Articles
The Lingering Death of Roman Britain
In the centuries while Eastern England succumbed to Germanic takeover, Britannia Prima still flew the flag for Rome. Only in 1278, when Edward I captured Caernarfon, did this last outpost of the Western Roman Empire fall to a ‘barbarian’ king. Roger White of the Ironbridge Institute, University of Birmingham, describes how Romanitas endured on the empire’s furthest fringe. It was no accident that Edward I designed Caernarfon Castle to resemble the Late Roman fortifications of Constantinople, nor that he took the time to bring to the locality a body said to be that of Constantine II, son of Constantine the Great: Edward was well aware of the political and mythical significance of his success.
Rebuilding a Roman fort
‘Look after the soldiers’ was Roman emperor Severus' advice to his successors. Officers were especially favoured, with centurions in the ancient equivalent of modern semis, and regimental COs in veritable mansions. With a new full-size reconstruction now open at South Shields, Nick Hodgson, Principal Keeper at Tyne and Wear Museums, describes a major project to bring to life the soldiers stationed on Rome’s wild north-west frontier in the 3rd century AD.
Vindolanda: Clock or calendar?
It was not easy for the Romans to keep a close track on time. They did not work by minutes, let alone seconds, their smallest unit being the hour. Even that was not standardised, but varied according to season and location. By day, a Roman hour was a 12th of the time between sunrise and sunset, and by night a 12th of the time between sunset and sunrise. The length of this hour therefore depended on the time of year and on how far north or south you were.
Brough of Deerness
The Brough of Deerness is a sea stack in east Mainland, Orkney, Scotland. Its grass-covered top, surrounded by 30m cliffs, holds the remains of an enigmatic Viking Age settlement interpreted as a chiefly stronghold or monastery. The co-occurrence of a Viking Age church and approximately 30 associated buildings in such an exposed location make it a remarkable site.
Shooters Hill : Digging up Dad's Army
Conflict archaeology – the archaeology of communities preparing for, or involved in, military or civil strife – is a relatively new discipline, asking questions about the physical and cultural landscapes of wartime Britain. In this light, the order quoted above becomes a check-list for the landscape of defence created by the British Government between 1936 and 1944. At Shooters Hill in south-east London, we have been exploring various strands of evidence, trying to reconstruct that landscape.
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