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Newsletter for Archaeology at Southampton | Summer 2012 Artefact Roman shipyard revealed by Southampton archaeologists University of Southampton archaeologists in collaboration with the British School at Rome believe they have discovered a large Roman shipyard at Portus, the ancient port of Rome. The team has uncovered the remains of a massive building close to the distinctive hexagonal harbour at the centre of the port complex. At first thought to be a warehouse, the latest excavations have revealed its earlier use connected to the building and maintenance of ships. This is an important discovery since few Roman Imperial shipyards have been discovered. It is also the largest of its kind in Italy or the Mediterranean. The huge building dates from the 2nd century AD and would have covered an area larger than a football pitch. This vast structure could have housed wood, canvas and other supplies and was certainly large enough to build or shelter ships in. Prof. Simon Keay, who leads the ‘Portus Project’, was recently awarded a grant of £640,000 from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to support this latest phase of excavation. Geophysicists from the University of Southampton and the British School at Rome have also been making geophysical surveys of the area around the building, while members of Southampton’s Archaeological Computing Research Group, led by Dr Graeme Earl, have created a computer graphic simulation of how it appeared and may have been used. The international team is planning further investigations at Portus to find out more about this fascinating and highly significant site, which holds an enormous amount of information about the activities and trade of Rome. www.portusproject.org/index.shtml Welcome back Prof. Gamble Archaeology at Southampton is delighted to welcome the return of one of the world’s leading experts on human origins and the evolution of human society. Prof. Clive Gamble has joined the Department from Royal Holloway, University of London, where he was a co-director of the hugely important British Academy Centenary Project ‘From Lucy to Language: the archaeology of the social brain’. He is the author of numerous books, including Origins and Revolutions, Archaeology: the basics and Timewalkers: the prehistory of global colonization. Clive is far from a dry and dusty academic, being well known for his engaging and provocative lecturing style, generally laced with some very fine humour! His presence in Southampton provides a significant boost to the Centre for the Archaeology of Human Origins (CAHO), which Clive originally founded. “Clive’s knowledge on many aspects of human origins will further strengthen our research on a global scale”, said the current Director of CAHO, Dr John McNabb. A computer generated image of the Roman ship-yard (Grant Cox, ACRG)

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Newsletter for Archaeology at Southampton | Summer 2012

Artefact

Roman shipyard revealed by Southampton archaeologistsUniversity of Southampton archaeologists in collaboration with the British School at Rome believe they have discovered a large Roman shipyard at Portus, the ancient port of Rome. The team has uncovered the remains of a massive building close to the distinctive hexagonal harbour at the centre of the port complex. At first thought to be a warehouse, the latest excavations have revealed its earlier use connected to the building and maintenance of ships. This is an important discovery since few Roman Imperial shipyards have been discovered. It is also the largest of its kind in Italy or the Mediterranean. The huge building dates from the 2nd century AD and would have covered an area larger than a football pitch. This vast structure could have housed wood, canvas and other supplies and was certainly large enough to build or shelter ships in.

Prof. Simon Keay, who leads the ‘Portus Project’, was recently awarded a grant of £640,000 from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to support this latest phase of excavation. Geophysicists from the University of Southampton and the British School at Rome have also been making geophysical surveys of the area around the building, while members of Southampton’s Archaeological Computing Research Group, led by Dr Graeme Earl, have created a computer graphic simulation of how it appeared and may have been used.

The international team is planning further investigations at Portus to find out more about this fascinating and highly significant site, which holds an enormous amount of information about the activities and trade of Rome.

www.portusproject.org/index.shtml

Welcome back Prof. GambleArchaeology at Southampton is delighted to welcome the return of one of the world’s leading experts on human origins and the evolution of human society. Prof. Clive Gamble has joined the Department from Royal Holloway, University of London, where he was a co-director of the hugely important British Academy Centenary Project ‘From Lucy to Language: the archaeology of the social brain’. He is the author of numerous books, including Origins and Revolutions, Archaeology: the basics and Timewalkers: the prehistory of global colonization. Clive is far from a dry and dusty academic, being well known for his engaging and provocative lecturing style, generally laced with some very fine humour! His presence in Southampton provides a significant boost to the Centre for the Archaeology of Human Origins (CAHO), which Clive originally founded. “Clive’s knowledge on many aspects of human origins will further strengthen our research on a global scale”, said the current Director of CAHO, Dr John McNabb.

A computer generated image of the Roman ship-yard (Grant Cox, ACRG)

2011 was the fourth year of a joint fieldwork project between Southampton University and Zupanja Museum which is investigating a remarkable complex of over 100 Late Bronze Age / Early Iron Age barrows in the remote region of Slavonija in the east of Croatia. Survey information collected by Southampton students is now being used to produce a fine grained Digital Elevation Model showing the extent of the cemetery, the sizes and shapes of the barrows, their relationship to one another and to the surrounding landscape. Excavation continued this year, resulting in the discovery of more enigmatic layers containing cremated human bone, charcoal and diagnostic pottery within the barrows. The greatest excitement this year was the discovery of many more cemeteries which are now being investigated by the ZSAP team.

Sandy Budden

Ben and Pavo working to remove a spread of Early Iron Age Pottery

ZSAP - Bronze Age Cemeteries in Croatia

Cremations in the Cotswolds

Among the gently rolling hills of the Oxfordshire Cotswolds, at Swinbrook, near Burford, Southampton staff and students were involved in the excavation of two late Neolithic (c.3000-2600BC) round barrows. Although similar styles of round barrow belonging to the Bronze Age are numerous and well investigated, Neolithic examples are both unusual and poorly understood. Were they always used for burial? How did they relate to patterns of contemporary settlement? Here we had a rare opportunity to address these questions. We discovered a cremation burial placed just beyond the southern barrow, and close by contemporary pits containing worked flint and pottery that had probably been discarded by people who helped build the barrow. There was no sign of a burial associated with the northern barrow – just an enigmatic deep pit! Belonging to the time of Stonehenge, these monuments provide important insight into the beliefs and lives of early farming communities in the British Isles.

Distinguished medal for distinguished Professor

Emeritus Prof. David Peacock has been awarded the prestigious Kenyon Medal for Classical Studies and Archaeology by the British Academy. A long-standing member of Archaeology at Southampton, David has made many important contributions to the study of the sourcing of ceramics and our understanding of the ancient economy, as well as undertaking major fieldwork projects on Roman quarry sites in the Eastern Desert of Egypt and at the Red Sea harbour cities of Myos Hormos and Adulis. Prof. Jon Adams, Head of Archaeology said “this award marks long overdue recognition of the work of one of the great pioneers of archaeological science”.

Students Jasmine and Evi, and their excavated Neolithic ditch

2 Artefact | Summer 2012

A team of 11 Southampton undergraduates together with several staff members and a group of specialists from many countries took part for four weeks in September in the excavation of a Middle Neolithic tell settlement in the Thessalian plain in Greece. The project is directed by Professor Yannis Hamilakis of Southampton, in collaboration with the Greek Archaeological Service. It is unearthing an important and extremely well-preserved prehistoric village, made of houses with stone foundations and an upper structure of mud bricks. Several buildings have been already investigated, and the site is also producing a plethora of human figurines, perhaps the highest concentration of such finds from any stratified Neolithic settlement in Greece. More than 40,000 pottery sherds were found by Southampton students this year alone, together with animal bones, stone and bone tools, and many other finds. But the team does much more than digging! Ethnographic research by interviewing people from the local community is another central part of the project. The season this year ended with a site-specific theatrical performance

staged next to our trenches. The play was inspired by the excavation and the ethnography, and was written and performed by two of our staff members who are also professional actors. It was a great success, and was attended by more than 300 people from the area.

Digging a 6th-millennium BC settlement: archaeology and ethnography (and even theatre!) at Koutroulou Magoula, central Greece.

The whole team at Koutroulou Magoula

Archaeology finalist Anjli Kundi photographing a Neolithic figurine for her dissertation on archaeology and photography

Artefact | Summer 2012 3

New Books by our StaffWith topics ranging from medieval ships to archaeology’s relationship to art, here is a taste of some of the staff publications that have appeared over the last year:

Jon Adams. A Maritime Archaeology of Ships

Andrew Jones, Davina Freedman, Hugo Lamdin-Whymark, Blaze O’Connor, Richard Tipping and Aaron Watson. An Animate Landscape: rock art and the prehistory of Kilmartin, Argyll, Scotland

Paul Bonaventura and Andrew Jones. Sculpture and Archaeology

John McNabb and Peter Beaumont. A Report on the Archaeological Assemblages from Excavations by Peter Beaumont at Canteen Koppie, Northern Cape, South Africa

For most visitors the scenic coastal promontory of Hengistbury Head in Dorset is a great location for walks and outdoor activities. Less well-known is the multitude of nationally and internationally significant archaeological sites located here, which stretch in date from the end of the last Ice Age to the Roman settlement of Britain. University of Southampton staff and First Year students have just begun a new campaign of investigation at Hengistbury Head, beginning with a detailed topographic survey of the promontory. The results of this will be used to assess the threat of cliff erosion to an important Upper Palaeolithic (hunter-gatherer) site. While undertaking the survey a rescue fieldwalking exercise

was rapidly put in place, collecting flint tools and other artefacts that were in danger of being washed off the encroaching cliff. A very accurate and detailed topographic map was produced with artefact positions recorded in 3D. The team also recorded three Bronze Age barrows and an Iron Age earthwork. Discussions with English Heritage and Bournemouth Borough Council are now underway concerning the future of the Upper Palaeolithic site at Hengistbury. In all, the field season was a great success and lays the foundations of an exciting project that will hopefully run for many years.

James Cole, Will Davies and Dominic Barker

By the Seaside: new work beginnings on a remarkable landscape

The Hengistbury survey

Recruitment and Admissions Office, Humanities, University of Southampton, Southampton so17 1bj

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www.southampton.ac.uk/archaeology

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