This book draws extensively on the results of the latest work to present a challenging new account of the rise and fall of one of the principal towns of the Roman empire.

This authoritative and original work sets the results of recent archaeological research in the context of classical scholarship, as it explores three main aspects of Romano-British buildings:

* general characteristics of form and structure
* the ways in which they were built and decorated
* the range of activities for which they were designed.

This evidence is then used to discuss the social practices and domestic arrangements that characterised Romano-British elite society. Fully illustrated, this volume is the essential guide to how houses were built, used and understood in Roman Britain.

This authoritative and original work sets the results of recent archaeological research in the context of classical scholarship, as it explores three main aspects of Romano-British buildings:
* general characteristics of form and structure
* the ways in which they were built and decorated
* the range of activities for which they were designed.
This evidence is then used to discuss the social practices and domestic arrangements that characterised Romano-British elite society. The author also looks to the ancient world at large, to see if there are similarities or contrasts which can illuminate Romano-British findings.
Fully illustrated, this volume is the essential guide to how houses were built, used and understood in Roman Britain.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203463854

Precious little of Roman London survives and the destruction of Roman levels continues fast as new office foundations are sunk ever deeper into ancient levels. In recent years the close attention of the archaeologists of the Museum of London, encouraged by the co-operation of city developers, has allowed the recording of much that is being lost. From 1986 to 1988 work was started on 142 archaeological sites in the City, and many others were dug in the neighbouring boroughs. Every year new information and material is added to the stores of the Museum of London. Far too much new data is coming in for it all to be studied properly, with much being stored against the day that time and money can be found to permit more leisurely analysis. The first purpose of this book is to bring together as much as possible of this new information. It is also written with certain specific problems in mind. Much of the fascination of Roman London derives from its history of extremes - it burst into life with extraordinary vigour and quickly became one of the largest cities in the Roman west but boom seems rapidly to have turned to bust. How could a city grow so fast, change so much and fall so far? The

This book presents a short history of human habitation in East London, based on archaeological findings at gravel sites between 1963 and 1999. To find the beginning of this story we have to go back half a million years, to the time when advancing ice sheets pushed the Thames southwards to its present course, depositing the river gravels that exist across East London today. Archaeological work on the East London gravels began when finds from gravel pits were given to local collectors and museums. Many spectacular discoveries were made in the era when gravel was dug by hand; they include a Roman stone coffin found near Dagenham in 1928 and the rich Early Saxon cemetery with glass drinking horns from Gerpin's Pit, Rainham, uncovered in 1937. The archaeological sites which make up this story have names which speak of a time before London's urban sprawl reached eastwards: Manor Farm, Great Sunnings Farm, Whitehall Wood, Great Arnold's Field and Fairlop Quarry, to name but a few. Discoveries have revealed the ancient landscapes of East London and a history of human occupation from the third millennium BC right up to the 19th century. The finds include evidence of where people lived, and how they made a living and viewed themselves. These settlement patterns, economic systems and cultural identities changed over time and contributed to the form of today's East London.

incAn original, authoritative survey of the archaeology and history of Roman London. London in the Roman World draws on the results of latest archaeological discoveries to describe London's Roman origins. It presents a wealth of new information from one of the world's richest and most intensively studied archaeological sites, and a host of original ideas concerning its economic and political history. This original study follows a narrative approach, setting archaeological data firmly within its historical context. London was perhaps converted from a fort built at the time of the Roman conquest, where the emperor Claudius arrived to celebrate his victory in AD 43, to become the commanding city from which Rome supported its military occupation of Britain. London grew to support Rome's campaigning forces, and the book makes a close study of the political and economic consequences of London's role as a supply base. Rapid growth generated a new urban landscape, and this study provides a comprehensive guide to the industry and architecture of the city. The story, traced from new archaeological research, shows how the city was twice destroyed in war, and suffered more lastingly from plagues of the second and third centuries. These events had a critical bearing on the reforms of late antiquity, from which London emerged as a defended administrative enclave only to be deserted when Rome failed to maintain political control. This ground-breaking study brings new information and arguments to our study of the way in which Rome ruled, and how the empire failed.