The most recent work at Vindolanda has produced some startling results which both support and challenge our standing interpretations of some aspects of the frontier zone in Roman Britain. These include the timeline for the development of forts on the frontier, the foundation of extramural settlements and the relationship between fort and extramural settlement. The work raises questions not only about Vindolanda but more generally about the formation of the frontier itself and the interpretation of the archaeology of other sites.

Severn Valley Ware has long been recognized as one of the most widespread and enduring classes of Roman coarse pottery found on sites in the west of England. It is usually represented in a distinctive orange, or less commonly, light grey-coloured fabric in a characteristic range of forms including jars, tankards and bowls. A detailed distribution of these wares on a national scale has never been compiled, although it is known that Severn Valley Wares have been found in greater or lesser quantities from Somerset in the south up to the Antonine Wall in the north. It is generally believed that the centre of the Severn Valley Ware industry was, as the name suggests, in the lower Severn Valley, particularly the area around Gloucester. This is supported by the high proportion of Severn Valley Wares in all contexts of Roman date at sites in central Gloucestershire and by petrological analysis of Severn Valley Wares which suggests that clays matching those used for making the pottery were available in the area. The actual production sites are less well documented with only two identified kilns known from the area; at Alkington and Malvern (see FIG. I).

A fragment of Roman monumental bronze sculpture was discovered near Lincoln in 2015 and reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme. This note offers identification of the piece as an over-life-size finger, describes comparable examples and similar pieces from the local area, and makes suggestions as to the original form of the sculpture from which it may have derived. The statue's metallurgical characteristics and making, the possible context of display and the circumstances of deposition are also considered.

This article reviews the emergence and development of Romano-British glass bangles in southern Britain by providing a fresh analysis of finds that also considers recent theoretical and historical advances in interpreting the transition from the late Iron Age to the Roman period. By analysing the emergence of bangles in terms of technological and stylistic transfer, it suggests that the technology used in their production and their visual elements have continental lineage. It also situates bangles amid indigenous developments in bodily adornments in southern Britain before a.d. 43. By reconnecting British bangles with their continental European counterparts and contextualising them within political, social and cultural processes in south-western England during the late pre-Roman Iron Age, the article argues that the emergence of bangles in Britain did not occur in a vacuum after the Claudian invasion in a.d. 43 but formed an integral part of globalising networks of cross-Channel trade and connections with the European mainland in the early first century a.d.

Despite being an intriguing, if obscure, series of artefacts there has been a hesitancy in academic discussion to address fully the myriad of questions raised by the design and archaeological find-spots of lead tanks from Roman Britain. This, and an uncritical acceptance that they were used by early Christians as baptismal fonts, has led to a lack of appreciation of their contribution to our knowledge of late Romano-British religion. This paper seeks to redress this via two channels. The first is a detailed and contextualised examination of the design, iconography and manufacture of these tanks. The second is an investigation into how the manner of their deposition can inform their function. It is concluded that the evidence used to associate the tanks with baptism is flawed and greater attention must be given to other facets of their design in order to gain an appreciation of their proper place in the culture and religion of Roman Britain.

This article discusses a not well-known funerary monument commemorating a centurion of British descent. IGLS 13.1.9188 records the centurion, T. Quintius Petrullus, ‘from Britain’, of the Third Cyrenaican Legion, who died aged 30 at Bostra in Arabia. This was a young age for a centurion and the article suggests that he had entered the army by a direct commission rather than risen through the ranks. Accordingly, he is likely to have belonged to a high-status family. The Bostra appointment was probably his first. The appointment is put into context alongside other similar equestrian career paths and the Jewish War during the reign of Hadrian is proposed as a possible occasion for the posting. In addition, the article examines this Briton alongside other Britons abroad.

This analysis of the stamps of Legio IX (or VIIII) Hispana found at Lincoln, Templeborough, Old Winteringham (Lines), Malton, Aldborough and mainly York, or at Carlisle and its legionary tilery at Scalesceugh forms a sequel to the present writer's article in Britannia vii (1976), 224-35 on ‘Tile-Stamps of the Sixth Legion found in Britain'. It has been based on rubbings and squeezes made from the originals. Much of the earlier bibliography has been omitted because stamps when published merely in printed capitals cannot be identified with specific dies. The die used for the one example known from Lincoln (Lindum) seems to have been taken north for use among others at one of the tileries, on sites not yet located, which supplied York (Eboracum). The rare examples from Aldborough (Isurium Brigantum), the capital of the canton fifteen miles north-west of York, match two of the dies from York. But in contrast one example, Type I, assigned with probability to Aldborough, has no parallel. The outlying post at Malton (Derventio) has produced two dies unmatched elsewhere, even at York.

The enamelled skillet-handle illustrated (FIG. I) was found in 1972 at Brough-on-Fosse, Nottinghamshire, by Mr John Hart. The handle adds a further example to the rare group of vessels with cham plevé enamelling which include the Rudge cup and Amiens skillet. The Brough skillet-handle measures 3 in. (7·8 cm) in length and is enamelled on the upper side; the reverse is plain. The enamelled decoration consists of a panel of vine-leaf ornament repeated five times. The enamel has flaked, but it appears that red was used in the centre of the vine leaf surrounded by a deep blue and then a green. These vessels are conveniently referred to as being enamelled, but recent analyses have shown that, in common with late Iron Age enamelwork, these are not true enamels but only coloured glass, which has not fused with the bronzework.

‘The problem of Claudius’ temple at Camulodunum is one of those hardy perennials where insufficient evidence makes a final solution in practice hardly possible; anyone laying the law down on the subject does so at his peril’.

Meagre archaeological data that add up to few hard facts, a sneer by Seneca on which a whole case has been built, obscure terminology in a solitary half-sentence of Tacitus – all the familiar knots in the problem are brought into play by C.J. Simpson in his recent reappraisal of the enigmatic temple. That there are enough loose ends to justify continuing debate is hardly in contention. Whether Simpson succeeds in demonstrating that a temple dedicated to the living emperor Claudius was already in existence at the colony by that emperor's death in A.D. 54 is another matter. A rejoinder provides in any event a welcome opportunity to consolidate a thesis that has been the focus of vigorous discussion for well over twenty years.

North of the Antonine Wall, four series of temporary camps have recently been distinguished. They are described as the ‘Stracathro-type’, from the distinctive gateway-plan first clearly demonstrated at Stracathro, and the 30-acre, 63-acre and 120-acre camps, after the average size of the different series. Much knowledge is to be gained if these camps can be related to the various Roman campaigns beyond the Antonine Wall, but temporary camps are notably difficult to date. Consideration of the distribution of the four series, and of the relative ages of the few camps that actually overlap, as demonstrated by excavation, has gone far towards solving the problem. Excavations at three key sites are here reported: since the crucial evidence is provided by ditch-sections, these are described minutely with the aid of detailed drawings (FIGS. 3–4, 5 and 9), specially prepared by Mr. D. R. Wilson. The excavations at Stracathro took place in September 1967, those at Ythan Wells in September 1968, and those at Ardoch in September 1969.

The Roman Fort of Bothwellhaugh is situated on the north-western boundary of the burgh of Motherwell, at the confluence of the River Clyde and the South Calder Water, immediately overlooking the point where the latter river was crossed by the Roman road (FIG. I). It lies approximately 15 miles (24 km) north-west of the Roman fort at Castledykes and 20 miles (32 km) south-east of Old Kilpatrick at the west end of the Antonine Wall. The site is one of great natural strength, the ground falling away very steeply on all sides except the east, and even here access would have been impeded in Roman times by a small tributary of the River Clyde, which, flowing south in a fairly narrow valley, cut across the most direct line of approach. Unfortunately the natural features on this side of the fort have been largely obscured in recent times by the levelling of adjacent coal-tips.

The following examination of the agricultural aspects of Bignor Roman villa was written in 1950, and is here reproduced with a few additions, and with corrections necessitated by the results of Professor S. S. Frere's excavations at the villa in the years 1957–1962.

It is very likely that Lysons, who excavated the villa in the eighteenth century, did not find, or did not record, earlier farm-buildings which may well have preceded those to be seen on his plan. Nor may he have noticed various details or subdivisions of the latter. Nevertheless it seemed worthwhile attempting their analysis in order to resuscitate the general lines of the agriculture practised at Bignor in the fourth century; and while further excavation of the farmyard, if it takes place, will doubtless produce corrections and new facts, the attempt will have been justified if it suggests new considerations and methods. Some of the conclusions of the present study were included in much abbreviated form in the writer's contribution on Roman Britain to The Agrarian History of England, Vol. I, part ii, published in 1972.

With the exception of stamped, red-slipped wares from the Argonne region of France, pottery imported from the Continent into late Roman Britain has received little attention. The object of this paper is to define and describe some types in Britain which appear to have originated in Germany. The vessels were first recognised during preparation of reports on Roman pottery from the Wallbrook, London, and Portchester Castle, Hampshire, and the closest parallels were to be found in the Rhineland. Petrological examination of these sherds in thin section and by heavy mineral analysis has defined two main categories of fabric, which accord geologically with the postulated origin. Further research in site- and museum-collections indicated the chronological and geographical distribution of these types in England: stratigraphical evidence, where available, points to a fourth-century date for importation, although in the Rhineland many of the forms originated in the late second and third centuries.

Gildas's much-criticised sketch, outlining the perils of Britain after Maximus, lists three Pictish wars before the adventus Saxonum. Claudian's poem on Stilicho's consulate seems to allude to a recent encounter, which may be one of these wars. Now that the political and propagandist character of Claudian's verse has been analysed, and the poems accurately dated, a more useful survey of the references to Britain may be attempted. The result is no more than a footnote to the understanding of Claudian: its impact may be greater on the understanding of Gildas.

The recent excavations at La Graufesenque have uncovered a number of new graffiti. One of these (A25b) is considered here for the light it sheds on the Latin name for samian ware or terra sigillata.

The potteries that produced samian ware at La Graufesenque have long been known for the graffiti, now numbering about a hundred, which were scratched onto the plates made in the kilns there. The graffiti have been used to elucidate the organization and the possible methods of production at the potteries, although the cryptic and fragmentary nature of most of them has made detailed discussion difficult. The common formula of the texts consists of a list of potters, each coupled with a name of a particular vessel and a number representing the amount of that pottery produced within a time-span that is not now ascertainable. A25b, and a small portion of a similar text, A26b, stand out from amongst these, however, as they appear to give a monthly tally of tasks carried out by various slaves. The names of these slaves also appear on other graffiti of the more usual sort and it can be reasonably assumed that A25b is also connected with the pottery industry. In fact, certain words in it bear this out, as the text and translation which follow demonstrate.