This study uses examples from Britain to examine concepts of gender in Roman art. Specifically Morelli looks at representations of gods and goddesses, discussing Venus, Mars, Diana, Apollo, Minerva and Hercules in turn, and analysing the differing feminities and masculinities which they display through their poses, clothing and so forth. A final chapter looks at gendered personifications in Roman art such as lands, fortune, victory and the seasons.

Following on from his earlier 2006 work on the suburban villas of Campania, Geoff Adams here turns his attention to the villas of the suburban environs of Rome itself. He uses both literary and archaeological evidence, but his principal method of enquiry is via a statistical survey of the architecture of the villas. Of particular interest are the ratio's of public to private space, and the percentages of space set aside for leisure and entertainment. Other types of villas (rural, urban, coastal) are also assessed, in order that the particular social functions of the suburban villa may be discerned.

This report presents an overview of Roman urban development in London south of the Thames. The establishment of the Roman bridge and the first approach roads and landing places, made Southwark an ideal location for the development of facilities for the trans-shipment of goods between land and river. The wide range of data from 41 previously unpublished north Southwark sites provides the means for 'mapping' Roman activity in Southwark: the nature of the early settlement, changing patterns of land use and broader processes of social and economic change. Early land reclamation preceded the establishment of a thriving trade centre involved in the redistribution or marketing of locally processed and imported goods, with evidence of a concentration of buildings burnt in Boudican fire of AD 61 along the main road to the bridgehead. Increased land reclamation and construction of more masonry buildings in the 2nd century AD indicate further growth. By the 3rd century large stone buildings at ten of the sites reported suggest an administrative area housing official residences. After the mid 4th century the settlement contracted to the area immediately around the bridgehead with a cemetery on previously occupied land to the south.

This report publishes and analyses archaeological work undertaken at the Romano-British settlement at Wilderspool in Warrington from 1991-93. Settlement at the site began in the 1st century AD, and it seems from the start to have been associated with the military. There is considerable evidence of industrial activity, principally iron working and pottery. Such evidence is most plentiful at times of known military activity in the area, and the authors suggest that the settlement's main function was as supplier to the army. There is evidence of increased agricultural activity from the 3rd century when industries went into decline. The evidence from Wilderspool is supplemented with that from Holditch in Staffordshire, a sizeable Romano-British settlement which peaked in size and importance in the early 2nd century, and then quickly fell in disuse after 150, the result, the authors suggest of a northward shift in military stationing.

This study brings a variety of approaches to bear on problems realting to fish eating, its prevalence and economic and cultural significance in classical Greece. Archaeological work is used to determine how widespread fishing was, and in which regions fishing was particularly intensive. Although the scale of fishing appears highly variable there appears to be little link between this and environmental factors. Accordingly, much of the book is given over to literary and anthropological research to determine the reasons for fish consumption, looking at the ancient classification of fish, their use in cultic practices, processes of distribution and marketing, and the relationship between fish consumption and social class.

10 papers from a 2005 conference in Xanten look at issues relating to the interaction between women and the Roman army. Essays discuss the evidence for women and children around forts and whether in fact it were even permitted for women to enter a Roman fort, as well as the lives of women left at home while the husbands served in the military. Archaeological work and inscriptions are both used and geographically the collection covers both the Rhine frontier and Hadrian's wall. Papers in German and English.

One of the odder (and uglier or cuter dependent on your point of view) styles of Roman pottery is clearly the face pot - literally pots with facial features attatched in relief. This study creates a type series for such pots in the western provinces of the empire, and in doing so attempts to answer questions such as - What were their origins, Who or what did they represent and how were they used. The study also examines the distribution and dissemination across Europe and investigates their links with the army.

In Unwritten Rome, a new book by the author of Myths of Rome, T.P. Wiseman presents us with an imaginative and appealing picture of the early society of pre-literary Rome-as a free and uninhibited world in which the arts and popular entertainments flourished. This original angle allows the voice of the Roman people to be retrieved empathetically from contemporary artefacts and figured monuments, and from selected passages of later literature.How do you understand a society that didn't write down its own history? That is the problem with early Rome, from the Bronze Age down to the conquest of Italy around 300 BC. The texts we have to use were all written centuries later, and their view of early Rome is impossibly anachronistic. But some possibly authentic evidence may survive, if we can only tease it out - like the old story of a Roman king acting as a magician, or the traditional custom that may originate in the practice of ritual prostitution. This book consists of eighteen attempts to find such material and make sense of it.

This study makes use of computer technology and statistical techniques to show how multivariate analysis can be of use in the study of coin hoards. Rather than attempting to answer specific questions through the use of statistics, Kris Lockyear instead tries to identifying patterns as a whole within the datasets to draw conclusions about coin supply and circulation.

A large collection of 33 papers which cover a wide range of topics relating to the Late Roman military. Essays look at aspects of military reforms, of military strategy, from the broad picture to individual campaigns, at the administration and economic realties of the army, and at military architecture and particularly at the excavation of several military sites. Ultimately a picture is built up of change from Roman to Byzantine. Essays mostly in English with 5 in French and 2 in Italian.

Neopalatial Crete - the 'Golden Age' of the Minoan Civilization - possessed palaces, exquisite artefacts, and iconography with pre-eminent females. While lacking in fortifications, ritual symbolism cloaked the island, an elaborate bureaucracy logged transactions, and massive storage areas enabled the redistribution of goods. We cannot read the Linear A script, but the libation formulae suggest an island-wide koine. Within this cultural identity, there is considerable variation in how the Minoan elites organized themselves and others on an intra-site and regional basis. This book explores and celebrates this rich, diverse and dynamic culture through analyses of important sites, as well as Minoan administration, writing, economy and ritual. Key themes include the role of Knossos in wider Minoan culture and politics, the variable modes of centralization and power relations detectable across the island, and the role of ritual and cult in defining and articulating elite control.

Oxbow says: To what extent did the indigenous population change their appearance and identity with the arrival of the Romans? Gillian Carr's revised thesis explores how we can detect shifts in modes of physical appearance and social identity by stuyding evidence from around 40 sites in Essex and Hertfordshire. Her study looks at artefacts traditionally symbolic of 'Romanisation', such as brooches, hairpins and other hair accoutrements, toilet instruments, and pigment and cosmetic pounders representing body tattooing and painting. Carr acknowledges that the link between artefacts and ethnicity or identity is somewhat problematic, especially with regard to differentiating between 'native' and Roman, although she does reach some interesting conclusions about the increased fluidity of identities in the late Iron Age, increased experimentation and attempts at social mobility through physical appearance.

The purpose of this work is to determine the most informative articles and the most effective methods and research approaches to the study of Roman brick stamps covering the former Roman Empire. The different research methods used in different areas are compared. This study attempts to give an overall view of research methods, approaches and categories of studies used in all schools of brick stamp research and poses the question whether brick stamps can contribute to our understanding of military history. Regional and local differences of both stamps and modern schools of research are highlighted and their importance in terms of Roman history is discussed. The author critically reviews a selection of articles, focusing primarily on the methodologies employed by certain scholars. The reviewed articles contain a selection of brick stamps. A catalogue of the works reviewed is included and the publications listed there form the background for this present analysis.

One of the most significant features in the suburbium of Roman cities throughout Italy were the villae suburbanae. Modern scholarship has undertaken a large amount of research into the residential properties and lifestyles of the Roman nobility, and the Roman villa has been a prime subject area in this regard. But villae suburbanae have only received limited detailed analysis from these scholars. To this end, this study examines both the literary and archaeological evidence relating to villae suburbanae in an effort to gain a better understanding of this type of residence. The first fundamental feature of this investigation is to understand these buildings within their social and geographical context. The second feature is the method employed to interpret the social aspects of villae suburbanae, which utilises statistical analysis to determine the percentage of space allocated for potential entertainment.

This work investigates the use of Old Red Sandstone from South Wales, Gloucestershire, Avon and Somerset during the Roman period, for rotary querns. It is based on detailed petrographic studies of these rocks at both microscopic and macroscopic levels to define practical keys which allow types of Old Red Sandstone, and hence artefacts made from it, to be identified and provenanced to their geological formations. 1200 rotary querns of Old Red sandstone from 180 sites were analysed (stretching from southeast Wales in the west, to Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire in the east. It extends as far south as Dorchester (Dorset) and as far north as Coleshill (Warwickshire)). The petrological study also identifies the three major source areas in the Roman period as the Forest of Dean, the Bristol area and the Mendips and investigates the differences in the distribution of finds from each of these sources. A typological study is included, with a detailed description and analysis of the types of ORS querns manufactured, their dating and their distribution. The routes and mechanisms through which the querns were moved are also investigated and the production of ORS querns is also assessed.

This volume sets out to prove that, far from being simply assimilated or subsumed into Roman religion, Gallic rites continued, and continued to be the basis of Gallo-Roman religion. In each chapter, the number of these Gallic beliefs and customs, which continued after the Roman Conquest, is examined and it is demonstrated that Gallic religion was not abandoned, that the Celtic sanctuary design was the basis for Gallo-Roman temple design and that Gallo-Roman religion continued to be Gallic as well as Roman.

This collection of essays promises to make an important contribution to the field of Roman studies, particularly, by its concentration on monuments, to that of Roman art history. The current high level of interest in problems of identity, including studies of colonialism, Romanization, ethnicity, social class, gender and a host of related topics creates a vital intellectual context for the study of the art of provincials and the lower classes. The monuments themselves contribute a critical dimension to this discourse, the more so because the textual evidence for the non-elites of Roman society, apart from inscriptions, is relatively scarce.

This study looks at the archaeological evidence for Roman campaigning in Britain under the Flavians (AD 69-96). It discusses the tribal and place names in Ptolemy's map and the Ravenna Cosmology and attempts to identify the areas referred to. Finally it uses this information alongside Tacitus' Agricola, finding a remarkable degree of convergence with the archaeological and geo-political evidence.

This monograph examines the deposition of precious metal artefacts in the late Roman and early Byzantine periods (from c. AD 200 to AD 700) within and beyond the frontiers of the Roman Empire and its successor states. The primary foci of the study are the size, date range and spatial distribution of these finds, with less emphasis on specific aspects of artefacts themselves and the specific contexts in which individual deposits were found. The immense chronological and regional scope allows broad changes in deposition patterns to be presented and examined. And a variety of possible interpretations of these patterns are offered in the final chapter.

Oxbow says: In 1999 excavations were held at Grange Park, Courteenhall in Northamptonshire by Birmingham University Archaeology Unit in advance of the re-development of the site. The project aimed to investigate the date and function of the various sites and features revealed, as well as the social organisation and economy of the site, from the first major occupation of the site in the middle Iron Age, to the early-middle Saxon period. This volume reports on the findings from the initial desk-based research, survey work, fieldwalking and test-pitting, and most especailly from the excavations carried out at the site. Reports on the pottery, including large quantities of Iron Age and Roman ceramics, metal, stone and clay finds, and on the envionment, people and economy, are included.

This volume contains a range of papers from a seminar held in Oxford in 2005. What did art in its widest sense mean to them, the Romans, and what might it (or even should it), mean to us? The approach adopted avoids fashionable theory, mainly culled second-hand from the social sciences, and tries to engage directly with material culture.

The horror of the puticuli, the mass burial pits, and their traditional association with the poor, has often led to this socio-economic group being viewed as somehow different to the rest of the ancient urban community in the Italy of the Late Roman Republic. This is the theory questioned by the author of this volume. Why should this part of the community care so little about the disposal of the dead when other members of society were devoting huge amounts of time and money to ensuring that the deceased received not only burial, but also lasting commemoration?

This work presents systematic and objective examination of the large corpus of Hellenistic gold Eros jewellery. By focusing on the question of the interconnections between the major centres of production - Egypt, South Italy and South Russia, Western Asia Minor, Greece and Syria a number of regional schools and new jewellery groups are identified. The keys to the discussion are the well documented find contexts from Northern Greece, South Italy and Tel Atrib (Egypt) that make it possible to arrive at a relative chronology for a particular type of Eros, found throughout the Hellenistic world. The morphological, stylistic, iconographic and technical continuities between Hellenistic jewellery and in particular the Eros motif ensure the successful use of this methodology. Evidence from Koroni in Attica and from several South Italian tomb groups has been examined in detail and dated, according to the methodology described above to ca. 240 BC.