Roman architecture is extraordinarily rich, both in terms of the techniques and materials used and in the variety of buildings constructed, many of which are still visible today. This text places emphasis on the technical aspects of that architecture, following the process of building through each stage, from quarry to standing wall, from tree to roof timbers. The author examines the different techniques involved in building in brick and in stone and wood, and how these materials were obtained or manufactured. He also discusses interior decoration and looks at the practical aspects of water supply, heating and roads. Each type of building required special tools and these are described, using both surviving examples and modern parallels. The Romans constructed many spectacular feats of engineering, producing magnificent monuments such as the Pantheon and Pont du Gard. This book looks at these large-scale public buildings but also at more modest homes and shops. The result is a systematic examination of Roman Building, with over 750 illustrations, including the author's own drawings.

Previously suspected on the basis of a tile stamped with the name and titles of the emperor Nero found alongside other brick and tile in the ploughsoil, excavation of two tile kilns at Little London near Silchester, Hampshire confirmed production during the reign of Nero. In addition to the manufacture of standard bricks and roofing materials, the kilns produced the more specialist materials required for building bath-houses. Work on the fabrics and distinctive, roller-stamped flue-tiles shows that products reached a wide variety of destinations between Cirencester, some 100 km to the north-west, and Chichester, on the south coast, though Silchester appears to have been the main market and is the only location where Nero-stamped tile has so far been found. A suggestion is made linking the stamped tile to the visit to Britain by the emperor’s trusted freedman, Polyclitus in the aftermath of the Boudican revolt. An unexpected discovery was the ancillary production from at least three pottery kilns of a wide range of pre-Flavian domestic wares, so far only identified in Silchester and its environs. Alongside the publication of the kilns there are illustrated catalogues of the complete range of brick and tile types produced as well as of the pottery. Other reports include analysis of the fuels used and a suite of radiocarbon dates which support the pottery evidence for production ceasing in the early Flavian period. Analysis of the numerous animal foot-impressions on the bricks presents one aspect of the environment of the kilns.

The Roman Town at Silchester, Calleva Atrebatum, was a working archaeological dig - the University of Reading Field School - which took place every summer for eighteen years. Taking advantage of the last opportunity to record 'life on the dig' in 2014, artist Jenny Halstead spent the summer creating and collating material for a beautiful and historic book. Jenny's superior draughtsmanship, her eye for colour and her wide variety of techniques produce evocative, lively images. The resulting book is a fitting and enduring record of this historic episode in the life of an ancient city.

Mass produced at a variety of locations, principally in Gaul and Germany, between the beginning of the first century and the mid third century CE, Gallo-Roman terra sigillata was consumed in very large quantities across the western provinces of the Roman Empire. The large number of records - over 425,000 - now published inNames on Terra Sigillata - the potters, their individual name dies, the associated forms, and the numbers recovered from find sites - have provided an international resource for fresh, quantitatively-based approaches to the study of terra sigillata, as presented here in Seeing Red. Twenty-six essays by leading international scholars in the field cover a range of themes including: the organization of production, distribution (inter- and intra-provincial as well as beyond the frontiers), chronology, linguistics, consumption, deposition, and iconography. The geographical scope ranges from Britain in the north-west of the Roman Empire, to the Iberian peninsula, and the western Mediterranean in the south, and from France to the lower Danube, including the Czech Republic and Poland in Central Europe.