Britannia 36

The paper presents the results of a series of geophysical surveys of Roman forts and their environs carried out by the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust. An almost complete plan of the early wooden fort at Llanfor has been produced. Its densely-packed interior demonstrates heavy garrisoning, probably during very early Flavian campaigning. The small square auxiliary fort of Caer Llugwy has been shown to be a contraction of a larger rectangular fort. Surveys at Pennal, Caer Gai, and Canovium revealed a wide range of extramural development including vici in the form of ribbon development.

Approximately twenty temple excavations have yielded significant assemblages of animal bones. All come from Romano-Celtic temples in southern Britain, with the exception of four shrines for eastern cults. The paper picks out major characteristics of the assemblages and draws some general conclusions about the nature of the ritual activity that led to their deposition. At temples such as Uley or Hayling, sacrifices were probably an important part of the rituals, and the animals carefully selected. At other temples, animals had a lesser role, with little evidence of selection. At healing shrines, such as Bath and Lydney, animal sacrifices are not clearly attested, and would probably have taken place away from the areas used for healing humans. In contrast to the Romano-Celtic temples, animal remains at the shrines of eastern cults have very different characteristics: individual deposits can be linked to specific rituals within the cult buildings, and have many similarities to the continental evidence.

Short note lending support to the argument proposed by C J Simpson in Britannia 27 (1996), pages 386--7, that the statue of Victory at Colchester referred to by Tacitus in the Annales was intended to serve as a literary topos, rather than as a point of architectonic or historical fact. It will be shown that an analogous passage exists, recorded by Cassius Dio in relation to the Varian Disaster, in which a comparable statue of Victory is noted for its unpropitious movement prior to Roman catastrophe. It is concluded that the Colchester Victory cannot be used as evidence for an altar cult at the colony on the model of Lyon.

Summaries of fieldwork undertaken and finds and inscriptions reported during 2004 and relating to Roman Britain. Most entries are broadly arranged by country or region, then by unitary authority, and finally by town or parish, and include grid references where known; including

with sections of sites north of the Antonine Wall; the Antonine Wall; and sites south of the Antonine Wall

with an introduction and overview