Various forms of spectroscopic analysis are used for the study of human artifacts. Three methods are compared in this note on a large Roman cremation.

The ‘Marquis of Granby’ Inn (TQ 1612 0521) stands at the foot of the southern slope of the South Downs, in the village of Sompting, to the east of Worthing, in Sussex (FIG. I ). The local soil consists of some 3 ft. of brown earth on chalk. In the course of recent extensions to the inn part of the slope immediately to the north was levelled. A broken urn and 11 associated vessels lay on the buried chalk surface, beneath the extensions, together with a coin of Geta.

The discovery of a large Roman camp at Durno, six miles NW of Inverurie, in Aberdeenshire, was made on 26 July 1975, in the course of a reconnaissance flight from Scone airfield to the Moray Firth. Only about half the perimeter, including two gates (each with a traverse) was visible at the time of discovery, but this was enough to show that the area exceeded 50 acres. Further observation from the air in 1976-77, and field-work, including the digging of a number of ditch-sections, have established the line of the ditch round the greater part of the perimeter, proving the area to be about 140 acres (57 ha.).

The plan of the Roman villa at East End in the parish of North Leigh (Oxfordshire) has long been familiar from R.G. Collingwood's handbook, The Archaeology of Roman Britain (1930), where it stands as the ‘type’ of the courtyard house (FIG. 1). Our knowledge of this plan is, however, only partial. Neither in the original excavations of 1813–17 by Henry Hakewill, nor in the re-excavation of 1910–11 by Donald Atkinson and H.G. Evelyn White, were the buildings surrounding the main courtyard completely examined. In addition, other buildings on the south-west side were suspected by Hakewill in 1817 and brilliantly demonstrated in air-photographs taken in 1943 by Derrick Riley, while John Ward conjectured a lower courtyard on the south-east side, like those at Bignor and Woodchester.

In 1954 a chip-carved slab was discovered on the Romano-British settlement at Gatcombe, near Bristol. Interest in its decoration and possible use led to a search for other examples, and has resulted in the listing of some 30 slabs from 23 sites in the counties of Avon, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Gwent, Hampshire, Somersetshire and Wiltshire. The map (FIG. 1), together with the gazetteer, provide a record of the known find spots. Attempts to trace slabs outside of the counties above have been unsuccessful but no doubt some have been missed and others will continue to appear on excavations.

The two most important studies of the Notitia Dignitatum (by Bury in 1920 and by Jones in 1964) were in basic agreement that the Western Notitia as we have it represents an official document, compiled in the mid-390s and kept in use (and thus more or less up to date) into the 420s. Although this conclusion has been questioned from time to time it has generally withstood attacks and remains the accepted assessment of the western document. Indeed, any detailed examination of the Western Notitia as a whole must lead to a similar conclusion, although differences as to the exact dates of compilation and abandonment are inevitable.

Mediobogdum is founded on comparatively level ground half-way down the west side of Hardknott pass, above the 800 ft. contour. It is an extremely wet site, peat having formed up to o·60 m thick in hollows between the rock outcrops or where collapsed walling has blocked the natural drainage. It was by chance in digging a drain through the retentura to improve the upper part of the site behind the granaries that the first piece of leather was found in 1965. This is thought to be part of a soldier's jerkin.

Over recent years Northampton Museums and Art Gallery has built up a good working-relationship with many metal detector users, operating within the Northamptonshire county boundaries. This has led to a marked increase in the reporting of Iron Age coins to the Museum for research and study. Of the 236 coins recorded from the county to date, 56 per cent have been reported since 1980. Of these, 75 per cent (or 100 coins) have been reported since 1990 (when this author started work at the Museum).

Dr. J. C. Mann has given us (Britannia ii (1971), 218–24) a rich listing of variants attested in the Latin inscriptions of Britain. His list is very complete and based on up-to-date sources, keyed where appropriate to RIB. As such it is a very valuable collection.

The variants are classed by Latin letters which are found in the spellings in relation to what is expected in classical Latin. In the commentary which is offered below variation is classed not so much by the letter(s) involved as by the mechanism or phenomenon which is seen as accounting for the observed variation. Such a classification, if correct and fully explicated, may hope to lead ultimately not only to a recognition of the truly popular and spoken characteristics of the Latin of Britain but also to a grasp of the basis of this differentiation and of the social forces at work.

Early in 1961 the mechanical grader scooping out the line of the street called Via Romana in the new Readers' Estate at Chalk, Kent (Nat. Grid Ref. TQ, 677730) exposed the corner of a buried building. Trial excavation directed by Mr. A. F. Allen was followed by a full excavation mounted by the Ministry of Works, with the full cooperation of the developers; this was directed by the writer and Mrs. Anne Eastham. The Readers' Estate overlooks the mudflats of the Thames estuary and bears a varied topsoil of clays, flint, pebbles and sand. Between this and the underlying chalk is a layer of weathered chalk, glacially deposited, and known as ‘head’ or ‘bullhead’. The foundations of our buildings were cut into this.

The mosaics of fourth-century Romano-British villas constitute a rich but relatively neglected resource. In this paper, I propose to demonstrate how figured pavements can provide indications of the function of the rooms they decorated.

Hitherto, an approach to the identification of different types of room using mosaics as a prime indicator is one that has not been fully utilised. Major studies of the Roman villa are valuable in their own right but barely touch upon room function. Some important and still-cited articles have concentrated on form rather than function. Other studies have focused upon social aspects of the villa. In recent years comments have been made about how decoration can be used to differentiate space but with little reference to mosaics. As against those studies which hint at the use of mosaics but do not make much of them, Thébert has produced a seminal work addressing function, architecture and decoration, especially mosaics, showing that many illuminating deductions can be made.

This paper explores the development of tile-stamping in the period a.d. 100–50 by the Gloucester and Cirencester civic authorities, and by private tile-makers in Gloucestershire, and the territorial divisions between them. It argues that builders’ merchants were used in tile distribution and building reclamation and, inter alia, identifies Hucclecote villa as such a site. It proposes that Gloucester tiles stamped just RPG were issued annually and were used for commercial purposes while tiles with magistrates’ names were issued as required, but only for use on public buildings. The evidence suggests that these stamps were subsequently extensively curated. This paper adds nearly 200 new stamps to the existing catalogues and proposes significant revisions to the magistrate dies as a result.

This paper describes the hitherto unpublished South Gate of the Roman city at Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk, which was excavated by Donald Atkinson in 1934; it discusses the implications both of the adjacent two kinds of external towers and of his trench through the rampart behind the city's north wall, dug in 1930 but not previously published.