The Four Roman Ways

This paper reviews the origins, chronology, and changing circulation pattern of the potin coinage of Iron Age Britain. Archaeological evidence suggests that British potins were made in north Kent from the later second century to the late first century B.C. although potins continued in circulation after this. They were the first indigenous coinage, apparently copying cast central Gaulish imitations of the struck bronze coinage of Massalia, and possibly originated in the Medway area. Initially, potins circulated alongside the imported Gallo-Belgic gold coinages and, like them, were probably used as a form of primitive valuable, but in the mid-later first century, their circulation pattern and Junction changed, becoming closely associated with a network of major sites spanning both sides of the Thames estuary and with the later Iron Age developments which accompanied this, notably the elaboration of the well-known ‘Aylesford Complex’. Appendixes list stratified coins and sites with potin finds.     

Introduction

The symposium has been funded in part by the Bureau of Government Research and the H.V. Thornton Foundation at the University of Oklahoma along with the Florida Institute of Government and the Department of Political Science, University of South Florida, and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of South Florida.     

The trouble with transformations: Effects of sample size and sample composition on meat weight estimates based on skeletal mass allometry

The application of skeletal allometry in zooarchaeological analysis has increased in recent years. Two approaches can be distinguished, one based on linear measurements of bones for the purpose of estimating animal size and the other using skeletal weight to estimate dietary contribution. Here the application of the latter is examined. It is suggested that this method, as presently used with fragmentary remains, may not provide a dependable characterization of the relative contributions of identified taxa.