The context numbering for 1983 follows on from the 1982 excavations. Feature numbers quoted and shown on plans and sections are those used on site. However, for the convenience of this report the actual buildings are renumbered (1–11) and either retain the number given in the previous report (Vol. xiv), or follow on.

Following the reporting of the excavations at this site in the previous issue of Britannia (Vol. xiv), adjacent plots of land were purchased by the developers and incorporated into the new housing estate, the enlarged area comprising a broad swathe of land south of Nos. 108-114 Wood Lane End (FIG. I ) and, in particular, part of the garden of No. 104 which covered much of Building I. Most of the additional land lay outside the protected area but scheduled monument consent was required for construction over the garden of No. 104. This was granted by the DOE provided that the Roman building known to lie there remained undisturbed within the gardens of the new houses. However, during top-soil clearance the south-west side of Building I was accidentally exposed and it became apparent that its plan was not that previously assumed on the evidence of trial-trenching and geophysical survey carried out in 1966-7 and 1982 respectively. In addition, following the stripping of top-soil elsewhere, traces of other Roman buildings and features were discovered. Although development had already begun, the architect and builders were most co-operative in allowing excavation to take place; the excavations were carried out by the DOE's Central Excavation Unit between August and October 1983.

Recent waterfront excavations on the Pudding Lane site in the City of London exposed a timber structure to the south of, and earlier than, a late first-century quay. This provisional report describes the structure and its context, and summarizes evidence for and against its identification as a pier-base for an early bridge across the Thames.

A catalogue of stamped bronze vessels found in Britain, published by McPeake and Moore in a recent volume of this journal, discusses a total of 40 vessels, one of which was omitted by accident from their published list (Part II below, No. 34). There are, however, a number of errors and omissions in this catalogue, and they have failed to include three stamped skillets that have been known since early this century: all these vessels are referred to in papers used by McPeake and Moore in compiling their catalogue. A principal purpose of this paper, therefore, is to correct the major inaccuracies in McPeake's and Moore's contribution, and to bring to wider notice the three ‘forgotten’ skillets together with three recent finds from Cumbria: this work forms the basis of our Part II. In Part I, however, we discuss the evidence for the date at which Publius Cipius Polybius, the most prolific of the Capuan bronzesmiths, was chiefly active.

The Biglands milefortlet, the first known site of the Cumberland coast defences, lies 5,500 feet beyond the terminal fort at the western end of Hadrian's Wall at Bowness-on-Solway. It survives as a low but prominent grassy mound (FIG. I), situated some 60 m from the edge of the salt marsh and with views which command the Cardurnock peninsula, the Solway estuary and the mountains of Galloway. Its height above the level of the highest tides is 4–5 m, the subsoil consisting of the bedded sands and shingle of a raised beach. The most prominent feature both from the air and on the ground is the silted ditch of the fortlet; it encloses an area which is subrectangular in plan, measuring c. 40 by 50 m. Only the southern end of the fortlet, where there are the farm buildings of Biglands House, lies concealed. There is no obvious sign of a break in the ditch and it was thus assumed that this was a ‘long-axis’ fortlet, orientated north-south, with a rear entrance as at Cardurnock. The air photographs also showed traces of a palisade revetting the rampart which, as was demonstrated by trial-trenching in 1954, was built up of marsh silt; but no structures were recovered in these excavations, and there was only a thin scatter of second-century pottery.

This summary report is intended to keep readers abreast of the more recent work on the Solway frontier; and at the same time to discredit many of the highly subjective views and unsupported assertions published by R. L. Bellhouse in the previous volume of this journal, and also to present a summary of the current programme being undertaken along the Solway Frontier. The number of errors in Bellhouse's article may be judged from his failure to cite the primary publication of the Bowness-Cardurnock linear defences, of which he appears unaware. Many of the points do not warrant substantive comment here and are accordingly relegated to a footnote. It is more important to present a positive survey of the current results, even if this is only in summary form pending eventual publication of a book on the Solway Frontier.

Small finds in copper alloy with their maker's stamp allow study of their production and distribution — sometimes far flung across all the provinces of the Roman Empire — comparable to potters' stamps on terra sigillata or other pottery. Since stamped finds indicate their provenance from the same workshop and, above all, their production in the same period, it is possible to assess the arrangements for marketing by means of trading connections, the demand for certain goods, and their circulation due to the movements of the Roman army or private individuals. Vessels in copper alloy, brooches, and strigils are well recorded objects in this respect. However, study of small finds other than these is more difficult, as re-use of metals or imitation should also be considered, if scientific or typological methods are to be applied to explore either the components of the alloy or the shape of the implements. Dating too can be deceptive, as is demonstrated by objects which were sometimes in use for decades or even centuries.

In 1960 I published an account of the campaigns of Aulus Plautius and Ostorius Scapula in Britain, and attempted to show that the Fosse Way was part of a frontier system established by the first governor. There have been subsequent modifications as new information has come to light. A number of new sites has been discovered and the basic pattern of the Plautian frontier, as suggested in the original paper, now requires further consideration. Our conception of the military situations between 43 and 71 has become more complicated with increased knowledge of the tide of battle sweeping forward to the west and then the ebb bringing troops back into the rearward areas subsequent to the Boudiccan revolt. Several sites such as The Lunt at Baginton, Metchley and Usk are being carefully and extensively excavated. These are producing not only interesting sequences of buildings but quantities of pottery and coins which make closer dating possible. The amount of pottery in particular allows detailed studies of shapes and fabrics, enabling the changes to be more narrowly assessed than previously. This present paper is an attempt to consider this new information and to clarify the position as it is now seen. But the situation is still far too fluid for anything but an interim statement; as more work proceeds further adjustments will become necessary.

A phallic carving excavated by Northern Archaeological Associates in 2014 during investigations at Catterick, North Yorkshire, contained unique artistic features for a carving of this type in Roman Britain. Excavations were carried out as part of the A1 Leeming to Barton road upgrade scheme. The two features — a projecting line of ejaculate and an incised, triangular object — are here considered within the wider evidence base for phallic imagery in Roman Britain.

Archaeological fieldwork in the Forth-Clyde isthmus has been dominated by the World Heritage Monument of the Antonine Wall, the Roman frontier built in the second century a.d. Considerably less attention has been given to the evidence for post-Roman experience of the Wall and how it was remembered (and forgotten) in the subsequent centuries. This paper will briefly summarise historical notices of the Antonine Wall, then consider the archaeological and toponymic evidence for early medieval occupation. The role of the Forth-Clyde isthmus as a political frontier is shown to be less significant to our understanding of this period than the evidence for mobility, memory and the contested legacy of Rome in early medieval Scotland.