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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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 University IN THE NEW CENTURY

Spacious lawns andblossoming flowers;shady trees;zigzaggingfootpaths;small bridgesspanning streams......In the face of such a beautifulview,who can imagine the pastdesolation of this site?     

Kaisum Village IN THE NEW CENTURY

Kaisum was where the Kaisum Manor, one of the six major manors in the Shannan area, was located. Wangqen Geleg, the manorial lord, followed the 14th Dalai Lama to India after the suppression of the armed rebellion in 1959. The manor-turned village, however, began to see urbanization two years earlier. Its 800-plus villagers now hold urban residence cards, and the former Village Committee has evolved into the Neighborhood Committee under Qamzhub Town. Located some eight km south of Zetang…     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

FIXED-POINT RETAIL LOCATION IN THE MAJOR TOWNS OF ROMAN BRITAIN

Summary.   Although it has not generally been recognized, tabernae (shops and workshops) were an important part of the process of urbanization and the urban form of the towns of Roman Britain. The objective of this paper is to examine the location of fixed-point retailing establishments within the urban landscape. Workshops (also known as officinae ) and retail activity probably constitute the largest and perhaps one of the most distinct aspects of any urban settlement. Based upon the discussion presented below, this paper will seek to show that there were important contests for retail space in the major settlements of Roman Britain. This paper also considers some of the factors that influence retail location to show that the towns of Roman Britain were complex socio-economic environments.