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 work presents the newest trends appearing in the field of Roman Law particularly devoted to the fault-based liability – culpa – that were addressed at the International Conference organised by the Faculty of Law and Administration of Warsaw University in February 2010. Articles written by Merola, Rampazzo and Tucillo touch the problem of culpa in the public law. The authors concentrated on the question of liability of public officers and their culpa or negligence during the performance of their duties. The social scope of culpa as the prerequisite for a censorial note has been presented by Tarwacka. Adamo addressed some important aspect of fault-related liability in criminal law dealing with the regulations of Theodosian Code. Private law side fault based-liability in contracts was presented by Benincasa and Kordasiewicz. They both analysed contracts used in maritime trade, the former regarding armature’s partnership, the latter in the aspect of the transition from objective liability to the liability based on fault in the case of guarantee for the goods admitted by the sailor. Manni and Święcicka devoted their studies to the delictual liability based on culpa. Finally, Alonso and Urbanik attempted to present culpa-liability in the light of papyrological sources, confronting Roman Law sources and documents of legal practice. These studies provide a wealth of information on the law of antiquity in the subject of liability based on fault, both in the aspect of private and public law.

Lindsay Allason-Jones has been at the forefront of small finds and Roman frontier research for 40 years in a career focussed on, but not exclusive to, the north of Britain, encompassing an enormous range of object types and subject areas. Divided into thematic sections the contributions presented here to celebrate her many achievements all represent at least one aspect of Lindsay’s research interests. These encompass social and industrial aspects of northern frontier forts; new insights into inscribed and sculptural stones specific to military communities; religious, cultural and economic connotations of Roman armour finds; the economic and ideological penetration of romanitas in the frontiers as reflected by individual objects and classes of finds; evidence of trans-frontier interactions and invisible people; the role of John Clayton in the exploration and preservation of Hadrian’s Wall and its material culture; the detailed consideration of individual objects of significant interest; and a discussion of the widespread occurrence of mice in Roman art.

This volume contains the results of two archaeological projects undertaken within the Frome Valley, Gloucestershire. The first describes a Beaker pit and evidence for a Romano-British settlement at Foxes Field, Ebley Road, Stonehouse; the second details the remains of medieval enclosures and a fishpond at Rectory Meadows, Kings Stanley. There is little to connect the two sites, other than them being less than a mile apart, with the site at Foxes Field principally comprising an early Roman-British rural settlement and late Romano-British burial ground; and the site at Rectory Meadows featuring medieval paddocks and a late medieval pond. In fact, with Foxes Field also producing evidence for prehistoric occupation and for a post-medieval path and plough furrows, the two sites largely complement each other in terms of period representation. However, common to both sites is evidence, of just a few fragments of flue tiles, roof tiles and building rubble, to suggest that late Roman villas once stood nearby to both locations. It is the recurring presence of Romano-British remains from archaeological investigations in the Frome valley, often with such evidence for high-status buildings, which demonstrates just how populated this area was during the Roman period in Britain. The burials from Foxes Field, and in particular the close bond that can be implied between the man and woman found in the remarkable ‘double’ grave, serve to remind us that these discoveries are not just ‘relics of a bygone age’, but were once homes to real people who lived, loved and died beside the river Frome.

The twenty-third Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference (TRAC) was held at King’s College, London in spring 2013. During the three-day conference nearly papers were delivered, discussing issues from a wide range of geographical regions of the Roman Empire, and applying various theoretical and methodological approaches. Sessions included those looking at Roman–Barbarian interactions; identity and funerary monuments in ancient Italy; migration and social identity in the Roman Near East; theoretical approaches to Roman small finds; formation processes of in-fills in urban sites; and new reflections on Roman glass. This volume contains a selection of papers from the conference sessions.

A comprehensive evaluation of the Portable Antiquities Scheme and the archaeological value of its findings particularly in relation to Roman Britain.

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.

This book presents the proceedings of the 2009 conference relating to the 2008 exhibition at the British Museum entitled "Hadrian: Empire and Conflict" and complements and expands upon the exhibition catalogue. It covers such subjects as architecture, sculpture, archaeology, economics, numismatics and philhellenism and ranges over the Roman Empire from Britain and Spain in the West to Turkey and Georgia in the East. The original contributions by international scholars present the latest state of research and the first publication of some new material. Thorsten Opper is a curator of Greek and Roman sculpture at the British Museum. He organised the internationally acclaimed 2008 exhibition "Hadrian: Empire and Conflict" and authored the accompanying catalogue (British Museum Press 2008). He currently directs a fieldwork project at Hadrian's Villa, near Rome.

Istanbul, Europe's largest city, became an urban centre of exceptional size when it was chosen by Constantine the Great as a new Roman capital city. Named ‘Constantinople' after him, the city has been studied through its rich textual sources and surviving buildings, but its archaeology remains relatively little known compared to other great urban centres of the ancient and medieval worlds. Constantinople: Archaeology of a Byzantine Megapolis is a major archaeological assessment of a key period in the development of this historic city. It uses material evidence, contemporary developments in urban archaeology and archaeological theory to explore over a thousand years of the city’s development. Moving away from the scholarly emphasis on the monumental core or city defences, the volume investigates the inter-mural area between the fifth-century land walls and the Constantinian city wall - a zone which encompasses half of the walled area but which has received little archaeological attention. Utilizing data from a variety of sources, including the 'Istanbul Rescue Archaeology Project' created to record material threatened with destruction, the analysis proposes a new model of Byzantine Constantinople. A range of themes are explored including the social, economic and cognitive development, Byzantine perceptions of the city, the consequences of imperial ideology and the impact of ‘self-organization’ brought about by many minor decisions. Constantinople casts new light on the transformation of an ancient Roman capital to an Orthodox Christian holy city and will be of great importance to archaeologists and historians.

Textile production is an economic necessity that has confronted all societies in the past. While most textiles were manufactured at a household level, valued textiles were traded over long distances and these trade networks were influenced by raw material supply, labour skills, costs, as well as by regional traditions. This was true in the Mediterranean regions and Making Textiles in pre-Roman and Roman times explores the abundant archaeological and written evidence to understand the typological and geographical diversity of textile commodities. Beginning in the Iron Age, the volume examines the foundations of the textile trade in Italy and the emergence of specialist textile production in Austria, the impact of new Roman markets on regional traditions and the role that gender played in the production of textiles. Trade networks from far beyond the frontiers of the Empire are traced, whilst the role of specialized merchants dealing in particular types of garment and the influence of Roman collegia on how textiles were produced and distributed are explored. Of these collegia, that of the fullers appears to have been particularly influential at a local level and how cloth was cleaned and treated is examined in detail, using archaeological evidence from Pompeii and provincial contexts to understand the processes behind this area of the textile trade.

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’.

Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua XI: Monuments from Phrygia and Lykaonia is a corpus of 387 Greek and Latin inscriptions and other ancient and medieval monuments from inner Anatolia (Phrygia, Lykaonia, and south-western Galatia). Most of these monuments were recorded by William Calder and Michael Ballance in annual expeditions to Asia Minor between 1954 and 1957. The results of these expeditions were never published, and around three-quarters of the monuments in the volume are published here for the first time. All the inscriptions are translated in full, with extensive commentaries and photographic illustration. The volume includes a geographical introduction to the sites and regions covered by the corpus, and full indices.Peter Thonemann teaches Greek and Roman history at Wadham College, Oxford. He is the author of The Maeander Valley: A Historical Geography from Antiquity to Byzantium (Cambridge, 2011), and the editor of Roman Phrygia: Culture and Society (Cambridge, 2013), a companion volume to this corpus.

This new publication brings together a range of leading scholars from Europe, America and the Middle East to discuss the most recent research in the field of Byzantine glass and mosaics in an interdisciplinary context. New Light on Old Glass explores how mosaics are perhaps the most outstanding examples of Byzantine art which survive; revealing changing aesthetics and issues surrounding the technical production of glass in medieval artistic practices. This is the first time that so many diverse papers, ranging from art history, archaeology, chemistry, physics and Byzantine studies have been assembled in one volume, and is the culmination of a five-year research programme on the Composition of Byzantine Glass Mosaic Tesserae, conducted by the University of Sussex in conjunction with the British Museum and sponsored by the Leverhulme Trust.

The remarkable extent, state of preservation and monuments of Ocriculum make this one of the most important archaeological sites in ancient Italy. Located close to the river Tiber, north of Rome on the Via Flaminia, many travellers were drawn to Otricoli and its landscape, lured by its beauty. Significant monumental remains of the Roman town are still visible: the amphitheatre, the theatre, the forum area, basilica, baths and nymphaeum. Academic studies devoted to this important town are many, and this volume represents a further contribution to our understanding of the ancient town. Here are published the results of the urban survey in 2002–5. Field survey was coupled with a geophysical survey that has identified new features. This work adds greatly to our understanding of the ancient town and tells a different story to that usually told of Roman towns in terms of scale, layout and organization, as well as architectural and sculptural finds; and thus contributes significantly to debate on Roman urbanism. With contributions by Luana Cenciaioli, Sophy Downes, Rose Ferraby, Enrico Floridi, Shawn Graham, Salvatore Piro, Tim Sly, Lacey M. Wallace, Andrew Wallace-Hadrill and Sabrina Zampini

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.