Roman Archaeology Group Inc Volume 2, Issue 2

September 2006

The RAG

Recent interpretations of artifacts and docu-ments from the Romano-Egyptian periodhighlight a convergence in cultural expressionrarely seen in any other period of Egyptianhistory. The Romans assimilated not only themore familiar Hellenistic motifs and artforms, but also many aspects of Egyptiantraditions throughout the period of Romanoccupation. As late as the 5th century AD, forinstance, terracotta images of the Egyptianfalcon-god Horus show the deity in full Ro-man military kit riding on horse back (seebelow). Apart from the head, the figure lookslike a fairly standard image of an equestrianemperor or general. It is even more interest-ing when we consider that figures of Horusrepresented the king in pharaonic times. Inthese terracottas, Horus is smiting or slayinghis enemy - another pharaonic image thatserved to illustrate the image of the victoriousruler.

A number of Roman historians have writtenon the ideological value of military success tothe Roman emperors. It should not be surpris-ing therefore to see hybridized images of vic-tory in Roman Egypt. The value of such im-

One of the most enduring legacies of modernEgyptian nationalism and independence is theconstruction of an image of ‘pharaonic’ Egypt.The Cairo Museum and numerous provincialmuseums, including that at Luxor, showcasecollections that highlight the cultural achieve-ments of Egypt’s pharaonic past. These are in-deed, what tourists who spend millions of dollarsa year in traveling to the land of the pharaohsexpect to see.

There are of course, other periods of importance.As modern nations struggle to explore their‘alternative’ histories through archaeology, an-thropology and museum displays, a fuller pictureof Egypt’s antiquity is likewise emerging. The2005 ‘Roman-Egyptomania’ exhibition at theFitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, illustrates asteadily increasing interest in Egypt’s history as aRoman province. Long-ignored collections arebeginning to receive the same attention as arti-facts from other provinces including Britain,Germany and the Near East. This is a naturalcorollary to the exciting finds that are emergingfrom the survey, excavation and study of numer-ous post-pharaonic archaeological sites in Egypt.

Mapping CulturalChange in AncientEgypt

Catherine Arends

1—3

Recycling

Kevin O’Toole

4—5

Constantine

Bill Leadbetter

6—7

Defences of LaterRoman Britain

David Kennedy

8—9

Alternative Accom-modation

Pam Lynch

9—10

Book Reviews

David Kennedy

11

IN THIS ISSUE

The Witch of Wookey—see pages 9-10

Mapping Cultural Change in Roman EgyptCatherine Arends

Dr Catherine Arends: obtained her PhD (WithDistinction) from UWA in 2004. She now teachesAncient History in Sydney

Ca. 5th century terracotta—Kharga Oasis

Page 2 The RAG

agery could be understood by both Egyptians and Romans. Itwas equally relevant to the Greek elites in Egypt, whose visionof Alexander the Great in military attire featured in a great vari-ety of art forms.

This hybridized culture grew over time. It seems that from theend of the 1st century BC, Egypt’s Mediterranean conquerorsgradually introduced Roman cultural forms to the local land-scape.

The geographer Strabo who visited the new Roman provincesometime around 25BC, records that Augustus had a victory citybuilt on the eastern outskirts of the city of Alexandria. It in-cluded not only a military camp but other Roman structures in-cluding an amphitheatre. Nothing remains of the latter, however19th century records indicate that the remains of the camp(which had grown into a double legionary camp by the reign ofHadrian) had been subsumed into the palace of the khedive.Late Roman tomb stones were located in this vicinity sometimein the late 19th century and are now on display in the Graeco-Roman Museum in Alexandria (see picture above).

Other military remains are mainly dated to the Late Roman pe-riod. Fortresses were built from ca AD 288-315, and reflect thesame architectural features of the Roman military as in otherprovinces. In Egypt, remains have been located in the Delta, theNile Valley and in both the Eastern and Western deserts. Today,the visible remains of the fortress at Old Cairo are a vivid re-minder of Rome’s presence. And whilst additions have beendated to the late Roman period, its origins are likely to be earlier(perhaps Trajanic).

No doubt there were many other military structures from anearlier period that have not withstood the centuries. Fortunatelyit is the smaller and seemingly insignificant evidence which hassurvived. Marble statues, bronze and terracotta figurines, as wellas terracotta lamps and jewelry created from gold and semi-precious stones, allow us to map cultural change in RomanEgypt. The range of artifacts is as varied as that of other prov-inces.

A number of headless imperial statues are part of the Graeco-Roman collections in the museums of Alexandria and Cairo(picture below). They reflect examples common to most prov-inces and probably decorated niches in theatres, sanctuaries andtemples in Alexandria and towns such as Hermopolis Magna inMiddle Egypt. Coins minted under Hadrian illustrate large cultstatues of Roman deities as well as the Romanized gods ofEgypt. Smaller figurines in bronze likewise reflect hybridizedimages based on larger cult models.

Like the merging of Roman and Egyptian funerary practicesillustrated by the Fayyum mummies (see RAG 2.1), bronze figu-rines from Roman Egypt are indicative of the fusing of beliefsand popular themes. There is a long tradition of bronze religiousfigurines from the pharaonic period. The Romans too, favoredbronze figurines for their household shrines and niches. Moreexpensive than terracotta, bronze figurines were a symbol ofsocial status and prosperity. Most datable Romano-Egyptianexamples come from the 2nd – 3rd centuries AD, but it is difficultto accept that production did not develop as early as the 1 st cen-tury AD.

Roman Fortress at Old Cairo

Late Roman Stele from Alexandria

Military Torso—Cairo Museum

Page 3Volume 2, Issue 2, September 2006

Perhaps the most unusual of these provincial examples, are thebronze ‘military’ figurines. The pose of the figurine is clearlythat of the emperor, reminiscent of the statue of the Prima PortaAugustus. The figure wears recognizable armor, and is often in aposition making an offering with a plate (patera) in one hand.Veteran soldiers across the empire would have been highly fa-miliar with this pose. The head of the figurine is of course themost curious part. Examples variously feature the heads of threefavorite Egyptian deities – Horus, the falcon; Anubis, the jackalgod of the dead and Apis, the Ptolemaic deity worshiped atMemphis. This is the most unusual, as Apis is traditionally rep-resented as a bull (picture below).

Whilst there is little evidence that these figurines were exported,other Romano-Egyptian examples have been found across the

German and Gallic frontiers, no doubt carried by soldiers asthey were transferred from province to province. Alexandrianmanufactured figures of the Romano-Egyptian goddess Isis-Fortuna seem to have been a particular favorite of the military.

Isis-Fortuna—hand on a steering oar

Marcus Aurelius: Graeco- Roman Museum, Alexandria

Bronze figure of Apis in military attire

EGYPT

One of the construction projects that definitively marked thepresence of Rome in Athens was the erection during the reign ofAugustus of a canonical (hexastyle peripteral) Greek temple inthe ancient Athenian Agora. The temple (indicated here) was

erected in honour ofAres, the Greek godof War. It was nothowever a new tem-ple. It was originallyone of the number oftemples (in Athensand elsewhere inAttica such as atSounion and Rham-

nous) built as part of the 5th century BC Periclean building pro-gramme. And it was not originally built in the Agora but proba-bly in the deme of Pallene. Hence, this Roman Period temple toAres was originally a temple dedicated to Athena some 10 kmsto the north east of Athens. During the reign of Augustus it wasin effect picked up and moved to the Agora in Athens, having(probably) fallen into disuse and disrepair. It was, in short, recy-cled.

At not too great a risk of indulging in hyperbole it is possible tosay that recycling is an almost ubiquitous phenomenon in thearchaeological record. Members of the Roman Britain tour of2003 will recall seeing the sculptural fragment in the great wallsof Richborough of the now long lost monumental four way archat the site (see David Kennedy’s article on Richborough in thisissue at page 9). The art of one age can become the building ma-terial for another.

There are numerous other examples in Athens. I shall give fiveadditional ones although the fifth is an example of recycling of adifferent kind.

In AD267 Athens was sacked by the Heruli, marauders fromsomewhere in the region of the Black Sea. The Heruli massivelydamaged the Parthenon, indeed putting it to the torch. In the ef-fort many years later to repair the damage the Athenians usedarchitectural members from buildings in the Agora, buildingsthat had also been severely damaged by the Heruli. This resultedin some striking anomalies. Thus, the Parthenon had been aDoric order temple (albeit non-canonical because amongst otherthings octastyle and strongly reflecting Ionic and Cycladic influ-ences). In the repairof the Parthenon,the Athenians useda capital from theupper level of theHellenistic Stoa ofAttalos (picture ofmodel at right). Onthat level of the

Stoa the columns bore a Pergamene capital, the building havingbeen a gift of Attalos 11 of Pergamon in c.150BC. The Perga-mene capital is a distinct contrast to the Doric and Ionic orders.

My next example is one in which the Athenians symbolicallyused their own art as wall building material. When the Persianssacked Athens in 480BC they destroyed the temples on theAcropolis, including the then being constructed, and never to becompleted, pre-Parthenon. After the Persians were finally de-feated by the allied Greek city states at Plataea in 479BC theAthenians buried the debris on the Acropolis and levelled thesite (this left to us a huge legacy of ancient art, albeit frag-mented). But in addition, and so to be a reminder of Persianperfidy, the Athenians built column drums from the pre-Parthenon into the walls they constructed around the Acropolisto facilitate the levelling of the site. Those drums can be veryclearly seen today on the north side of the Acropolis.

My third and fourth examples are of recycling by way of adap-tation to a new use.

One of the fortunate aspects of the Greek temple from the pointof view of its physical survival was that of its ready adaptationto use as a Christian church. Just about every one of the greattemples built in Athens, the Parthenon, the Erecthieion, theTemple to Hephaistos, the Asclepieion, to name a few, wasconverted into a church. The adaptation always required someviolence to original arrangements however the temple remainedrecognizable. Thus, in general (there are some striking excep-tions) the Greek temple is oriented east/west, and the entranceor front is the east end. The Christian church is also sought tobe oriented east/west, however it is the apse that is at the east

Recycling—Some Examples from AthensKevin O’Toole

The RAGPage 4

Pergamene Capital Doric Capital Ionic Capital

The Erecthieion

The Acropolis

Model: Stoa of Attalos, American School of Clas-sical Studies at Athens

Photo: J M Hurwitt

Photo: Ed

American School of Classical Studies at Athens

American School of Clas-sical Studies at Athens

J TravlosJ Travlos

end, the entrance from the west. The Temple to Hephaistos(photo below) the Greek god of the anvil, was converted to theChurch of St George.

As indicated in the floor plan below an apse was constructed atthe east end of the temple and an entrance cut into what had beenthe unbroken west wall of the naos.

My fourth example is not of adaptation of a building to a new usebut the adaptation of a site.

One of the outstanding Hadrianic constructions in Athens wasthe Library of Hadrian c. AD132 (pictured below).

The courtyard was a place for peaceful reflection and featured anelongated pool. In the 5th century AD the courtyard was put toservice as a site for the construction of a Christian church.

The church was of a stylecalled “tetraconch”.

Volume 2, Issue 2, September 2006 Page 5

Another early Roman period construction in Athens was theOdeion of Agrippa. It was built during the reign of Augustus inhonour of the Roman general Agrippa most famous as the gen-eral who defeated Antony at Actium in 31BC thus allowingOctavian (later Augustus) to prevail.

The original Odeionof Agrippa lasted for150 years or so untilits roof collapsed.

When it was repairedand redesigned itfeatured six columnsacross its front and inthe form of giantsand tritons (picturedbelow is one of thecolumns; that of agiant).

The torsos of the characters comprising the columns bear astriking resemblance to torsos on the sculptures on the Parthe-non, the 5th century BC art of the Classical Athenians. Below isa picture of the torso of Poseidon from the West Pediment ofthe Parthenon.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and the Roman periodsculptors copied the by then some 800 years old Classical Pe-riod torsos. This of course is an example of another type of re-cycling, the recycling of ideas, and that is another very longstory.

Temple of Ares (see p. 4)

The Parthenon

Original groundplan of Hadrian’sLibrary

Photo: American School of Classical Studies at Athens

Restored view of redesigned Odeion ofAgrippa as reproduced by the Associa-tion of the Friends of the Acropolis(Ref below)

Model: Civilita Romana Museum, Rome as reproduced by theAssociation of the Friends of the Acropolis (Ref below)

Drawing: J Travlos

Drawings and model: J TravlosFurther reading: see references for the works of J M Camp RAG Vol 1 Issue 4Jeffrey M Hurwitt, The Athenian Acropolis, 1999, CambridgePublications of the Association of Friends of the Acropolis, 2004, Athens,Greece, Archaeological Promenades

Photo: Ed

Photo: J M Hurwitt

American School of Classical Studies at Athens

Page 6 The RAG

When Constantine first became emperor, in July 306, the Ro-man Empire was undergoing its most profound transformationin three centuries. The reforms of the emperor Diocletian in thearmy, the economy, administration, taxation, law, and socialstructures had the purpose and the effect of reconstituting theRoman state on a more durable footing for the troubled years ofrecession, invasion and plague which had beset the state fromthe end of the second century. Diocletian’s reforms were far-reaching, but conservative in intent and ideology. A naturalconservative, Diocletian had no intention of doing anythingother than strengthening his own version of the imagined com-munity of Rome. As such, his program was grounded in thetraditional ideology of the state. Contemporary rhetoric stressedthe close relationship between the imperial office and the gods.Diocletian was Iovius Augustus – like Jove, mighty and all-seeing. His imperial colleagues had their own divine compan-ions, most notably Hercules for Maximian, Diocletian’s col-league and adoptive brother.

There was a fundamental relationship between politics andreligion in Diocletian’s new empire, and it was that relationshipwhich made the clash with Christianity inevitable. It was Con-stantine who was responsible for the critical insight that thisclash was neither necessary nor desirable. His father Constan-tius provided something of a model, inasmuch as his conduct ofthe persecution had been compliant with Diocletian’s ordersand no more. Constantine went further. From his nomination asemperor by his late father’s army in 306, he let it be known thathe favoured Christians and that his court was a place of refugefor them. One celebrated refugee was Lactantius, sometimeprofessor of rhetoric in Diocletian’s capital of Nicomedia. NowLactantius became the tutor to Constantine’s son Crispus, andhad some leisure to compose the apologetic and polemicalworks for which he became famous.

The early years of Constantine’s rule were marked by rivalryand struggle. When he accepted acclamation as emperor, hebecame part of a large and unhappy family of rulers. Dividedby mutual suspicion, this imperial college no longer had Dio-cletian to guide it since, in May 305, Diocletian had abdicatedand retired to private life. Galerius, Diocletian’s son-in-law andadopted son sought.

to take his place at the centre of the Empire, but he neverwielded the same quality of authority. While Galerius acceptedConstantine as his father’s successor in Britain and Gaul, thatacceptance was grudging and tainted with suspicion. Otherclaimants and rivals soon crowded the field, most notably Max-entius in the city of Rome itself.

Like Constantine, Maxentius followed a generally pro-Christian policy, but unlike him, his legitimacy was never ac-cepted by Galerius. That made him the most vulnerable of Con-stantine’s rivals and so, after Galerius’ death in 311, Constan-tine marched on Maxentius in the following year. The war onMaxentius has been occluded rather than clarified by the narra-tive sources since Constantine himself chose to use this conflictto announce his own devotion to the Christian God through hissoldiers’ recitation of a prayer, and their use of a new battlestandard, the labarum, or chi-rho. Constantine’s propagandistssought to portray this as a religious conflict, and since Maxen-tius had tended to be pro-Christian, they needed to rewrite hispast as a deeply superstitious and fanatical pagan.

Dr Bill Leadbetter: Senior Lecturer inSocial Education and History at EdithCowan University

CONSTANTINE—Bill Leadbetter

This head of Constantine is on dis-play in the museums on the Capito-line in Rome.

Volume 2, Issue 2, September 2006 Page 7

There is no doubt that Constantine ascribed his victory overMaxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge to the interven-tion of the Christian God. From the moment of his entry intothe city of Rome, he began to lavish property on the church andintervene directly in its affairs. Yet Constantine’s apparent em-brace of Christianity did not turn him into a practising saint.His family life, in this respect, was a disaster. He ordered theexecution of his eldest son, Crispus, and in the following year,his own wife Fausta also met her death at his hands. Whilethere were propagandist explanations at the time, the mysteryof these executions has never been satisfactorily addressed, letalone solved. Nevertheless, these executions were the reasonthat the later, and hostile, writer, Zosimus suggested that Con-stantine embraced Christianity – since only the god of theChristians could offer forgiveness for such heinous crimes.

It may be that this hideous experience left him less than ruth-less in the following years when the time came to organize hisown succession. He sought to give something to virtually everymale in his immediate family. The result was a bloody massa-cre of half of his family after his death. Despite such blem-ishes, it is fair to say that Constantine maintained the impetusof the reform program commenced by Diocletian. Much of hiswork developed and enhanced measures taken by his predeces-sor. As a consequence, it can certainly be said that he left theempire stronger than he found it.

His most durable contribution lies in his relationship with thechurch. Regarding himself as “the bishop of those outside thechurch”, he supported the church, enhanced the status ofclergy, and even went to war to protect the Christians of Persia(which some have argued makes him the first crusader). Healso presided over the Council of Nicaea which produced thefirst draft of the Christian orthodoxies that dominated botheastern and western churches until the reformation. It was only

on his deathbed that Constantine submitted to baptism. Perhapshe was convinced that the many sins which he had committedas emperor could never be forgiven and so waited until the lastminute to enter the Christian community formally. His central-ity to the history of Christianity can be seen in his veneration asa saint (along with his mother Helena) by Christians of the Or-thodox tradition.

Constantine’s achievements remain extraordinary. Although hewas deeply flawed, he was, above all, successful. Very fewfigures in history attract the sobriquet “the great”, and none doso without controversy. Yet any sober study of the reign ofConstantine, his person and his policies, can only conclude thatthe Roman world from which he departed in 337 was pro-foundly different to that into which he had been born nearlyseven decades earlier. And that much of that difference can beattributed to the determinations and deeds of Constantine him-self.

Arrogant, reflective or just bored? The 1998bronze Constantine outside the Cathedral inYork, the Minster.

Dissertations and Theses inRoman Archaeology in Progress

UWA

Honours Dissertations:

Casey McAllister, Public Hygiene in Roman Britain.

Maire Gomes, Villae Romanas: An examination ofthe archaeology of Roman villas in Portugal.

Karen Henderson, An Archaeological Investigationof Desert Kites near Umm el-Quttein (Jordan) usingPhotogrammetric Techniques.

MA Theses:

Nigel Wright, Separating the Romans from the Bar-barians: Rural Society and Exchange in North Brit-ain

Anne Poepjes, Conserving and Managing CulturalHeritage at Jarash, Jordan: A case study for theMiddle East

PhD Theses:

Andrew Card, The Roman Frontier in Arabia

Mike Knowles, Settlement in the Hauran, Jordan inRoman Times

Pam Lynch, The People of Roman Britain

When the armies of the Emperor Claudius landed in Britain in AD 43 they sparked off a long period of conquest. Much of the 2nd

century AD was still marked by warfare on the northern frontier – it was now that, first, Hadrian’s Wall, and then the AntonineWall, were constructed. Finally, the great campaigns conducted in Scotland by the Emperor Septimius Severus in 208 -211 usheredin two generations of relative peace in the north.

But it was not to last and there was a new problem opening that was to loom large within a few years. Unexpectedly the new frontwas in the very part of the southeast where the invasion armies had first landed and which had seemed a peaceful backwater eversince. The new threat to match those of the Caledonians and Maeatae in the North (both subsequently subsumed under the label of“Picti”) came from Saxon pirates of North Germany who now found rich pickings in the vulnerable villas along the river estuariesof Gallia Belgica and the opposite coast of Britannia.

The Roman response, in a part of the province whoseonly garrison was the guards of the provincial governorin London, was the construction of the first of a stringof forts along the southeast coast. Ultimately these wereto extend from Clausentum (near Southampton) rightround to at least Branodunum (Brancaster, on The Washin Norfolk). Once the system developed it was placedunder a regional commander called the Count of theSaxon Shore (Comes Litoris Saxonici) whose name andthose of the 9 units and forts under his command, arepreserved in a c. AD 400 document called the NotitiaDignitatum. Hence the popular modern name for thesestructures – Saxon Shore Forts (SSF).

Several of these new forts are well-preserved and somelook very “modern”. By that I mean that they are nolonger like the rectangular forts of the earlier periodwith their rounded corners, relatively spacious layout,moderately tall walls and without projecting towers.Now the visitor confronts structures reminiscent of me-diaeval castles. (In fact some of them were re-used ascastles in the Middle Ages). The first features to strikethe visitor are the great height of the walls, several me-tres high, and the immense projecting, usually U-shaped

towers on which artillery would have been mounted. They are also usually much smaller than the forts of the Early Empire andmost have few traces of internal buildings. These are the compact strongholds of an army on the defensive and investing in bricksand mortar where once the strength of forces in the field sufficed.

The visitor today can see fine examples in swift succession. The best place to start is Richborough, (pictured below) with not j ustits SSF but the remains of an earlier fort, the supply base of the invasion army before that and the foundation of a huge triumphalarch of the later 1st c. AD.

At Dover there is just a rump of the SSF on show, cutting through the re-mains of the Dover Painted House; the well-preserved Roman lighthouse onthe cliff above is the main attraction.

Then on to Pevensey where the oval fort is a startling shape to encounterfrom the Roman period and the mediaeval “keep” in the interior adds to theimpression of a castle of the Middle Ages rather than Late Roman Britain.

Next is Portchester, on a neck of land overlooking Portsmouth Harbour.Here, too, the fort was taken over as a castle in the Middle Ages but the near -square circuit of walls and huge U-shaped projecting towers match in charac-ter if not in ground plan those at Pevensey.

All of these were once Roman naval bases. Portchester still has the sea on theharbour side, but at Pevensey the sea which once lapped around the walls isover a mile distant. Even more striking is Lympne (pronounced “Lim”),where the drying out of the Romney Marshes has left it overlooking not agreat bay but ploughed fields. And at Richborough the drying up of the chan-

Page 8 The RAG

THE DEFENCES OF LATER ROMAN BRITAINDavid Kennedy

Volume 2, Issue 2, September 2006 Page 9

In the 21st century caves are not seen as an ideal abode. Theyare visited for recreational and tourist purposes providing spec-tacular scenery and awe inspiring adventure. Throughout his-tory though caves are known to have provided a safe and com-fortable haven and have been used for domestic and industrialuse, for shelter or storage and as a hideaway, shrine or burial

place. Caves provide a relatively constant temperature, beingwarmer and dryer in winter, and, with often difficult to detectentrances, ensure a secure domicile. Early man is known tohave inhabited caves in Africa, China and Europe with evi-dence of cave habitation in Britain dating to Palaeolithic times,with several caves including Poole’s Cavern, Thirst House andWookey Hole known to have been used by Romano-Britons.

Caves have figured in the world of myth and legend through allperiods of history including Greek and Roman and in Britainhistorical legends abound involving caves, particularly in theMendip Hills of Somerset. Wookey Hole, renowned for thenumber of Romano-British skeletons discovered here, is rich inlegendary tales. Welsh legend says that King Arthur slew theblack witch who lived in the cave at the head of the Stream ofSorrow on the confines of Hell, believed to refer to the RiverAxe and ‘Hell’s Ladder’, the approach to the first Great Cave.In the eighteenth century it was said that the Witch of Wookeywas an evil old woman who lived in the caves with her dog,and that one day while casseroling a child she was turned tostone by a monk who sprinkled her with holy water. Visitors tothe cave system today are attracted to the cave formations por-traying the witch and her dog. The witch turned to stone or astalagmite formation?Cave usage covers the four centuries of Roman occupation inBritain with Fairy Hole in Lancashire, Blackwell Cave, Somer-

ALTERNATIVE ACCOMMODATION-Pam Lynch

nel between the mainland and the island of Thanet has left thefort in the midst of fields. (Further north the reverse has hap-pened – Reculver on the north Kent coast has been half eatenaway by the Thames estuary and Walton Castle (near Felix-stowe on the Essex-Suffolk border), which once stood 30 mabove the sea, fell off the eroded cliff in the 18 th century andis now known only from old drawings and descriptions).

Reading:

S. Johnston, The Roman Forts of the Saxon Shore, 1979, 2nd ed., London. This is a good but now aging account of the forts.V. A. Maxfield (ed.), 1989, The Saxon Shore, Exeter. A more recent handbook prepared for the Congress of Roman FrontierStudies held at Canterbury in 1989.Pearson, The Roman Shore Forts. Coastal Defences of Southern Britain, 2002, Stroud.D. Gurney, Outposts of the Roman Empire, 2002. A booklet, well worth a look, though not easily found in Australia outside myoffice, published by Norfolk Archaeological Trust on three of the SSFs in Norfolk.On 26 August, RAG will have a lecture on the “British” Emperor Carausius and a video on the SSF at Richborough.

Pam Lynch is a doctoral candidate in Roman Archaeologyat UWA investigating the people of Roman Britain throughmortuary archaeology.

Portchester: mediaeval "keep" in the cornerof the Roman fort

Pevensey: massive Roman towers on theWest Gate

Page 10 The RAG

set and the cave at Charterhouse Warren Farm Swallet in theMendips providing the earliest evidence dating to c.AD50-100.

The Wookey Hole cave, Somerset, saw Romano-British occu-pation from the early second century to the end of the fifth cen-

tury and is believed tohave been used notonly for domestic andworkshop occupationbut also as a burialsite. Romano-Britishfinds from this cavehave been numerousincluding coins, jew-ellery, pottery, bonepins and fasteners andmany items of stone.Exploration of thecave for scientificrather than romanticpurposes began inearnest in 1912. In theensuing century ad-vances in diving tech-nology have made itpossible to descendsome 200 feet into theabyss, with diversencountering under-ground lakes and sub-terranean torrents intheir attempts to con-quer the ultimate chal-lenge to cave explor-ers. For enthusiasts ofRomano-British his-tory though, chamber4 is as far as we needto go. In this chamber

twenty-eight fourth century burials were discovered in a segre-gated cemetery area as well as the remains of a further nineteenindividuals, washed down the river which are believed to haveoriginated in the cemetery. Of the twenty-eight individuals bur-ied in this cemetery, twenty of them are estimated to have diedbefore the age of twenty. The remaining eight did not survivebeyond thirty. A very young cemetery population even in thisperiod.

But what werethese peopledoing in thiscave? WookeyHole appears tohave served notonly as a placeof domesticoccupation andburial but alsoas a workshop.The ‘domestic’nature of theRomano-Britishassemblages

included table and kitchen ware, personal adornments, domes-tic tools and implements. This community though was alsoindustrious. There is evidence of metalworking with bronze,lead and iron, thirty complete and thirteen incomplete spindlewhorls are suggestive of wool production and spinning and anabundance of bone items in the cave also leads to speculationthat these items were produced in marketable quantities.

The metalworking comes as no surprise in this area of RomanBritain. The lead mines of the Mendips were well known to theRomans and were utilised as early as the reign of Claudius withBritish lead ingots, probably from this area, discovered north-ern France and in the ruins of Pompeii. The inhabitants of theWookey Hole cave were probably utilising the naturally occur-ring metals of the area for their own purposes, as there is insuf-ficient evidence for production on any large scale, but the evi-dence suggests that both wool production and spinning and theproduction of bone pins and needles could have been carried onfor commercial purposes.

The position of the cave on the River Axe, where it emergesfrom the underground caverns providing an abundant supply ofclean water, undoubtedly added to its attraction and suitabilityduring the Romano-British period as a place of habitation, in-dustry and ultimately burial.

The Mendips and the WookeyWitch

The Mendips (probably from the medieval myne-deepes) is areference to the cave-ridden limestone hills and lowlands ofSomerset near the towns of Glastonbury and Wells.

The Witch of Wookey Hole isthe central character in an oldEnglish legend

“The story has several different versions with the same basicfeatures:

A man from Glastonbury was betrothed to a girl from Wookey.A witch living in Wookey Hole cursed the romance so that itfailed. The man, now having become a monk sought revenge onthis witch, who frequently spoiled budding relationships(having been jilted herself). He stalked into the cave and,catching her off guard, threw a bucket of water over her head.The blessed water petrified the witch immediately, and she re-mains in the cave to this day.”

Ed

Somerset

WookyHole

The Witch’s Parlour—Wookey Hole

www.timetravel-britain.com/.../cheddar.shtml

beehive.thisisbristol.com/default.asp?WCI=Sit...

Volume 2, Issue 2, September 2006 Page 11

Some provinces were part of the Roman Empire for very longperiods. Syria for almost exactly 700 years still bears the “traceof Rome” in the remains of great cities, towns, villages, roads,forts … and even in the culture of the Early Islamic centuriesthat were in many ways a continuation.

In the West, Gallia Narbonensis (modern Provence) was Ro-man for as long, has wonderful Roman archaeological sites …and its modern inhabitants still speak a descendant of the Vul-gar Latin of the 4th and 5th centuries. Britain was Roman foronly c. 360 years, was far less urbanized, far fewer villas,poorer in artefacts, its remains less impressive … and its mod-ern population speaks a Germanic language. Yet it is one of themost intensely explored of Roman provinces and there is a vastoutpouring of books and articles and an entire “industry” ofwell-presented sites, popular accounts in magazines and thepress, web sites and TV programmes.

For students and the serious amateur there are numerous booksentitled Roman Britain/ Britannia or some such to choose frombut the “standard” was Sheppard Frere’s Britannia first pub-lished in 1967 which was not displaced even by Peter Salway’sRoman Britain of 1981. Both were revised and updated overthe years but are now very dated in a field that generates somuch that is new. Relief has come now; indeed, double relief.

Guy de la Bédoyère(DLB), a free-lance archae-ologist and writer, will bewell-known as an expert“talking head” on numer-ous TV programmes aboutRoman Britain, and foralmost 20 (sic!) books onRB, aviation archaeology… and the correspondenceof Samuel Pepys and JohnEvelyn.

DLB knows his stuff,writes well and the book islavishly illustrated with in-text illustrations of allkinds, many, including themaps and plans, in colour and with numerous artist’s impres-sion, reconstructions by the author.

David Mattingly (M), the third generation in a dynasty of Ro-man historians and now a professor at Leicester University, isequally tireless as fieldworker and author. He has worked ex-tensively in Libya (currently excavating in the Fezzan) andJordan, but also on Roman Britain, and was the co-author withBarri Jones of the superb Atlas of Roman Britain (Blackwell,1990).

Now he has produced a massive study of the province. In pres-entation this is a very different book – a scatter of maps andtables but otherwise without photographs or drawings.

Aphrodisias Claudius and Britannia

Both books provide thechronological narrative inrelatively brief form.Unlike an older genera-tion which saw their sub-ject as largely about writ-ing a “history” these twoauthors, field archaeolo-gists but of a differentgeneration, write theirhistory largely in terms ofthemes - towns, industry,religion (DLB) and, moreinterestingly, communi-ties (military, civil, rural)(M). Mattingly also, un-usually, includes the en-tire British Isles withlarge sections on “FreeBritannia” and Ireland.

Comparison

The books are sufficiently different as not to be competing forthe same market.

M is the more “scholarly” and likely to be adopted by univer-sity courses but, sadly, lacks the illustrations so vital for a storywhose raw data is archaeological rather than the written word.

DLB scores heavily on this latter front but his text is lighter – aquarter the length of M.

Readers of RAG are likely to find DLB their most attractiveport of call … at least at first.

De la Bédoyère, G. Roman Britain. A New History, 2006, Lon-don (Thames and Hudson): 288 pages; £25

Mattingly, D. Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Em-pire: 54 BC - AD 409, 2006, London (Allen Lane/ Penguin):638 pages; £30

RAG Members: 10% discount if you present a copy of thisreview at the Co-op Bookshop on campus.

BOOK REVIEWSDavid Kennedy

Membership of TheRAG

Roman Archaeology at UWA

The RAG NewsletterCorrespondence to the Editor:

Kevin J. O’Toolec/o M205 Classics and Ancient History

The University of Western Australia35 Stirling Highway

CRAWLEY WA 6009

Tel: (08) 92214748 Fax: (08) 92213595E-mail: kjotoole@otooleoprandi.com.au

The RAG Incwww.romarchgroup.humanities.uwa.edu.au/

Chairman

Professor David KennedyM205 Classics and Ancient History

University of Western AustraliaStirling Highway

CRAWLEY WA 6009

Tel: 08 64882150 Fax: 08 64881182E-mail: dkennedy@cyllene.uwa.au

Deputy Chairman

Rodney Greaves

SecretaryMichael Manley

M209 Reid Library UWATel: (08) 64882330

E-mail: mmanley@library.uwa.edu.au

TreasurerMaire Gomes

M205 Classics and AncientHistory UWA

E-mail: gomescm@bigpond.com

The RAG Volume 2, Issue 2, September 2006

Membership of the RAG is open toanyone interested in Roman Archae-ology or classical studies generally.There is an annual membership fee of$25 (inclusive of GST), students $15.

To apply, complete and post the formwith this edition of the RAG or contactthe committee members at the ad-dresses below.

RAG Events

It has been a busy year for RAG al-ready.

In April there was a Saturday afternoonsession of a video of Time Team (theHadrian’s Wall fort of Birdoswald),another on the bridge Julius Caesar builtover the Rhine in 55 BC and a lectureby one of the UWA research students,Anne Poepjes, on her 15 months in Jor-dan.

On 14 May, 75 people gathered on asunny Sunday morning in the SunkenGardens at UWA. After a breakfast ofcroissants and fresh frui t, 13“gladiators” put on an entertaining andand informative display in surroundingsreminiscent of an amphitheatre.

The Winter Programme of three Satur-day afternoons began in June withKevin O’Toole on Roman Athens.There were about 70 in attendance. InJuly, lectures on “How ‘Great’ was Con-stantine?” and another on the buildingsof Constantine drew an audience ofsome 80 people attracted by a controver-sial but important figure whose procla-mation at York in Britain in July AD306was exactly 1700 years ago. We arehopeful of a turnout of 100+ for the lastsession.

Each afternoon is a “double bill” oflectures and/or a video. Tea and cakesin between. You don’t have to be amember to participate. The final sessionfor the winter series is as follows:

Saturday 26 August 2006

British Emperors and the Forts ofthe Saxon Shore

The Emperor Carausius: Pirate Kingof Roman Britain

(Illustrated Lecture)

Dr Bill Leadbetter, Edith Cowan Uni-versity

Richborough

(Video of work at the Roman “SaxonShore Fort” in Kent, UK)

U W A E x t e n s i o n C o u r s e s

The Summer Programme will begin witha course run by University Extension of 4two-hour sessions on The Roman Army.Enrolments for this course are at 45 andrising.

It is hoped to run subsequent courses onsuch subjects as The Roman Army atWar, The Logistical Basis of the RomanArmy and the Troops in Imperial Italy:The Praetorian Guard, Urban Cohorts,Vigiles, Equites Singulares and theFleets at Ravenna and Misenum. RAGMembers qualify for a discount on thiscourse - tell Extension when booking.

Tour of Roman Britain 2007

Professor Kennedy is a planning a thirdtour of Roman Britain in July 2007. Asbefore the tour will run for three weeks,starting at Canterbury and ending in Lon-don. Although a few alterations will berequired, the programme from the 2004tour shows the probable itinerary and canbe viewed online by going to the RAGwebsite and following the link. It islikely the cost will again be $A5,500 perhead including almost all the costs of thetour, meals, site entrance fees etc. Flightsand insurance are not included. If you areSERIOUSLY interested please contactDavid Kennedy at the numbers or e-mailopposite.

Other activities in Planning

Before the end of the year we expect tohave a lecture by Professor Alan Bowmanfrom Oxford and a Quiz Night is in prepa-ration. In early 2007 there is to be a Sum-mer Programme with Saturday afternoonsessions of a pair of related lectures/ vid-eos.

Possible future afternoon sessions include“Aerial Archaeology”, “The EmperorSeptimius Severus and Lepcis Magna”,“Roman Theatre and Theatres”, “RomanColoniae: Augusta Raurica (Switzerland)and Thamugadi (Algeria)”, “The Villa atPiazza Armerina (Sicily)”, “The EmperorTrajan and his Forum”, and “The VarianDisaster”.The details will be announced in a forth-coming RAG and by e-mail to those whohave provided addresses. http://www.romarchgroup.humanities.uwa.edu.au/