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Excavations and Finds from The Lanes, Carlisle*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

M. R. McCarthy ,
T. G. Padley  and
M. Henig
M. R. McCarthy
Affiliation:
Carlisle Archaelogical Unit
T. G. Padley
Affiliation:
Carlisle Archaelogical Unit
M. Henig
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, Oxford
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Extract

In a recent paper the late Dorothy Charlesworth published a valuable survey and gazetteer of finds entitled ‘Roman Carlisle’. This was the first attempt to bring together and summarize all the available evidence for Luguvalium, Rome's most north-westerly town and civitas capital. The paper dealt with both finds recovered during the previous century, many of which lack a secure provenance in the city centre, and with the results of observations and very small-scale excavations undertaken since the Second World War. At the time the article was written no major area excavations had been completed on Roman deposits and the first, Blackfriars Street, was still in progress. Since 1977, Carlisle Archaeological Unit has completed work on Blackfriars Street and is currently excavating in The Lanes, Castle Street, and Annetwell Street. The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to discoveries, mainly in the Lanes area, in advance of the first publication which is not anticipated before the late 1980's. The paper is divided into two sections of which the first (by M. McCarthy) outlines salient structural features, whilst the second (by T. G. Padley, Finds Assistant with the Unit, and Dr M. Henig, Institute of Archaeology, Oxford) deals with finds. It should be borne in mind that further work on all aspects of the site for final publication may result in the modification of some conclusions.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 13 , November 1982 , pp. 79 - 89
Copyright
Copyright © M. R. McCarthy, T. G. Padley and M. Henig 1982. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Arch. Journ. cxxxv (1978), 115-37.

2 An area of approximately five acres fronting on to Scotch Street and minutely subdivided into many long narrow strips, The Lanes has been the subject of development proposals and counter-proposals since 1954. In 1977 the City Council decided to make a further effort, this time successful, to resolve the future of this part of the City Centre. It was clear at the outset that excavations alone would not do justice to a project of this size, and accordingly a historian was appointed to examine aspects of the medieval documentation in conjunction with the County Archivist, and all the standing buildings dating to before the First World War and which were threatened with demolition were recorded in detail.

3 Grew, F. O., ‘Roman Britain in 1980’, Britannia xii (1981), 325Google Scholar.

4 Further excavation since note 3 above was written has slightly expanded the terminal dates.

5 Hogg, R., ‘Excavations at Tullie House’, Trans. Cumbd Westmd Antiq. Arch. Soc. n.s. lxiv (1964), 14–63Google Scholar.

6 G. C. Boon, Silchester: the Roman Town of Calleva (1974), 145, fig. 21 no. 9. Chapman, H., in Blurton, T. R., Trans. London Middlesex Arch. Soc. xxviii (1977), 14–100Google Scholar, 67 no. 487, fig. 20 no. 487.

7 The excavation numbers of the eight tablets are: LAL B257 W65; LAL C209 W135; LAL C295 W207; LAL D232 W79; LAL D232 W80; LAL DIOI6 W211; LAL D1016 W213; OGL A430 W109. Numbers 6 and 7 come from the same context as the wheel.

8 This is LAL C302 W191.

9 R. Birley, Vindolanda, a Roman Frontier Post on Hadrian's Wall (1977), 125-6, fig. 38, nn. 116, 117.

10 A full report on the intaglio will appear in the final report on the Lanes excavations. A photograph of it can be seen in M. McCarthy, Carlisle, A Frontier City (1980), 15. The object is KLA B447 1276.

11 J. M. C. Toynbee, Art in Britain under the Romans (1964), 85.

12 ibid, (note 11), 356; R. Hogg, op. cit. (note 5), 27, fig. 1 no. 4.

13 LAL D1016 W312.

14 J. Curie, A Roman Frontier Post and its People (1911), 292; G. Macdonald and A. Park, The Roman Forts on the Bar Hill (1906), 94; A. Robertson, M. Scott, L. Keppie, Bar Hill: A Roman Fort and its Finds, BAR 16 (1975), 48.

15 G. Sturt, The Wheelwright's Shop (1943), 46-8.

16 J. Curie, op. cit. (note 14), 292; G. Macdonald and A. Park, op. cit. (note 14), 94; However, A. Robertson et al., op. cit. (note 14), 48, state that the Bar Hill spokes are made of ash.

17 See note 14 for references.

18 J. Curie, op. cit. (note 14), pl. 64; S. Piggott, Ancient Europe (1965), fig. 137.

19 J. Curie, op. cit. (note 14), pl. 64, fig. 2; G. Macdonald and A. Park, op. cit. (note 14), 94; A. Robertson et. al. op. cit. (note 14), 48, fig. 14; For the Glastonbury examples, A. Bulleid and H. St G. Gray, The Glastonbury Lake Village (1911), 328, 337-40.

20 I. M. Stead, The Arras Culture (1979), 44.

21 M. Macqueen, ‘Conservation of the Roman Wheels with Iron Tyres from the Roman Fort at Neswtead’. in T. Bryce and J. Tate (eds.), The Laboratories of the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (1980), 30-5.

22 G. Macdonald and A. Park, op, cit. (note 14), fig. 34; A. Robertson et al., op. cit. (note 14), fig. 14.

23 J. Close-Brooks, pers. comm.; A. Robertson et al., op. cit. (note 14), 48.

24 A. Bulleid and H. St G. Gray, op. cit. (note 19), 328, 337-40, 341-2; At the site a complete spoke was found.

25 The Newstead wheel certainly has (J. Close-Brooks, pers. comm.; S. Piggott, op. cit. (note 18), 244, fig. 137) despite contradictory references such as M. Macqueen, op. cit. (note 21) and the original excavation report (J. Curie, op. cit. (note 14), 292). The Bar Hill wheel is less easy to confirm, though Piggott, S. (‘A wheel of Iron Age type from Ryton, Co. Durham’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. xv (1949), 191CrossRefGoogle Scholar; op. cit. (note 18)) states that it is. A. Robertson et al., op. cit. (note 14), 48 state that square tenons are used at each end. This cannot at present be checked as the wheel has recently been conserved (L. Keppie, pers. comm.).

26 J. Close-Brooks, pers. comm.; M. Macqueen, op. cit. (note 21).

27 G. Kossack, ‘The Construction of the Felloe in Iron Age Spoked Wheels’, in J. Boardman, M. A. Brown, and T. G. E. Powell, The European Community in Later Prehistory (1971), 143-63.

28 A. Bulleid and H. St G. Gray, op. cit. (note 19), 328, 337-40; S. Piggott, op. cit. (note 18), 244, and n. 25.

29 S. Piggott, op. cit. (note 25).

30 Curie, J., Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot, lxvii (1912/1913), 385–6Google Scholar; G. Macdonald and A. Park, op. cit. (note 14), 94; Musty, J. and MacCormick, A., Antiq. Journ. liii (1973), 275–7Google Scholar.

31 T. G. P.'s italics. Reference to Diocletian's edict taken from J. Liversidge ‘Woodwork’, in D. Strong and D. Brown, ‘Roman Crafts’ (1976), 163.

32 G. Sturt, op. cit. (note 15), 104-7.

33 This section is written by T. G. P. and M. H. jointly.

34 Dimensions. The external shape is oval, 42 × 30 mm. The perforation of the ring is 17 mm in the diameter at the top and bottom, thinning to 15·5 mm in the middle. The head is 21 mm high.

35 Chapman, H., Trans. London Middlesex Archaeol. Soc. xxv (1974), 273–7Google Scholar; Brown, D. and Henig, M., ‘Figured Amber in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford’, in Munby, J. and Henig, M., Roman Life and Art in Britain, BAR 41 (1977), 21Google Scholar. For amber in the Netherlands, see H. J. H. Van Buchem, ‘Barnsteen in Onze Oudheid’, Numaga 22 no. 4 (December 1975), 208-18.

36 D. E. Strong, Catalogue of the Carved Amber in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum (1966), passim, especially 9-10, 33-36. A knife handle probably Roman, from Carlisle, (TH 1892-187).

37 Pliny, NH xxxvii. 30-51, esp. 49.

38 ibid. 30; Artemidorus, Onirocriticon 2, 5.

39 Pliny, NH xxxvii, 48-51, esp. 49.

40 For heads of women, see F. Henkel, Die Römischen Fingerringe der Rheinlande (1913), pl. 42, no. 1676 (Regensburg); Abramic, M. and Colnago, A. in Jahreshefte des Öster. arch. Institutes in Wien xii (1909)Google Scholar, Beiblatt cols. 97-9, figs. 65-7; Bertacchi, L., ‘Recenti Acquiszioni di Ambre nel Museo di Aquileia’, Aquileia Nostra xxv (1964)Google Scholar, cols. 60-2, figs. 8 and 9; Calvi, M. Carina, ‘Le Ambre Romane di Aquileia’, Aquileia Nostra xlviii (1977)Google Scholar, cols. 94 and 97-8, fig. 5. Other devices, ibid; Strong, op. cit. (note 36), 94 f., and pl. 42 no. 119; P. La Baume ‘Römische Bernsteinarbeiten in Köln’ in M. Klaus et al. (eds.) Studien zur europaischen Vor-und Frühgeschichte, Festschrift für Herbert Jankuhn (1968), no, nos. 22-6, pl. 14, 3-6.

41 M. Henig ‘Death and the Maiden: Funerary Symbolism in Daily Life’, in J. Munby and M. Henig, op. cit. (note 35), 347-66.

42 Oxford Classical Dictionary (2nd ed., 1970), 138, section 3; Alcock, J. P., Arch. Journ. cxxxvii (1980), 50–85Google Scholar, especially p. 51, describes the funerary significance of Minerva.

43 Henig, M., ‘A new Cameo from Lincolnshire’, Antiq. Journ. l (1970), 338–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Henig, M.. A Corpus of Roman Engraved Gemstones from British Sites, BAR 8 (2nd ed., 1978), 69, 273Google Scholar, pl. 52 no. 733; 213, pl. 37 no. 227; M. Henig in J. Munby and M. Henig, op. cit. (note 35), 359.

44 Biavaschi, T., ‘Ambre Aquileiesi nel Museo Civico di Udine’, Aquileia Nostra xxii, (1951)Google Scholar, cols. 15-17, fig. 1.

45 M. Carina Calvi, op. cit. (note 40), col. 98.