarian Book Collecting in Britain,c. 1880–1900

The late-nineteenth century saw private book collecting gain a renewed respectability and cultural cachet as a leisure pursuit for the upper- and middle classes. This paper examines representations of collectors in the literature belonging to a new genre of writing which emerged for the ‘book-hunter’: a late-Victorian variant of the book-collecting passion which could encompass aesthetes and antiquarians as well as aspiring amateurs of more moderate means. It will show how, during the 1880s and 1890s, this particular type of collecting practice was used rhetorically in a range of printed material to venerate ‘gentlemanly’ book-buying, in contrast to feminine forms of engagement with old books in particular. In spite of women's comparative lack of advantage in the market for antiquarian editions, however, I argue that such a critique would not have been articulated so forcefully had women not been taking a determined interest in rare books. Evidence from central London booksellers during this period suggests that a variety of women were making antiquarian collections of their own. Male bibliophiles who denigrated female book-buyers in the periodical press were attempting to partially invent a homosocial tradition of collecting in order to distance their own pursuit from what they saw as the more emasculating elements of modern consumerism. This was a response not just to developments in contemporary print culture, but also to the growing appreciation of second-hand goods of all kinds among affluent female consumers with aesthetic and literary tastes shaped independently of male judgments.     

ANTIQUARIANISM AS GENEALOGY: ARNALDO MOMIGLIANO'S METHOD

This essay uses Arnaldo Momigliano's genealogy of antiquarianism and historiography to propose a new method for engaging the past. Momigliano traced antiquarianism from its advent in ancient Greece and later growth in Rome to its early modern efflorescence, its usurpation by history, and its transformation into anthropology and sociology in late modernity. Antiquarianism performed for Momigliano the work of excavating past archives while infusing historiographical inquiry with a much‐needed dose of contingency. This essay aims to advance our understanding of the mutual imbrications of antiquarian methods with modern conceptions of history, while also suggesting how antiquarianism can generate alternatives to historical inquiry.     

汤都偃师新考——兼说“景亳”、“郼薄”(郑亳)及“西亳”之别

偃师商城是商汤立国后所建首都 ,亦即古文献所说西亳偃师 ,上世纪 80年代偃师商城遗址的发掘为之提供了佐证 ,《吕氏春秋·慎大》篇也为汤建西亳提供了远早于《汉书·地理志》的证据。从殷墟卜辞及古文献记载的资料看 ,郑州商城遗址的郑亳只是商汤建国之前的“韦阝薄”,是商代陪都兼军事重镇 ,至仲丁时代始迁居此地为都     

Imperial Geography and the Medieval Peutinger Map

The Peutinger map is an extraordinary world map drawn c.1200 and long considered a copy of a Roman road map made for late antique travellers. This paper presents arguments against these assumptions and concludes that the lost original was more likely to be a Carolingian display map. Ninth‐century scribes had the expertise and resources necessary for creating an antiquarian work based on Roman itinerary lists, while Carolingian rulers had ample motivation for commissioning a map to display their Roman imperial ambitions.     

Antiquarianism and national history. The emergence of a new scholarly paradigm in early modern historical studies*

Early modern Europe was marked by fundamental changes in its intellectual landscape. In the field of historiography, this led to the development of a new antiquarian current in historiography which marked a fundamental shift in the view on historical writings. While traditionally historiography had been considered a literary genre, the new scholars approached it as a ‘scientific’ discipline. On the basis of a comparative study of a number of northern European national histories, this paper analyses major transformations in two aspects of historical writing. Firstly, antiquarian historians extended the subject range of historiography to include a variety of cultural-historical topics. This innovation also had implications for the structure of their works. Secondly, the new current introduced a novel approach to the question of historical evidence to counter sceptic criticism and meet the new requirements occasioned by the rise of empirical models of research. Antiquarian scholars therefore introduced several new types of source materials: material evidence of the past, comparative studies of languages and customs, and documentary texts were added as sources of historical information. They furthermore subjected all historical sources to rigorous critical assessment.     

Three Boasian Women: Margaret Mead,Ruth Benedict,and Ruth Landes

Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, and Ruth Landes each made significant contributions to American anthropology that have been obscured by enemies and by time. Recent reappraisals of their work suggest that these women and their ideas are of much more than antiquarian interest. They either prefigured or provided sophisticated visions on a variety of issues including processes of embodiment, cultural selection, and improvisation in the face of power. A reexamination of these women's work and times may yet provide anthropology with a cautionary yet useful past as well as revivify the greater Boasian project.     

Carlisle: Function and Change between the First and Seventh Centuries AD

Archaeological excavations combined with antiquarian observations shed considerable light on the evolution of Roman Carlisle. From being a fort in the northern advance under Cerialis and Agricola, Carlisle developed as a nodal hub supported by a number of activity ‘zones’. By the early third century most had become absorbed into the newly created civitas capital. The Roman town declined and stone buildings became ruinous, a process that probably commenced before the fourth century and continued until the land was taken over by the kings of Northumbria and the church in the seventh century. Scanty archaeological records for the sub- and post-Roman periods are supplemented by implications for socio-political structures drawn from texts.     

BARBARIAN PIRACY AND THE SAXON SHORE: A REAPPRAISAL

Summary.   The tradition of Saxon and other Continental piracy is one of the longest standing tenets of Romano-British studies. It may also be one of its greatest myths, which owes more to its considerable antiquarian pedigree than to any firm basis in fact. This paper reassesses Roman military strategy around the British coast, and suggests that the 'Saxon Shore Forts' and other coastal installations played a more significant economic and logistical role than is often appreciated. Moreover, the idea that each monument fulfilled a single, dedicated function is argued to be too simplistic: instead it is proposed that individual forts served in various capacities during their operational lifetime, and quite possibly not those for which they were originally conceived.     

Historiography as a form of political thought

This article seeks to combine two lines of thought that have been little studied: a model history of early modern historiography, and a theory of the impact of historiography on a political society. Under the former heading, it traces the growth of a narrative of European history as a series of sequels to the Roman empire, and a history of historiography as passing from classical narrative to antiquarian study and Enlightened philosophy. Under the latter, it considers the effect on political life of being narrated in a plurality of contexts, and asks whether a modern society can survive if deprived of the capacity for debating its history.     

Antiquity at the musical margins: rebetika, ‘ancient’ and modern

Abstract

With their insalubrious social connotations, low-brow content and Ottoman musical features, rebetika songs appear unlikely candidates for connection with the revered culture of ancient Greece. Yet this seemingly sacrilegious nexus has repeatedly been contrived by exponents of the genre and by commentators, unlettered and educated alike. It has also exercised the ingenuity of literati, translators, stage directors and graphic artists. The examples surveyed in this article, whether earnest or whimsical, plausible or manifestly deluded, reflect both evolving perceptions of the genre and broader issues of Greek cultural politics. They further exemplify informal mechanisms for disseminating antiquarian knowledge – and misinformation.