Britannia 9

Components from a catapult and from two types of torsion arrow shooter have been found in 3rd and 4th century levels on sites in Iraq and Roumania; these help in understanding the early written sources.

SE 816454. Iron Age, Saxon and possibly medieval features occur on or near the site of the fort. Ditches, rampart, gates, angle-towers and barracks in the fort were examined. Occupation was probably confined to the early Flavian period and the fort may have belonged to a series built to protect the northern advance against Venutius in 71, or to defend the Parisi from Venutian reprisals. Coins, small finds, glass, pottery, and bones (human and animal) are listed and described, and the Anglo-Saxon material is discussed. A T

SP 941983. Extensive Iron Age settlement and traces of widespread Roman agricultural and industrial activity were examined. There was agrarian activity and metalworking throughout. The two Iron Age enclosures were in use from ?2nd century BC to 1st century AD, a total of seven circular houses being built and used perhaps three at a time; a four-post structure was later replaced by a six-post one. A couple of the houses may have remained in use in the Roman period, when an aisled barn was also built, as were corndrying ovens, three updraught kilns, a concentration of smelting furnaces (bowl or domed, sunken-shaft and surface-shaft types) and other ironworking features. Nineteen inhumations (some Roman, some undated, and eight from a small 7th century AS cemetery) and fourteen infant burials were found. Iron Age and Roman pottery is catalogued together with brooches etc (including milliprobe analyses) and human and animal bones.

Detailed description of the shield's remains as found and of their scientific examination and conservation. The shield has a hemispherical boss and elongated handgrip. During reconstruction further data on its military effectiveness and methods of manufacture were obtained. A T

NJ 699572. Argues for the identification of the newly-discovered Roman camp (c 144 acres) at Durno with the site of Agricola's battle at Mons Graupius.

Deforestation had not advanced so far as to create timber shortages in Roman times; seasoning was hardly necessary (and was little understood by Roman authorities), one four-acre fort needed about 22,000 feet of structural timber for defences and internal buildings, say 16 to 30 acres clear-felled; there is little evidence for standardization either of scantling or of timber lengths; dismantling on evacuation was relatively uncommon.

The date of 441/2 frequently quoted as a cardinal point in the events of the adventus Saxonum does not derive from a contemporary source, but from an erroneous marginale by Mommsen to a chronicle fragment. Entries pertaining to Britain in a 9th or 10th century text of the Gallic Chronicle and other annalistic material from Maastricht are discussed and evaluated, together with entries from another annalistic text printed by Mommsen. A T

Examination of the lengths of street frontage occupied by private buildings in RB towns suggests that the pes monetalis (296mm) was often used in laying out shops and houses, it also occurs on very early military sites, though for a short period (less than a century?) the pes Drusianus (332mm) was also in military use, perhaps introduced from Valkenburg. See also 79/6387.

The preparation of clay and the making of tiles and bricks in more recent times are discussed in relation to Roman material. Most British stamped tiles were of military origin, but in the Dubunnic area stamped civilian as well as military tiles are plentiful. A detailed interpretation of the stamps is given, and some production centres tentatively identified. Itinerant tile-makers were possibly involved. A T

NX 191991. Aerial survey disclosed a fort of at least 10ha on the coastal plain of Strathclyde, possibly dating to Agricola's fifth campaign.

Now that the DoE has ceased to publish its annual Archaeological Excavations this feature is the only source of illustrated brief summaries of the year's RB excavations and discoveries. The summaries are separated into (I) sites explored and (II) inscriptions.