Melvadius

Were you able to go to Carthage? Was there much to see there? I would love to go there, as well as see Palmyra (in Syria) along with the Parthian and Sassanian ruins in Iran and Iraq as soon as thing are less insane in that region. (That should be just around the time my unicorn ranch is up and running.) guy also known as gaius There is quite a lot to see in Carthage (and indeed the rest of Tunisia from the Roman period some examples of which I have posted fom a Tunisian arcaheological tour I did a few years back onto the gallery area. In particualr you may be interested in my Byrsa Hill/ Carthage or my Thugga/ Dougga galleries. If you get to Tunisia and in particular to Carthage then the Bardo Museum is a 'must see' as it has example of mosaics from numerous of the Tunisian Romano/ Punic sites as well as some of the Punic sites which predated the Roman period. I also posted a few images from Thuburbo Majus, which is another Romano/ Punic town, as well as El Djem which is notable for its Ampitheatre being claimed as the third largest in the Roman empire.

Alas poor Thugga I knew her well. Actually I remember both the site and the video quite well having visited Dougga/ Thugga and then done the OU course the video clip originally came from a few years back (AA309 Culture Identity and Power in the Roman Empire). It is a site that is well worth the visit if anyone gets out to Tunisia.

The Ordnance Survey used Pevensey for the front cover of the 5th edition and it does make a good image although I believe the top part of the walls were at least partially rebuilt in the medieval period as part of the later castle which is situated within the Roman defences. As you are intending going in July I cannot offer the other suggestion I would have made which would have been to try and visit the ongoing Kent Archaeological Field School excavations at the Roman Town of Duroleveum (at Syndale, near Faversham) as that only occurs between August 14th and September 12th.

BBC has just announced that further excavations are going to be held at the site where the Staffordshire Hoard was found in an attempt to learn more about the landscape in the period when the hoard was buried in particular looking for evidence of structures or pits.

GhostOfClayton, a lot will depend on precisely when you are intending visiting as several of the main sites close during the Winter months. However, to get things started I have listed below a few links providing sueful information on the main Roman sites in Kent as well as one in East Sussex which you may wish to add to your visit itinerary. [url="http://

While most of the article indeed refers to doubts over Dawson's 'Chinese bronze bowl' I suspect you may have missed the second paragraph which refers to doubts over the 'Chinese hu or bronze ritual vessel' which Willett donated which states:

I am reliably informed that Europe does have good Kaoliin clay you apparently get it wherever you used to have marble [edit - although I believe it is normally derived from a degraded form of granite - specifically the feldspar found in granite] - Cornwall is full of it and other parts of Britain are full of good China Clay - e.g. the Potteries. What we couldn't make was a hard paste porcelein which no-one fiigured out how to make until the 12th/13th centuries AD. The main issue was that it wasn't used in the Roman period as they didn't have the kiln technology required to fire it to a sufficiently high temperature to create porcelein. As far as reasonable quality ceramics are concerned the Romans did have several sources of reasonable clay used for their finewares while there was still demand for them. Regarding importing Chinese ceramics is concerned I haven't heard of any significant finds of ceramics from the period from within the Empire - that isn't to say none were but there would have been several problems. First and foremost the distance overland ceramics are bulk items and fragile long distance trade in ceramics tended to only take off along with long distance direct sea trade - often going as ballast rather than the primary cargoes because it was cheap at source. A few small items may have been passed hand to hand as special gifts but if so the Persians would probably have blocked onward trade as they were collecting them themselves as they tried to develop similar types of ceramics - but they didn't realy succeed until at best the 12/13th century onwards.

I would take issue with part of your point regarding the production (and by implication distribution) of Roman pottery in Britain. While granted that the Gaulish (and other continental) centres of production did have some influence on Britain, as can be seen from the individual pottery distribution maps available at this link to Potsherd website, Roman style 'Fineware' pottery production seems in a few instances to have continued in Britain until around the mid 5th century - long after direct continental imports had ceased. Unfortunately what the maps cannot show is the extent to which pottery production continued although as you implied it probably was a shrinking market as Roman influenced financing and consequently infrastructure supporting it declined.

All the best for a fulfilling and enjoyable day

As has already been said, welcome to the forum, I am sure you will find something of interest.

If you mean the legions then I suppose you could argue for the 'main' reserves being miles behind the wall but don't forget that there were garrisons of 500 to 1000 men spaced fairly evenly along the length of the wall In addition there were several more garrisons of similar size within a few miles both north and south of the wall which as Woolliscroft has shown [edit - D.J.Woolliscroft, Roman Military Signalling, (Tempus Books), 2001] were also linked with the signal towers associated with the wall. Although it does not show the overlapping phases of accupation and abandonment which would have occured this military layer from the Roman Britain site gives a good pictorial reference for all of the different military camps in Britain as well providing an indication of how large particular garrisons would have been. As far as I am aware once they were built most of the 'wall' forts stayed in more or less continuous operation throughout the rest of the Roman period even if the actual garrison size declined towards the end of the period of occupation. A few of the forts further back from the wall (most in the south and east of England) in comparison show evidence for abandonment within relatively short periods of time - sometimes no more than 20-25 years after the initial invasion force reached their area. You can see from this that most of the immediatly available troops were stationed along the length of the wall with the nearest legions based spaced a long way behind who would have taken several days to get to the area of the wall even at the best marching speed of 25 miles a day. As a marketing exercise it may well be effective but for sheer visual splendor AND for showing how messages could be passed long distances via beacons in a relatively short time I don't think you can really fault it [Edit - another thing I should have mentioned before is that the spacing of approximately 250m apart probably means (and the snippet of video shown certainly suggests) that all of the 'modern' beacons were located at each of the mile castles and intervening watchtowers (and possibly known signalling stations?) along the length of the wall. QED even though the beacons probably were not as high as the original tops of the towers would have been it does show how easily signals could have been passed from east to west and vice versa that way.]

Well contrary to what may have been expected in Britain in March - the clouds didn't descend creating a blanket of invisibility nor did a sudden or prolonged deluge occur. The line of light seems to have gone off without any major or even minor hitch: Details and video are available on the BBC.

Definately a day to raise a glass or two or .... Have a great day oh illustrious one!

All the best for an enjoyable day

Returning to a story previously discussed on the fora Archaeologists find skulls on route of new road followed by Dorset Ridgeway Killing Fields The BBC have finally broken news of the results of isotope analysis which confirms that the Weymouth headless skeletons are indeed probably Vikings The BBC report (without photographs which can be found at Daily Mail whose article starts off somewhat more luridly but quickly calms down to a good explanation of the results of the isotope analysis of the mass burial of headless corpses found near Weymouth (and also Maiden Castle but that was a red herring) first reported last year. On a personal note having met some of the victims on a recent visit to Oxford Archaeology – the oesteologist showing us round accidently checked some of the boxes containing individual skeletons in an initially abortive attempt to find a skull I can confirm that they were big lads. Some showed indications of previous serious injuries which had healed several years previously while, supporting the contention of possible attempts to defend themselves, I saw some of the neck bones and mandible from one body which showed definite signs of repeated blows being made before the head was successfully removed from the neck. The Daily Mail article (without photogrpahs) follows: [Edit - Having had a chance to look at the BBC images I should clarify that the fifth image of the long bone which shows the marks of a bacterial infection was a long standing complaint. It was partially healed but would need to have started several years previously to have had such a marked effect on the bone so would not have been due to either a recent injury pre-execution or post-mortem. N.B. As I mentioned above the right thigh bone (image 4) which shows evidence for massive trauma again must have been the result of an earlier injury whihc occured several years prior to the groups execution.] Edit; Fixed broken links

You may also want to read 'Feeding the Roman Army: The Archaeology of Production and Supply in NW Europe (edited by Sue Stallybrass and Richard Thomas). This will not give a definitive answer about the quantities of particular foodstuffs consumed by the Roman Army but it does look at some of the archaeological evidence for the influence the army had on its local communities and food productions. By inference showing the range of foods that were being consumed by the army.

Many congratulations of the day and thanks for your sterling efforts on the site. Have some time off and enjoy a glass or two you deserve it.

Having been met by the 'upgrade message during several log-in attempts over that period it's a relief to know that it is nothing more serious and that things are geting back to normal.

I've read almost all of Lindsey's books and enjoyed those I've had the time to finish - my current studies tend to blow a hole in the time available for pleasure reading. The books tend to have beleivable plots as are the motives of participants and the mysteries generally mystifying until enough clues are in. She made a few early mistakes e.g. not realising the mainly fire duties of the Roman vigils but her research has improved enormously the more she has written and where possible the few early errors have been explained or at least are consistently applied.

I need to check if it is in my abbreviated copy of Pliny but various on-line religeous sites quote Pliny Natural History 29.57 as the source for this particular story.

The BBC have posted a short article (following without photographs) about recent research into human remains originally found in a Roman grave in 1901 which provides additional proof that it was not only male African slaves who came to Britain during the Roman period. Similar reports are in: Yorkshire Post The Guardian Northern Echo" The Press (York)

National Geographic have now followed up on this story with a picture article featuring some images from the dive including the ingots currently undergoing analysis at Oxford University.

As far as hearing what Roman musical instruments sounded like you could try Ancestral Sounds site as they have some MP3 samples you can download although they would probably prefer to sell you examples of their work. I believe there is also a group called 'Synaulia' whose work is on You tube and elsewhere. You may also wish to read Fulvia

Hope you have a good time today

Let me add my belated congratulations - glad you had a good time.