On Ancient Chinese Vases

Abstract

Historic and place-name evidence suggests that a Roman road ran along the south-west flank of the Pennines from North Staffordshire to the Tame valley on the Lancashire–Yorkshire border. Place-names also suggest a series of camps or fort sites along the route. The hypothesis is supported by the context of a find of a coin of Augustus and by the probable remains of a camp rampart on Werneth Low at the entrance to Longdendale. It is proposed that the road was constructed for the pacification of Brigantia and afterwards was of little importance other than as a boundary which gave rise to the ‘lyme’ place-name elements found along the south-west Pennine edge.