THE SURVIVAL of ROMAN SETTLEMENT ALONG the MIDDLE DANUBE: PANNONIA FROM the FOURTH to the TENTH CENTURY AD

Summary: As guardian of the long and important Middle Danubian limes, Roman Pannonia protected the central provinces of the Empire. Despite a mass of defensive structures, the limes was progressively overrun from the later 4th century and Pannonia was eventually ceded to the Huns in 430. Subsequently the region fell victim to Germans and eastern nomads and stability of a sort was only restored with the establishment of the Hungarian State in the late 10th century. This paper examines the question of settlement change between the 4th and 10th centuries, viewing the degree to which the various invaders maintained, ignored or replaced the network of Roman structures. It is argued that only with difficulty can physical continuity be securely traced and in these instances the character of settlement changes greatly over time.     

THE ROMAN CHURCH AT SILCHESTER RECONSIDERED

Summary. The historical development of the current interpretation of the Silchester church is reviewed, and shown to reflect the prior notion that it was a church, to the detriment of other possible interpretations of its use. The interpretation as a church presents several problems, mainly to do with the probable date of construction of the building, in the late third or early fourth century, and its abandonment, in about the second third of the fourth century. Romano-Celtic temple architecture seems to have had some influence on the design of the building, but on balance, the best possibility for its use was for an eastern cult.     

THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF A ROMAN VILLA: MARSHFIELD—IRONMONGERS PIECE

Summary. The development of the Romano-British villa at Marshfield is reinterpreted as several phases in the growth of a kin group, analogous to David Clarke's reinterpretation of the Glastonbury village. It begins with two native farmsteads separated by a wall but having in common a shrine. They are replaced by a bipartite house, the internal division between the households being above the demolished wall, but, symbolically, at an angle to it; a likely parallel for this exists in Picardy. The architectural relations of the rooms are used to interpret function. In a second phase alterations suggest the changing relations of the two households, with one becoming markedly superior to the other; the putative shrine, not discernible in the first Romanised phase, is located in the superior house.     

UNOFFICIAL COINAGE IN THE THIRD CENTURY ad IN THE GALLO‐ROMAN WORLD: CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL ANALYSES FOR DETERMINING THE LOCALIZATION OF THE WORKSHOP*

The third century ad was a complex period of crisis in the Roman world. In this paper, official and unofficial antoniniani, and double sestercii and sestercii, were analysed by fast neutron activation analysis (FNAA) to determine the alloys used by the craftsmen for producing forgeries. Moreover, at Châteaubleau, archaeologists discovered antoniniani and bronze forgeries from Postumus. Similar materials have been found in other hoards. They are believed to have been produced by a workshop called ‘atelier II’ by numismatists. The question was whether it is possible to differentiate the Châteaubleau production from the atelier II production.     

HOUSES, DEFENCES AND STATUS; THE TOWNS OF ROMAN BRITAIN IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE SECOND CENTURY A.D.

Summary. The appearance of spacious and well-equipped houses in the towns of Roman Britain from the mid second century, following an initial period of resistance to urban dwelling on the part of the wealthy, requires explanation. Various possible motivating factors—the increasing prosperity of villa owners, the desire for security, official pressure coupled with renewed imperial interest in urban development, the availability of cheap building land, the example of the coloniae and the promotion of towns to higher rank—are considered. In many cases a combination of these factors will have applied, but the growing prestige of the towns themselves seems to have been a powerful attraction.     

DECORATIVE STONES FOR ARCHITECTURE IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Summary. A general summary of the present knowledge of the Roman marble trade is given, with particular reference to uses in architecture. The Greek background is given briefly and evidence from the literary sources is discussed. The main features of the organisation set up in the mid 1st century AD for the transport of decorative stones are examined and an appendix details the main sources of supply. General observations are made about the distributions of certain types of marble and granite.     

HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

G eschichtswissenschaft im Z eitaltr der E xtreme : T heorien ; M ethoden ; T endenzen von 1900 bis zur G egenwart. By Lutz Raphel.     

MAKING COLOURLESS GLASS IN THE ROMAN PERIOD*

This paper discusses the compositional analysis of Roman colourless glass from three sites in Britain. The findings suggest that two broad compositional groups can be identified on the basis of the choice of the initial raw materials selected for glass production, in particular the sand. The largest of these groups is inherently different from the naturally coloured, blue–green glasses of the same period, while the other group is compositionally similar. Further subgroups are apparent on the basis of the decolorizers used. These glass groups are explored in the light of the current theories concerning the organization of glass production in the Roman world.     

ON THE ORIENTATION OF ROMAN TOWNS IN ITALY

Summary.   Several Roman writers report on the existence of a town foundation ritual, inherited from the Etruscans, which allegedly included astronomical references. However, the possible existence of astronomical orientations in the layout of Roman towns has never been considered in a systematic way. As a first step in this direction, the orientation of 38 Roman towns in Italy is studied here. Non-random orientation patterns emerge from these data, calling for further research in this field.     

TIBET'S DEVELOPMENT IN THE NEW CENTURY

From June 25-27, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council held their Fourth National Conference on Work in Tibet and General Secretary Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji both spoke at the meeting. CPPCC Chairman Li Ruihuan made a summing up speech. The National Conference, in which leaders of various provinces, municipalities directly under the Central Government also participated, was held when the CPC was celebrating the 80th anniversary of its founding and the 50th anniv…     

A STUDY OF THE SILVERING PROCESS OF THE GALLO‐ROMAN COINS FORGED DURING THE THIRD CENTURY AD*

We have observed by fast neutron activation analysis (FNAA) that the global composition of the official silver coins of the Gallic emperor Postumus is not the same as those from the contemporary unofficial mints. In order to explain this phenomenon, we have carried out a metallographic study of the artefacts. Then, we have re‐created the silvering process of unofficial coins in order to better understand the manufacturing process of silvering. The different steps of the replication process are explained in this paper.     

ROMAN KNOWLEDGE OF SCANDINAVIA IN THE IMPERIAL PERIOD*

Summary. This paper aims to provide a framework of literary evidence as a basis for study of the relations between the Roman Empire and Scandinavia from an archaeological point of view. It covers the period from Augustus to the end of the fourth century.     

BURNT KIMMERIDGIAN SHALE AT EARLY ROMAN SILCHESTER, SOUTH-EAST ENGLAND, AND THE ROMAN POOLE–PURBECK COMPLEX-AGGLOMERATED GEOMATERIALS INDUSTRY

Summary.   A wide range of geomaterials were worked at industrial settlements scattered over an area of c.225 km² in the Poole Harbour–Isle of Purbeck district of modern Dorset. These materials, more than one handled at some sites, included shale ('coal'), burnt shales (yellow, red) and cementstones from the Kimmeridge Clay Formation (Upper Jurassic), Purbeck marble from the Purbeck Group (earliest Cretaceous), hard chalk from the Chalk Group (Upper Cretaceous), and potting clays and sands from the Bracklesham Group (Palaeogene), for South-east Dorset Black-burnished Pottery Category 1. There was also a salt industry, which could have used pottery for packaging. The industrial products are conterminously distributed in southern and central Britain and, in the case of pottery and shale items, reached as far as the northern frontiers. Raw material of red burnt shale was exported to Silchester ( Calleva Atrebatum ), where it was made into mosaic tesserae. Of proven Kimmeridgian age on the evidence of fossils, the mudstone used to make it had been collected and quarried on the coast of the Isle of Purbeck before being burnt. The decline in the demand for stone products, excepting shale, in the second century AD saw an expansion of the potting industry, which persisted into the fifth century. The term complex-agglomerative is introduced to describe this diverse and dispersed enterprise at this highest hierarchical level, examples of which occur elsewhere in the Roman world.     

AN EXAMPLE OF THE PROCESS OF ACCULTURATION IN THE EARLY ROMAN FRONTIER

Summary. This paper looks at how the process of acculturation can be detected in the archaeological record. It considers the specific case of acculturation in the Upper Rhine during the early Roman period and attempts to demonstrate how archaeological material can be used to evaluate social changes. Various aspects of the pottery assemblage, which relate to different aspects of pottery production and use, are considered such as production technology, style, and form. Many of the changes result from cultural changes which occurred as a result of interaction between the Roman and local peoples. Other works concerning acculturation are reviewed to determine what types of factors are involved in the process. These factors are considered, in relation to the Upper Rhine, in a discussion of the changes in the pottery and how they relate to social changes. Various explanatory models are proposed.     

THE ANTONINE ITINERARY: ASPECTS OF GOVERNMENT IN ROMAN BRITAIN

Summary. The British routes of the Antonine Itinerary are examined against the literary sources for the Severan expeditio Britannica and shown to be journeys that could have been undertaken by Severus and his sons in 208–211. The connection of mansiones with the collection of taxes in kind is examined, and it is tentatively postulated that such taxation was levied throughout the Roman period in Britain.     

21世纪的社区地理学

本文简述了社区地理学的形成、研究现状和面临的形势,对21世纪的社区地理学进行了展望。指出21世纪的社区地理学有12个热点课题,即:(1)社区发展合作组织;(2)社区发展;(3)社区环境;(4)社区规划;(5)社区管理;(6)农村社区城市化;(7)城市社区病态;(8)社区贫困;(9)社区经济;(10)社区文化;(11)精神社区;(12)虚拟社区。从目前世界范围内的社区发展运动看,从21世纪社区地理学研究的领域看,21世纪将是社区地理学的大发展时代。     

A CHARACTERIZATION OF THE COMPOSITIONAL VARIATIONS OF ROMAN SAMIAN POTTERY MANUFACTURED AT THE LEZOUX PRODUCTION CENTRE

The study addresses the chemical variations for Roman Samian wares manufactured during various periods at different workshops within the Lezoux production centre. Instrumental neutron activation analysis and inductively coupled plasma spectrometry were used to determine the chemical constituents of the pottery. The two techniques were evaluated based on the capacity of each to identify the same compositional groups for Lezoux Samian with the use of multivariate statistics. The compositional analysis redefines and clarifies how potters used the clay sources at the site to produce fine wares. The results indicate that the majority of potters from different workshops at Lezoux shared the same clay source during the second century AD.     

THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF VILLA ARCHITECTURE IN CELTIC NORTH WEST EUROPE

Summary. J. T. Smith's suggestion that many villas in north west Europe were owned and occupied by more than one household is examined statistically and found to be unsupported by architectural evidence. Possible social explanations for this are examined, with particular reference to Hingley's social interpretation of the upper Thames region.