What are the reasons behind the contamination of oriental cults in Roman Britain? What circumstances led to this spiritual upheaval, the results of which contributed to the triumph of Christianity? This problem, which is fundamental to the history of religions and for the identification of the origins of Western civilization, is at the centre of this classic study by E. Harris and J.R. Harris. It is a work of immense value for its methodological rigour and the subtlety with which it is able to reconstruct the articulations and the organic unity of a singularly complex and elusive phenomenon.

Good preservation in the western part of 10 Gresham Street has led to an unusually complete picture of the archaeological sequence.The discovery here of the largest group of Romano-British round houses yet excavated in London, clustered round a rectangular building, is of considerable significance for the Iron Age–Roman transition. Moreover, the site’s main north–south road seems to have been key to determining the layout of this whole area while evidence pointing to sporadic fires in the 2nd century AD casts new light on the idea of a single, catastrophic event. Significant finds include a double gold finger ring of the 1st century AD, while close study of face pots and tazze leads to a rethinking of their possible ritual functions.Abandoned from the late 4th/early 5th century AD until the 10th century, by the 12th century the site boasted at least four masonry buildings. The remains of several rare and expensive glass display vessels found in a 13th-century refuse pit indicate the presence of an extremely affluent household. Later, two taverns stood on the site or very close by, and significant numbers of vessels for storing and serving ale and wine were recovered. Considerable truncation of post-medieval structures and deposits, however, means that only the deepest cellars and cesspits survived from that period.

The unremarkable arable landscape around Mount Pleasant today belies the importance of the area in the past; at the highest point of the Lincolnshire Wolds and at the head of three radial valleys, this was a highly significant locality in earlier times. The discovery of surface finds by archaeologists working ahead of a prospective gas pipeline in 1992-3 augmented a collection of finds metal-detected during the 1980s. The large number of Iron Age coins and contemporary miniatures indicative of votive material suggested the location of a shrine. At the instigation of the County Archaeologist supported by Lincolnshire County Council, Steven Willis began a programme of evaluation trenching at Mount Pleasant in 1998 in a research exercise designed to better understand the site and to assemble information to assist the longer term management of the extensive, though fragile, remains there. The work on site included student training in fieldwork methods, assisted by the vital contribution of volunteers from the local community.Ten trenches were excavated, each revealing remains confirming the significance of the site to the early populations of the Wolds. A number of Neolithic palisade features were recorded representing land division and enclosure features, evidently part of a ceremonial landscape associated with barrows. The discovery of a stratified Early Bronze Age axe-head, Middle and Late Iron Age finds, including pottery, brooches, quernstones and coins were a testament to its continued occupation.Whilst the more striking finds point to votive activity, evidence for economic and cultural activity and prolific pottery finds from the Early Roman era, suggest a settled community was established by this period. The enclosure systems and tracks revealed by geophysical survey on either side of the B1225, which runs through the site, suggested that the modern road must overly a Roman predecessor. Stone founded buildings and site morphology exposed by excavation confirmed this and showed the site to have been a nodal point in the landscape, a crossroads embedded in the topography. A continuing religious focus at the site is demonstrated by the presence of an inscribed lead tablet of the Late Roman period with a list of named Roman citizens, presumably two households of this site or locality.Studies of faunal and environmental samples provide an insight into diet, crop production, local ecology and land use. Together with the specialist analysis of the artefactual evidence, this volume reveals a complex picture of the life and times of the site until occupation came to a rather abrupt end in the first half of the fourth century in an apparently widespread re-organization of settlement in the region. There was no post-Roman occupation; until the recent discoveries, all evidence of the rich archaeology of the site was in danger of remaining in obscurity. Further investigative work on the Wolds however is now recognized as a research priority.

This is the first major analysis of the Roman pottery from excavations in Lincoln (comprising more than 150,000 sherds). The pottery is presented in seven major ware groups. Fine wares include a modest range of imports and are dominated by Nene Valley products. Oxidised wares are mostly local products with a few imports as are the shell- and calcite-tempered wares and reduced wares. The final three are the standard specialised wares: mortaria, mostly of German and Mancetter-Hartshill manufacture; amphorae (80% Spanish Dressel 20) and samian, mostly from Les Martres/Lezoux and 75% undecorated! The discussion explores the chronological range of the entire ceramic assemblage across the three discrete parts of the Roman fortress and later colonia.

Charting a decade of intensive fieldwork along a 2km stretch of the Colne Fen, Earith fen-edge, the scope of these books is formidable and together they include the work of 65 contributing specialists (with a foreword by Ian Hodder). The fieldwork involved innovative methodologies, and groundbreaking scientific and micro-sampling studies are presented within the volumes. Portions of text are, moreover, avowedly experimental (e. g. intertextuality and antiquarian-informed perspectives) and it explores the long-term interplay of landscape process and (proto-) historicism. Appropriate to the practice of a comparative archaeology and the ‘challenge of numbers’, throughout emphasis is given to multiple-scale settlement and spatial/distributional analyses.The scale of Volume II — the ‘Roman book’ — is even more daunting. Aside from including reports of earlier local excavations, it is primarily concerned with two major ‘set-piece’ sites. The one, Langdale Hale, was a mass-production supply farm; the other, The Camp Ground, a great inland barge-port settlement linked to the Car Dyke canal. Both reflect upon the potential role of the state and address crucial issues of ‘Romanization’, with facets of their sequences markedly contrasting with the Stonea-engendered Fenland Imperial Estate model. Besides uniquely detailing the character of the settlements’ Late Roman usage (involving terpen-like mounds and raised ‘platformed’ structures) and trade connections, the port-site’s aftermath is also discussed as an important assemblage of Anglo-Scandinavian bonework was recovered. To provide further immediate-landscape context, the results from neighbouring sites alsofeature, including an important Late Roman cemetery at Knobbs Farm, Somersham.

Newcastle upon Tyne is one of England’s great cities. Many think of it mainly as a product of the Industrial Revolution when abundant resources of coal, iron ore and water came together to create a Victorian industrial powerhouse. In fact, Newcastle’s long and proud history began in Roman times when Hadrian’s Wall marked the northernmost point of the Roman Empire. Newcastle became a thriving medieval port, with trading connections around the North Sea, the Atlantic, the Baltic countries and the Mediterranean. By the mid-17th century, Newcastle was not only a major European port, but was also becoming the pre-eminent exporter of coal fuelling the incipient industrial revolution. This volume brings together the archaeological evidence for occupation in the historic core of Newcastle between the prehistoric period and 1650. It places the evidence in the context of the evolving historical communities who made and occupied the site, and in the wider context of medieval and early modern European urban life.The volume synthesizes archaeological and historical evidence, highlighting material only known through excavation – like the early medieval use of the decaying Roman fort for a cemetery and probable church – as well as throwing new light on documented activities – like the way in which the waterfront was physically extended and consolidated to support trade from the 12th century onwards. Taking its name from a castle of national significance, planted after the Norman Conquest as a bulwark against Northern rebels and Scottish aggression, Newcastle was established as the king’s ‘Eye of the North’.

Excavations in Syon Park, Brentford, have made a substantial contribution to our knowledge of this Roman rural settlement on the London–Silchester road, by a ford across the Thames. The site yielded a well-dated sequence – from the mid 1st to early 5th century AD – including occupation deposits and two 2nd-century timber buildings destroyed by fire, as well as details of the main road and adjacent field system. These and a large assemblage of finds, including a surgical instrument and a roundel depicting the Medusa, provide a rare glimpse of life in the countryside in the hinterland of Londinium. A detailed overview of Roman Brentford (the first to be published since 1978) is included.

Located on the south side of the River Tees, in north-east England, the Roman villa at Ingleby Barwick is one of the most northerly in the Roman Empire. Discovered originally through aerial photography and an extensive programme of evaluation, the site was excavated in 2003-04 in advance of housing development. Unusually for the region, the site demonstrated evidence for occupation from the later prehistoric period through to the Anglo-Saxon. The excavations at Ingleby Barwick are significant not only for their scale but also for being carried out under modern recording conditions, allowing for extensive and detailed analysis of the finds. The villa is also a rare example of a Roman civilian site in the hinterland of Hadrian’s Wall.The Roman winged corridor villa and its outlying stone structures were surrounded by an extensive layout of rectilinear enclosures. While the main villa building was preserved in situ, excavation of the surrounding area revealed features such as ovens and paved surfaces, as well as rare finds such as a glass tableware vessel probably from Egypt and a large hoard of metalwork. The pottery has allowed a detailed phasing of the site to be proposed, while the environmental evidence reveals the villa to have been a working farm.

Excavations on the south side of Cheapside found evidence for Roman timber buildings and pits dating to the later 1st and 2nd centuries AD, and a masonry building constructed after c AD 125. The main west–east road through Londinium lay immediately north of the site. Evidence for later Roman occupation was limited by modern truncation. No medieval ground surfaces survive, but the site was reoccupied from the 10th century with at least one substantial building existing by the 13th century. Pit and well groups include late 13th- or early 14th-century vessels associated with the wine trade and early 14th-century kitchenware.

The twenty-second Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference (TRAC) was held at the Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main in spring 2012. During the three-day conference fifty papers were delivered, discussing issues from a wide range of geographical regions of the Roman Empire, and applying various theoretical and methodological approaches. An equally wide selection of subjects was presented: sessions looked at Greek art and philhellenism in the Roman world, the validity of the concept of ‘Romanisation’, change and continuity in Roman religion, urban neighbourhood relations in Pompeii and Ostia, the transformation of objects in and from the Roman world, frontier markets and Roman archaeology in the Provinces. In addition, two general sessions covered single topics such as the ‘transvestite of Catterick’, metal recycling or Egyptian funeral practice in the Roman period. This volume contains a selection of papers from all these sessions.

Excavation in advance of engineering works along the M1 from Junctions 6a to 10 (between Hemel Hempstead and Luton) revealed significant archaeological remains of wide-ranging date. Important evidence for late Mesolithic and early Neolithic activity, including pits, was found at Junction 9, while later prehistoric features were more widely distributed but less concentrated. Late Iron Age and Roman features were most common, with significant rural settlements at Junctions 8 and 9, and further evidence for trackways and enclosures elsewhere. These sites were of fairly low status and concerned with mixed agriculture, though incidental activities included manufacture of puddingstone querns. Occupation was most intensive in the 1st-2nd centuries AD and on a reduced scale in the late Roman period. At Junction 8, however, an east-west trackway apparently survived as a landscape feature and in the 12th and 13th centuries was adjoined by a ditched enclosure containing structures belonging to a substantial farmstead.

Our recent understanding of British history has been slowly unravelling thanks to new techniques such as DNA analysis, new archaeological data and reassessment of the literary evidence. There are considerable problems in understanding the early history of Britain; sources for the centuries from the first Roman invasion to 1000 AD are few and contradictory, the archaeological record complex and there is little collaboration or agreement between archaeologists, Roman and Anglo-Saxon historians. A common assumption concerning the development of the English language and, therefore British history, is that there was an invasion from northern Europe in the 5th century, the so-called Anglo-Saxon migration; a model based on the writings of Bede. However the Bedan model has become increasingly unsustainable and is on the verge of collapse. Myth and History offers a comprehensive re-assessment of the present scientific, historical, archaeological and language evidence, debunking the model of British history based on Bede, and showing how Roman texts can be used in conjunction with the other evidence to build an alternative picture. Stephen Yeates demonstrates that the evidence that has been used to construct the story of an Anglo-Saxon migration, with an incoming population replacing most, if not all, of the British population has been found wanting, that initial attempts to interpret literally the DNA evidence based on historical sources are problematic, and that the best DNA analysis of the British Isles fits the evidence into a broader European view which attempts to plot the movement of people across the Continent and which sees the major migration periods in Europe as occurring in the Mesolithic and the Neolithic. This DNA analysis is constant with the latest assessments based on language development, contemporary historical reports from the Roman period, and the analysis of archaeological data from the Iron Age and Roman period. He also argues that the Roman texts can be used to identify where the Late Roman provinces of Britain actually lay and this leads to important conclusions about the ethnicity and origins of the early British peoples. This book is a timely attempt to unravel myth from history, present a cogent platform for Anglo-Saxon studies and understand who the British people really are.

The discovery in 2004 of a Roman period settlement during archaeological investigations by Pre-Construct Archaeology was highly unexpected given the paucity of remains of this date in the Darlington area. Around the late first century AD an unenclosed farmstead was established at the site and the quantity of South Gaulish samian from this period indicates that from its earliest inception Faverdale was a settlement of some standing. A remarkable discovery was that of a small stone two-room building, furnished with a hypocaust system and decorated with painted wall plaster, set within a substantial rectilinear ditched enclosure constructed in the second century AD. This book details the fascinating evidence for social and cultural change within a remarkably short space of time after the occupation of the northern frontier zone by the Roman military.

Excavations along the new road line have revealed nearly 6000 years of human activity, from a massive marker post erected by early Neolithic farmers at the head of a dry valley to a bizarre burial of several different animals dating to the sixteenth century AD. Prehistoric discoveries include two enclosures of the middle Bronze Age, both associated with some of the earliest cobbled roads in Kent, a collection of Iron Age storage pits rich in diverse deliberate offerings, and the emergence of a nucleated hamlet in the middle Iron Age. Most exciting were rich cremation burials of the late Iron Age and early Roman periods, probably successive generations of a local family, whose rise to prominence coincides with the growth of the cult centre at Springhead nearby. The metal vessels include types new to Britain, the pottery stamps suggest the movement of continental potters to Kent, and one grave has the clearest evidence of furniture yet found from early Roman Britain. Medieval settlements of the late 11th-14th centuries mirror the renewed importance of Watling Street after the Norman conquest, and its eventual return to obscurity due to competition from the ferry from London to Gravesend.

This volume describes the results of a series of archaeological excavations undertaken in advance of the construction of a new dual carriageway, some 32 km long, across Anglesey. Five main sites and a series of prehistoric burnt mounds are discussed. The route encountered remains of Neolithic pit groups and a possible Late Neolithic ring-ditch; Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement features and a Bronze Age cremation cemetery; Romano-British settlements and a farmstead; an early medieval inhumation cemetery, medieval agricultural features and a corn-drying kiln.

Tokenhouse Yard in the City of London lies in the upper reaches of the valley of the Walbrook. The Walbrook was undoubtedly a powerful and important topographical feature of the Roman city, rising to the north and coursing through the centre of the settlement cleaving it into two low hills, Cornhill and Ludgate Hill, before discharging into the Thames to the south. This area witnessed the build up of almost 4m of stratified deposits in the years between c. AD 43 and 400. The results of excavation presented in this volume tell the story of the struggle to live alongside the river, attempts to control its course and alleviate flooding. Waterlogged conditions resulted in outstanding preservation of organic remains and artefacts.