The renewed excavations in the pre-Hadrianic area of the Vindolanda site have continued to produce large numbers of writing-tablets. The inventory numbers under which the finds of 1985 and 1986 are catalogued run as far as 670; many include pieces of more than one tablet but there is, of course, a large number of scraps which are either blank or have only exiguous traces of writing. It is gratifying to report that the 1985 tablets have now gone to join their predecessors of 1973–5 in the British Museum, with an agreement that subsequent discoveries will also reach the same destination. It is envisaged that there will be two further seasons of excavation in 1987 and 1988. A rough estimate of the bulk of the significant written material which emerged in 1985 suggests that it is approximately the equivalent of the corpus of texts published in 1983. The yield of 1986 was somewhat smaller but there are good grounds for believing that this was not because the progress of the excavation was coming to the end of the tablet deposit and there is every reason to hope for significant quantities of tablets in 1987 and 1988.

Excavations by MoLAS at 30 Gresham Street and 12 Arthur Street in the City of London in 2001 have led to a complete reassessment of the provision of Roman London’s water supply. Four massive first- and second-century wells contained remains of two types of mechanical water-lifting machines or bucket-chain systems. The discoveries allowed identification of a similar bucket-chain from the Cheapside Roman baths, found 50 years earlier by Ivor Noël Hume of the Guildhall Museum. Archaeological and engineering analysis has revealed the water-lifting capacity of the machines, which could have supplied a significant proportion of the town’s population with clean water.

The achievement of textile producers in Roman Britain is highlighted most strikingly by two sets of entries in the Edict of Diocletian, a conspectus of traded goods and services available across the Empire, published in A.D. 301. The British birrus, a hooded cape of wool, is ranked equal sixth in a list of fourteen categories of birrus distinguished from one another by price and quality. A corresponding, but shorter, list of tapetia, wool rugs, puts both the British first-class and second-class grades ahead of all the rest: the British tapete, in short, was second to none. No other British product was deemed worthy of mention by the compilers of the Edict; prima facie, therefore, one could argue that textile production was Britain's leading industry by the late third century A.D. Can such a notion be substantiated?

The Roman waterfront in London has been discussed several times, most recently in The Port of Roman London (Milne, 1985) and The Roman Quay at St Magnus House, London (Miller, Schofield and Rhodes, 1986). The former dealt largely with the late-first-century waterfront and associated buildings recorded on sites excavated to the north of Thames Street, on either side of the Roman London Bridge, including Pudding Lane, Peninsular House and Miles Lane (FIG. I). The subsequent redevelopment of existing properties, and the construction of new buildings relating to succeeding waterfronts further to the south, were also covered in detail, although the later quays themselves (of early-second to mid-third-century date) lay beyond the site boundaries, and were only briefly discussed. The second report, however, dealt with the mid-second- to early-third-century waterfronts and the section of riverside wall recorded between 1974–78 at New Fresh Wharf (St Magnus House), adjacent to the more recent (1982) Billingsgate Lorry Park site. Both works discussed evidence for trade, as represented by finds from the various sites involved, in some depth.

Based on a new online database of Celtic personal names, this research demonstrates how the study of Romano-British onomastics can shed light on the complexities of linguistic and cultural contacts, complementing archaeological material and literary sources. After an introductory section on methodology, Part One analyses naming formulae and expressions of filiation as evidence for both continuity and change dependent on social and geographical factors. Confusion and contamination between the Latin and Celtic systems proved much less common than on the Continent, where earlier contact with Roman culture and the written tradition for Continental Celtic occasionally facilitated an unusual form of syncretism. Part Two examines the naming formulae attested at Roman Bath and the mechanisms by which Celts adopted Latin names. The case-study of Bath relates continuity and change in both naming formulae and nomenclature to an acceptance of, or resistance to, ‘Romanization’ in Britain.

Britain is now the main source of new Latin. Among British finds there are 130 curse tablets from the Sacred Spring at Bath, of roughly the second to fourth centuries A.D., some of them reasonably preserved, others fragmentary. These have recently been published by R.S.O. Tomlin, in a wide-ranging edition. An examination of Tomlin's elegant drawings of the tablets will make obvious to anyone the difficulty of reading the script, and Tomlin has done a remarkable job in elucidating the texts. He has also provided an extensive introduction, with a classification of formulae and linguistic phenomena, and a detailed commentary. The language of the tablets is of some interest. Various new usages make their appearance, and it is not fanciful to find the odd phenomenon which may have been characteristic particularly of British Latin. Here I offer a few new readings, some new interpretations, and a more extensive discussion of the Latinity than that attempted by Tomlin.

The Itinerarium Provinciarum Antonini Augusti is a collection of some 225 routes along the roads of the Roman Empire. In each case the beginning and the end of the route are given, together with the total mileage, and there then follows a list of the stopping-places on the route with a statement of the number of miles between each. The Itinerary begins in Mauretania, at Tingis, and then goes on to cover most, but not quite all, of the Empire in a somewhat random fashion (FIG. I). While six routes are given in Sardinia and one even in Corsica, there is none in Crete or Cyprus—in contrast to the Peutinger Table,3 which includes routes in Cyprus and Crete but not in Corsica and Sardinia. On the mainland the most obvious omission is that of transdanubian Dacia, but Achaea and Macedonia are also poorly represented and there are no routes at all in Lycia and Pamphylia. While Spain is treated generously, there are large gaps in Gaul, especially in Armorica; and even Spain is not dealt with as a province, or group of provinces, on its own, since some of its routes spill over into Gaul. A consideration of this and similar cases shows that the apparent coherence of the British section is largely fortuitous and derives from the fact that Britain is an island.

The present investigation was initiated as part of a programme of research into abandoned cliffs, focused particularly on their morphology, geomechanics and mode of development following the cessation of erosion at their foot. An excellent example of such a feature is provided by the cliffs backing the extensive littoral and alluvial accumulation of Romney Marsh in Kent (FIG 1.). At Lympne, the lower slopes of these are occupied by the remains of the Roman fort known as Stutfall Castle, which has been strongly disrupted by landslides. It was accordingly decided to concentrate the investigations in this general area, in the expectation that the archaeology of the fort would throw light on the later stages of landsliding and slope development. At the same time it was hoped that the geotechnical work would illuminate some of the long-standing archaeological problems of the site.

At Hollow Banks Quarry, Scorton, located just north of Catterick (N Yorks.), a highly unusual group of 15 late Roman burials was excavated between 1998 and 2000. The small cemetery consists of almost exclusively male burials, dated to the fourth century. An unusually large proportion of these individuals was buried with crossbow brooches and belt fittings, suggesting that they may have been serving in the late Roman army or administration and may have come to Scorton from the Continent. Multi-isotope analyses (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and strontium) of nine sufficiently well-preserved individuals indicate that seven males, all equipped with crossbow brooches and/or belt fittings, were not local to the Catterick area and that at least six of them probably came from the European mainland. Dietary (carbon and nitrogen isotope) analysis only of a tenth individual also suggests a non-local origin. At Scorton it appears that the presence of crossbow brooches and belts in the grave was more important for suggesting non-British origins than whether or not they were worn. This paper argues that cultural and social factors played a crucial part in the creation of funerary identities and highlights the need for both multi-proxy analyses and the careful contextual study of artefacts.

The series of forts which define the northern frontier of Britain after the recall of Agricola were abandoned before their construction had been completed. The latest coins found on these sites are bronze dupondii and asses of Domitian in mint or nearly mint condition, marked COS.XII (A.D. 86). It seems that as the coins were almost mint when lost these forts were abandoned in either late A.D. 86 or early A.D. 87 (see FIG. 1). There is now new numismatic evidence to support this and to cast further light on this period of Romano-British history. Recent work on the Roman coins from the Sacred Spring at Bath by David Walker has shown that the distribution by date of the bronze coins of Domitian follows a common and distinctive pattern throughout the province.

Non-destructive analytical techniques are now widely and successfully employed in the fields of materials science and conservation. Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) and portable Raman spectrometry have proven particularly valuable for the rapid in-situ analysis of samples, but their applicability for the analysis of archaeological artefacts for which survival of surface treatments can be negatively impacted by post-depositional processes has been underexplored. Roman relief-sculpted monumental inscriptions from the Antonine Wall, commonly referred to as ‘Distance Slabs’, have offered an excellent opportunity to deploy these non-destructive techniques to determine whether they were originally adorned with pigments and, if so, to identify the colours used. This is a revolutionary approach to identifying colours on ancient sandstone sculpture that transforms our understanding of these unique monuments. Elemental composition analysis by pXRF has confirmed evidence for pigments and this is supported by the Raman results, making it possible to develop and reconstruct a palette of colours that originally brought these monuments to life in vibrant polychrome. The research offers a new methodology for identifying pigments on sandstone sculpture and opens new avenues for investigating other classes of material culture alongside the development of bespoke analytical equipment.

It has generally been accepted that the Romans cultivated the vine in Britain although evidence for this, from either literary or archaeological sources, is limited. Information on crops cultivated in this country in early historical times must largely be obtained from sub-fossil remains, and the recent finding of mineralized grape-seeds from a mid second-century pit in the vicus at Doncaster resulted in a search of the literature for other records. The main purpose of this article is to evaluate these records as evidence for cultivation of the vine in Roman Britain. There are very few instances of this species being recovered from Roman archaeological deposits. The lack of detailed information in the early records not only renders them virtually worthless as proof of local viticulture but also prevents a reappraisal of the evidence in the light of present knowledge. These records have been listed previously in discussions on Roman viticulture but without much thought to the evidence they contain. It is apparent that this is partly due to a reliance on sources other than the original records, which is also suggested by errors noted in the quoting of these records.

By the time that the Romans had become involved in the affairs of Britain the use of client-kings as an instrument of foreign policy and military strategy was well-established. It is hardly surprising, then, that the employment of local chieftains, often against other local chieftains, should have been an important aspect of Caesar's policy. It was also a policy maintained by Claudius nearly a century later when he undertook the final conquest of Britain. The names of some of the rulers who threw in their lots with the Romans, such as Bodvoc(us), Cartimandua, Prasutagus, are of course, familiar, but none is more celebrated than the man generally considered the perfect exemplum of the British client-king, Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus. We have grown accustomed to thinking of Cogidubnus as a ruler who unreservedly embraced Roman authority and the Roman way of life, and who throughout his career epitomizes the benefits that Roman civilization can bestow on other nations. So prominent a place is he given in general accounts of the conquest, and so vivid a personality has he acquired, that it comes almost as a suprise to realize that there are only two ancient references to Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus.

Our knowledge of ancient artillery derives primarily from several ancient technical texts. The most important among them are the works of Philon, Heron and Vitruvius. Taken in combination, these texts are sufficiently detailed to allow reconstruction of functioning artillerypieces, and the first reconstructions of catapults were made as early as the middle of the nineteenth century, long before any actual find was known. The second source for our knowledge of ancient artillery consists of representations of catapults found on Greek and Roman reliefs. In spite of their small number these reliefs are a significant complement to the written texts, not only because they show technical detail which might otherwise be controversial, but also because most of them can be dated within narrow bounds and in this way give some hints at the direction of development of ancient artillery. But the chances of finding new texts or new reliefs are very small. So actual finds of ancient catapults in archaeological excavations constitute a third source, which will gain increasing importance, because there are fair chances of finding remains of catapults at a number of sites.

It is the intention of this paper to establish, insofar as the evidence permits, the auxiliary units in the army of Roman Britain and their forts of garrison at different periods. In Part One all such units are listed and the evidence for movement within Britain is cited, even when that evidence is no more than a single diploma which records presence in Britain. For units which served or may have served in other provinces as well as Britain the non-British evidence is cited selectively: the latest record before transfer to Britain or the first after movement away from the province; and records of vexillations serving in other provinces.

The demise of the Western Roman Empire combined with Germanic migration and influence from Continental Europe had a tumultuous and profound affect on the cultural and social identities of Britain's population. The fifth to seventh centuries a.d. remain a poorly understood epoch in British history, hence the once traditional ‘Dark Ages’ label. A variety of factors have contributed to this phenomenon, which include the exact nature and timing of the Roman administration's abandonment of Britannia, the precise character and extent of Germanic migration, questionable historical sources, the paucity of physical evidence, and problematic artefact dating. Zooarchaeological analysis can, therefore, aid the elucidation of this period through the development of new perspectives, highlighting the socio-cultural (and economic) processes involved in the emergence of early medieval Britain from Roman Britannia. Large-scale excavations were carried out at the baths basilica of Wroxeter (Shrops.) between 1966 and 1990. The city was the fourth largest urban centre in Roman Britain, and was the civitas-capital of the Cornovii. The excavations demonstrated how the public buildings of this central insula fell into disuse, prior to the possible construction of a grandiose private residence and complex in the sub-Roman period. It has been postulated that this building represents the palatial complex of a tyrannus, or possibly a bishopric of the ‘Western British’ church. Analysis of the resultant animal bone assemblage has provided an opportunity to explore the social and ethnic identity of the site's inhabitants through their dietary habits.

The Roman army has long been regarded as the epitome of organised self-sufficiency in both ancient and more recent literature. That the army acted as engineers as well as soldiers is so amply attested that it needs no comment here. The manufacture of tiles by the military is well known and the quarrying of stone both by the soldiers themselves and under military supervision is attested; but there is little evidence for the supply of building timber to the army. Since throughout the first and for a large part of the second century the majority of forts in Britain were built wholly or partly of timber, this represents a considerable gap in our knowledge of military building. This article is an attempt to consider the problems of timber-supplies for military purposes in Britain during that period.

It is generally held that Hadrian's Wall was abandoned c. A.D. 140 in favour of a heavily garrisoned Antonine Wall, then reoccupied about A.D. 158 upon withdrawal of troops from Scotland and the Antonine Wall. Almost immediately troops returned to Scotland, though the northern garrison was thinner than before. This second, brief occupation of the Antonine Wall is now most often supposed to have ended at some date early in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, Hadrian's Wall then being reoccupied.