Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T07:27:48.990Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A ROMAN TEMPLE FROM SOUTHERN BRITAIN: RELIGIOUS PRACTICE IN LANDSCAPE CONTEXTS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2020

Richard Henry ,
David Roberts  and
Steve Roskams
Richard Henry
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Kings Manor, YorkYO1 7EP, UK. Email: [email protected]
David Roberts
Affiliation:
Historic England, Fort Cumberland, Portsmouth PO4 9LD, UK. Email: [email protected]
Steve Roskams
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Kings Manor, YorkYO1 7EP, UK. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Traditionally, Roman temples and shrines in Britain have been contextualised in relation to wider ‘Roman’ religious practices. Until recently, considerations of architectural form and named deities have dominated discussions. The wider turn in archaeological discourse recognising ritual in everyday contexts has highlighted the importance of lived experience and landscape practice in shaping belief. Here we reflect on the implications of such ideas when approaching ritual practice at Roman temples, using a recently excavated example from Wiltshire, southern Britain, as a case study. The exceptional artefactual assemblages from the site demonstrate the importance of local and regional landscape practices and belief in shaping ritual practice in a sacred space. In addition, geophysical survey and analysis of Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) finds suggests that those occupying the landscape had long-term access to wealth. Deposition in the temple itself indicates the continuing importance attached to prehistoric objects in the Roman period, but also to the adoption of new votive practices of miniaturisation, mutilation and sacrifice. These rituals, although part of wider grammars of religious behaviour, had their roots in specific local contexts. Our detailed analyses provide a picture of a temple dedicated to a previously unknown local god, Bregneus, framed against that of an active community involved in farming, iron processing, quarrying, hunting and woodland management.

Keywords

Roman BritaintemplesPortable Antiquities Schemeritual behaviourslandscape archaeology
Type
Research paper
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 101 , September 2021 , pp. 79 - 105
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society of Antiquaries of London

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, M 2016. ‘The south’, in M Allen, L Lodwick, T Brindle, M Fulford and A Smith, (eds), The Rural Settlement of Roman Britain, 75–140, Britannia Monogr Ser 29, Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, London Google Scholar
Aubin, G and Meissonier, J 1992. ‘L’usage de la monnaie sur les sites de sanctuaries de l’Ouest de la Gaule et de la Bourhohne’, in Godineau, C, Fauduet, I and Coulon, G (eds), Sanctuaries de tradition indigene en Gaule Romaine, 143–52, Actes du Colloque d’Argentomagus, Paris Google Scholar
Bailey, J and Butcher, S 2004. Roman Brooches in Britain: a technological and typological study based on the Richborough Collection, Society of Antiquaries, London CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caseau, B 2004. ‘The fate of Roman temples in late antiquity and the Christianisation of the countryside’, in Bowden, W, Lavan, L and Machado, G (eds), Recent Research on the Late Antique Countryside: late antique archaeology. Vol 2, 105–44, Brill, Leiden/Boston Google Scholar
Chadwick, A M 2012. ‘Routine magic, mundane ritual: towards a unified notion of depositional practice’, Oxford J Archaeol, 31 (3), 283–315 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chadwick, A M 2016. ‘Foot-fall and hoof-hit. Agencies, movements, materialities and identities; and later prehistoric and Romano-British trackways,’ Cambridge Archaeol J, 26 (1), 93–120 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dungworth, D 1998. ‘Mystifying Roman nails: clavus annalis, defixiones and minkisi’, in C Forcey, Hawthorne, J and Witcher, R (eds), TRAC97. Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, 148–59, Oxbow, Oxford Google Scholar
Eckardt, H and Williams, S 2018. ‘The sound of magic? Bells in Roman Britain’, Britannia, 49, 179–210 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garrow, D 2012. ‘Odd deposits and average practice: a critical history of the concept of structured deposition’, Archaeol Dialog, 19 (2), 85–115 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giles, M 2007. ‘Good fences make good neighbours? Exploring the ladder enclosures of Late Iron Age East Yorkshire’, in Haselgrove, C and Moore, T (eds), The Later Iron Age in Britain and Beyond, 235–49, Oxbow, Oxford Google Scholar
Giles, M 2012. A Forged Glamour: landscape, identity and material culture in the Iron Age, Windgather press, Bollington Google Scholar
Green, M 1981. ‘Model objects from military areas of Roman Britain’, Britannia, 12, 253–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, M 1986. ‘Report on the votive finds from Harlow Roman temple’, unpublished report, https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/arch-2418-1/dissemination/pdf/Specialist_reports/Small_Finds/Votive_Finds/Votive_finds_rep.pdf (accessed 9 Oct 2020)Google Scholar
Hadley, D M and Richards, J D 2016. ‘The winter camp of the Viking Great Army, ad 872–3, Torksey, Lincolnshire’, Antiq J, 96, 23–67 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henig, M 1989. ‘Religion in Roman Britain’, in Todd, M (ed), Research on Roman Britain 1960-89, 219–34, Britannia Monogr Ser 11, Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, London Google Scholar
Henig, M 1995. Religion in Roman Britain, 2nd edn, Routledge, London Google Scholar
Henry, R, Roberts, D, Grant, M J, Pelling, R and Marshall, P 2019. ‘A contextual analysis of the late Roman Pewsey and Wilcot Vessel Hoards, Wiltshire’, Britannia, 50, 149–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hobbs, R 2005. ‘Why are there always so many spoons? Hoards of precious metals in late Roman Britain’, in Crummy, N (ed), Image, Craft and the Classical World: essays in honour of Donald Bailey and Catherine Johns, 197–208, M Mergoil, Montagnac Google Scholar
Hughes, J 2017. ‘“Souvenirs of the self”: personal belongings as votive offerings in ancient religion’, Religion in the Roman Empire, 3 (2), 181–201 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, D J 2010. ‘Settlement in the hinterland of Sorviodunum: a review’, Wiltshire Archaeol Nat Hist Mag, 103, 142–80Google Scholar
Johns, C 1996. The Jewellery of Roman Britain: Celtic and classical traditions, Routledge, London Google Scholar
Kiernan, P 2001 ‘The ritual mutilation of coins on Romano-British sites’, Brit Numis J, 71, 18–33 Google Scholar
Kiernan, P 2009. Miniature Votive Offerings in the Roman North-West, Verlag Franz Philipp Rutzen, Rühpolding Google Scholar
King, A 2005. ‘Animal remains from temples in Roman Britain’, Britannia, 36, 329–69CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kirk, J 1949. ‘Bronzes from Woodeaton, Oxon’, Oxoniensia, 14, 1–45 Google Scholar
Leech, R 1986. ‘The excavation of a Romano-Celtic temple and a later cemetery on Lamyatt Beacon, Somerset’, Britannia, 17, 259–328 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, M 1966. Temples in Roman Britain, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Google Scholar
Locker, A 2007. ‘ In piscibus diversis: the bone evidence for fish consumption in Roman Britain’, Britannia, 38, 141–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackreth, D 2011. Brooches in Late Iron Age and Roman Britain, Oxbow, Oxford CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manning, W 2011. ‘Industry’, in Allason Jones, L (ed), Artefacts in Roman Britain, 68–88, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Google Scholar
Moorhead, T 2001. ‘Roman coin finds from Wiltshire’, in Ellis, P (ed), Roman Wiltshire and After: papers in honour of Ken Annable, 85–105, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, Devizes Google Scholar
Moorhead, T S N 2005. ‘Three Roman coin hoards from Wiltshire terminating in coins of Probus (ad 276–82),’ Wiltshire Archaeol Nat Hist Mag, 102, 150–9Google Scholar
Muckelroy, K W 1976. ‘Enclosed ambulatories in Romano-Celtic temples in Britain’, Britannia, 7, 173–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reece, R 1995. ‘Site-finds in Roman Britain’, Britannia, 26, 179–206 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rhodes, M 1991. ‘The Roman coinage from London Bridge and the development of the city and Southwark’, Britannia, 22, 179–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rives, J 2000. ‘Religion in the Roman world’, in Huskinson, J (ed), Experiencing Rome: culture, identity and power in the Roman empire, 246–76, Routledge, London Google Scholar
Roberts, D 2018. ‘Assessment report and updated project design; HE7228 the Deverill villa’, unpublished internal Historic England reportGoogle Scholar
Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England) 1983. ‘West Park Roman Villa, Rockbourne, Hampshire’, Archaeol J, 140 (1), 129–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Score, V 2011. Hoards, Hounds and Helmets: a conquest-period ritual site at Hallaton, Leicestershire, Leicester Archaeol Monogr 21, University of Leicester, Leicester Google Scholar
Serjeantson, D and Morris, J 2011. ‘Ravens and crows in Iron Age and Roman Britain’, Oxford J Archaeol, 30 (1), 85–107 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, A 2001. The Differential Use of Constructed Space in Southern Britain from the Late Iron Age to the 4th Century ad , BAR Brit Ser 318, Archaeopress, Oxford CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, A 2008. ‘The fate of pagan temples in south-east Britain during the late and post-Roman period’, in Rudling, D (ed), Ritual Landscapes of Roman South-East Britain, 171–90, Heritage Marketing & Publications Ltd, Oxford Google Scholar
Smith, A 2018. ‘Religion and the rural population’, in Smith, A, Allen, M, Brindle, T, Fulford, M, Lodwick, L and Rohnbogner, A (eds), Life and Death in the Countryside of Roman Britain, 120–204, Britannia Monogr Ser 31, Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, London Google Scholar
Swift, E 2000. Regionality in Dress Accessories in the Late Roman West, M Mergoil, Montagnac Google Scholar
Tomlin, R S O 1991. ‘Inscriptions’, Britannia, 22, 293–311 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomlin, R S O and Hassall, M W C 1999. ‘Inscriptions’, Britannia, 30, 375–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomlin, R S O and Hassall, M W C 2004. ‘Inscriptions’, Britannia, 35, 335–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walton, P J 2012. Rethinking Roman Britain: coinage and archaeology, Monetam, Wetteren Google Scholar
Walton, P J in press. ‘What lies beneath? Interpreting the Romano-British assemblage from the River Tees at Piercebridge, County Durham’, in J Lundock and M Sivilich (eds), Water in the Roman World, University of Florida Press, Gainsville Google Scholar
Webster, G 1986. ‘What the Britons required from the gods as seen through the pairing of Roman and Celtic deities and the character of votive offerings’, in Henig, M and King, A (eds), Pagan Gods and Shrines of the Roman Empire, 57–64. Oxford University School of Archaeology, Oxford Google Scholar
Wigg-Wolf, D 2005. ‘Coins and ritual in Late Iron Age and early Roman sanctuaries in the territory of the Treveri’, in Haselgrove, C and Wigg-Wolf, D (eds), Iron Age Coinage and Ritual Practices, 361–79, Phillipp von Zaben, Mainz Google Scholar
Wilkin, N, 2018. ‘Bronze Age metalwork’, in Jackson, R and Burleigh, G (eds), Dea Senuna: treasure, cult and ritual at Ashwell, Hertfordshire, 300–13, British Museum Press, London Google Scholar
Wilson, D R 1975. ‘Romano-Celtic temple architecture’, J Brit Archaeol Ass, 38 (1), 3–27 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, A and Leach, P 1993. The Uley Shrines, Excavation of a Ritual Complex on West Hill, Uley, Gloucestershire 1977–9, English Heritage, Swindon Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Henry et al. supplementary material

Henry et al. supplementary material

Download Henry et al. supplementary material(File)
File 155.1 KB