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ROM4TT FIXDS GftOUPA{EWSLETTERXIXJanuary 2000

CONTENTSEditorial 2From fuches to Rags 6A late Roman grave group from Durobrivae 7Conferences .............. 10Appeals for help

Roman domestic woodRornan lighting equipment

Notes from Roman BathMeeting on Hadrian's WallSubscriptions pleaselBooks

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EDITORIALMy most important job as your new Editor is to express the Group's appreciation of mypredecessor, Hilary Cool.With her expertise in both glass and smallfinds, Hilary's work-load would daunt many afainter heart, but she has been generous in giving so much of her time to developing theNewsletter and gently chiwying people into producing text. The ten issues that she hasproduced stand as a tribute to her enthusiasm, dedication and sheer hard work. Shemay have retired as Editor, but she has nobly contributed to this edition and I hope willcontinue to be a major source of equally lively and fascinating articles.Thank you, Hilary You will be a hard act to follow.To me in the south-east, Hilary has always produced a fresh northern perspective,which I willfind difficult to maintain without the help of you., the Group members. I wouldwelcome notification and reviews of any new publications from all areas of the country,most of which I am unlikely to hear of very rapidly as the cost of new books has forcedmy local museum library to restrict most of its new acquisitions to those direcily relevantto this region. Notification of exhibitions, events, courses and web pages that might beparticularly usefulfor our members would also be welcome. Also, any research studentwishing to track down data and materialfor a Romano-British finds-based project isinvited to appealthrough the Newsletter as Hella Eckardt and Paola Pugsley have donein this edition.Details of our next meeting, at Birdoswald, can be found on page 13. With its minibustransport, overnight accommodation in bunk beds, and exhortation to bring wellies,Peter Guest has certainly come up with a meeting with a differencePlease could members note that subscriptions are now due to be paid (p 13). yourcheques and any other membership matters, such as changes of address, should besent to Angela Wardle at 1 Stebbing Farm, Fishers Green, Stevenage, Herts SG1 2JB.The deadline for the next Newsletter will be 1Sth June 2000. Any material will begratefully received, but please let me know in advance if you wish to contribute an articlelonger than about 1,000 words. To make sure I can access any text sent by email, itshould be in a fairly basic format, preferably as a .txt or .rtf file.Please send all contributions to:Nina Crummy,2 Hall Road,Copford,Colchester,Essex CO6 1BN.Telephone 01200 210255Email: nina@crummv. ndo.co.uk

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Ha i rstyles a nd LifestylesHair pins are an ubiquitous element ofmost Romano-British assemblages.lndeed it would not be exaggeratingmuch to suggest that any site thatproduces more than a handful of smallfinds, will normally produce at least oneor two pins. The numbers recoveredhave allowed the development of datedtypologies that show how fashionchanged from the first to fourthcenturies. For bone there are those ofNina Crummy (1979) and Steven Greep(probably best seen in Greep 1995,1113-23). For the jet examples LindsayAllason-Jones' account of the York onesprovides an excellent starting point(Allason-Jones 1996, 38-45), and forthe metal examples there is my ownarticle (Cool 1 991 ).ln that article, I was able to show thatthe changing lengths and head detailsof the pins were directly related to thecontemporary hairstyles. The long pinswith elaborate heads were popular inthe 1"t to 2nd centuries when high-piledhairstyles were fashionable. Theshorter pins of the 3'd to 4th centurieswere ideal for the styles at that periodwhere braids and curls hugged thecontours of the head more closely.Prior to the Roman invasion hair pinsare a great rarity, but by the later 1=tcentury regional metal forms of Britishorigin were being made. This clearlyindicates a rapid adoption of Romanhairstyles by the indigenous populationas it is unlikely there would have been asufficient market for the development ofregional styles if the only customers withneed of them were amongst theimrnigrant community.There is nothing inherently unlikelyabout Romano-British women adoptingthe latest fashionable hair-styles.Pictures of them would, after all, havebeen circulating in miniature on theimages of the empresses on thecoinage. Perhaps an unappreciatedLrse of coinage in the province is as the

0 3;

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'e#,\Y H'lj . l,ULJLeft: iron, with face details on attached copper-alloysheet (Museum of London 1922$; Right: copper-alloy(Cirencester Museum 8456). From Cool 1991.equivalent of the glossy magazines withpictures of hairstyles found in the waitingrooms of modern hairdressing salons.What is interesting is how far throughthe population the new hairstylespenetrated. They were clearly notconfined to the urban and rural elite.The early pin forms are found on ruralsites of no great pretension in the southand east" The picture is harder toestablish for the north and west wherebone, the material of the majority of thepins, does not survive so well. Theinhabitants of many northern rural sitesdisplayed a pronounced lack of interestin most elements of Romano-Britishrnaterial culture. lt is, therefore, Ufilikelythat the new fashions made muchimpact in some of these communities.Elsewhere, it is likely that most womenwould have worn their hair pinned up inmore or less elaborate styles, with theelaboration depending on how muchhelp an individual had. The hairstyleincorporating five and six strand plaitspreserved in the burial of a woman at

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Poundbury (Fanuell & Molleson 1993,2A6 no. 817) could only have beenachieved with the help of a friend ormaid; whereas the more simple bunheld in place by jet pins preserved in agrave at York (Allason-Jones 1996 , 22fig. 17) could have been arranged bythe teenager herself.

Late 4th-century female skull with two copper-alloy pinsstill in position. Butt Road, Colchester" Courtesy ofColchester Archaeological Trust Ltd.Hair pins provide the main evidence ofhair dressing styles in Britain, with thepreservation of hair itself as in the Yorkand Poundbury burials being raresurvivals. There are a few othersources of additional information. Somegrave monuments include portraits ofthe deceased. Where these are clearlyfrom local workshops for a localclientele, such as the 3,.d century groupat Carlisle (Phillips 1976), it seemsreasonable to assume that theseportraits reflect what the women werewearing in the area. These portraitsalso show what may be termed theinternational Roman style of hairdressing. They habitually show thewomen bare-headed with the hairstylesclearly visible. A similar pictureemerges from small items which have

female busts as part of their decorationsuch as the 1"t to Znd century bone hairpins and mounts such as that fromSilchester (Read and Henig 1985).From the late 1't to 4th centuries,therefore, we get a picture of Romano-British women as being habitually bare-headed with more or less elaboratecoiffures.A recent survey of late findsassemblages has suggested thatanother major change of women'sappearance was under way during thesecond half of the 4k century. As it ishoped that the paper outlining the fullsurvey will be published soon (Coolforthcoming), the data will not be givenin full but merely summarised here.Etfectively when assemblages fromcontexts belonging to the first half of the4'h century are quantified hair pins areas numerous as bracelets, if not morecommon. ln the late 4th centuryassemblages, they become much rarerboth in absolute numbers andcompared to bracelets. The pin tobracelet ratio falls during this time fromapproximately 1.1 to 1:3. Women areclearly no longer wearing their hairpinned up as much as they had donebefore. The implication in such a fall inthe number of hair pins is that anincreasing number of women must havebeen choosing to wear their hair short;or to wear it long and loose; or to wear ittied back more simply; or perhaps evento wear it bundled into a bonnet orbehind a veil.The impetus for this change may justhave been due to the vagaries offashion, but it is tempting to wonder if itcould be related the increasing influenceof Christianity. The Church Fathersincluded the appearance and behaviourof women amongst the topics theythought appropriate to write about.Their essays often take as theirfoundation remarks in various of StPaul's epistles. One that is particularlyfavoured is I Corinthians 11,5-15 on theiniquities of women praying with theirheads uncovered, or even worse,

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shaven. The apostle asserts womenshould have long hair. ln I Timothy 9and I Peter 3.3 he includes braided hairas something Christian women shouldnot indulge in. ln the late znd centuryworks of Tertullian such as On theApparel of Women {AoW and On theveiling of Virgins (VoW, these rernarksare glossed with enthusiasm. A fewquotations can give a flavour of this:'What profit, again, do you derive foryour salvation from all the labaur spentin arranging your hair? Why can you notleave your hair alone, instead of at onetime tying it up, at another letting it hangloose, now cultivating it, now thinning itout? Some women prefer to tie it up inlittle curls, while others let it fall downwild and dishevelled--a hardlycommendable kind af simplicity.Eesrdes, so/ne of you affix to yourheads I know not what monsfrosffies ofsewn and woven wigs, naw in the formof a cap as if it were a casing for thehead and a coveing for the crown, nowin the form of a chignon at the back ofthe neck.' (AoW 2.5)After considering these iniquities furtherhe concludes , 'God commands womento be veiled. I imagine He does so lesfthe heads of so me of them should beseenl ln another work (VoV 18) heoutlines his ideal of the extent of anappropriate veil: '/fs limits andboundanes reach as far as the placewhere the robe begins. The region ofthe veil is co-extensive with the spacecovered by the hair when unbound; inorder that the necks too may beencircled.' His ideal, one feels, were theArabian women whom, he notesapprovingly, cover not only their headsbut their faces.Admittedly Tertullian is extreme in rnostthings, but similar sentiments can begleaned from the writings of otherChurch Fathers. Here is St Jeromewriting in AD 385 to Marcella comparingthe behaviour of earlier widows withwhat good Christian ones should do(Letter 38. 4.2). 'ln fhose days maidsarranged her hair, and her head, which

had done no harm, was forced into awaving head-dress. Now she leaves herhair alone, and her only head-dress rs aveil.' As bad as arranging the hairelaborately though, was cutting it off.This was to ape man and not to acceptthe lowly place of women in theorthodox Christian hierarchy. ln AD390, for example, Valentinian andTheodosius issued an edict banningwomen with shorn hair enteringchurches and taking part in the services(Elm 1994,218).This then, was the intellectualbackground to hairstyles in the lateRoman empire. As Christianity madeinroads in Britain, one might expect thatincreasing numbers of women wouldhave been subject to similar diatribes bytheir pastors. lf the change in wornen'sappearances, as demonstrated by thehair pin decline, can be attributed toChristian influence, then we might havein hair pin numbers a much better indexof the spread of the religion than isprovided by such measures as artefactswith Christian symbols, church plansetc.What a woman does, or is allowed todo, with her hair is frequently making astatement that goes beyond merefashion, and reflects her role in societyand the image she wishes to project.The Martyr Perpetua knew this, and thatdishevelled hair was a sign of mourningin her society. She did not want anyoneto think she went sadly to her death inthe arena at Carthage in AD 203.'[SheJ fell upon her loins. And when shehad saf upright, her robe being rent atthe side, she drew it aver to cover herthigh, mindful rather of modesfy than ofpain. Next, looking for a pin,shelikewise pinned up her dishevelled hair;for it was not meet that a martyr shouldsuffer with hair dishevelled, /esf sheshould see m to grieve in her glary; {ThePassro n of Perpetua and FeliciU 2A)We don't have vivid written narrativeslike this for Roman Britain. We do,

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however, have an awful lot of smallfinds which still have many interestingstories to tell, with just a little help on ourparts.Hilary Cool,16 Lady Bay Road,West Bridgford,Nottingham NG2 sBJ

BibliographyL Allason-Jones 1996 , Roman Jet in theYorkshire Museu m (York)H E M Cool 1991 , 'Roman metal hair pinsfrom southern Britain', Archaeol J. 147(1 990) , 148-82H E M Cool forthcoming, 'The parts leftover: material culture into the fifth century',in Wilmott, T. and Wilson, P (eds.). Thelate Roman transition in the North BARBritish Series

No sooner had we recovered from thediscovery of the Roman sarcophagusand coffin in the northern cemetery atSpitalfields, than in the summer of1999 archaeologists from the Museumof London Archaeology Service foundtwo intact Roman wooden coffins in anamazing state of preservation. Theyhad been excavating a small part ofthe western cemetery in Holborn. Thesite lay on the western bank of theriver Fleet and fronted onto the Romanroad that left Londinium at Newgate,heading for Silchester and the south-west. Each coffin contained a skeletonlying in a layer of wet silt due to thefact that the site had become floodedin the post-Roman period.Once the skeletons had beenremoved it was possible to inspect the

N Crummy 1979, 'A chronology of Romano-British bone pins' , Britannia 10, 157-64S Elm 1994,'Virgins of God', the making ofasceficrs m in late antiquity (Oxford)D E Farwell & T I Molleson 1993,Excavations af Poundbury 1966-80. Volumell: The cemeteries Dorset Natural History &Archaeol Soc Monograph 11 (Dorchester)S J Greep 1995, 'Objects of bone andantler', in Blockley, K., Blockley, M.,Blockley, P., Frere, S. S. and Stow, S.,Excavations in the Marlowe car park andsurrounding areal, Archaeology ofCanterbury V, (Canterbury) 1112-52E J Phillips 1976, 'A workshop of Romansculptors at Carlisle' , Britannia 7, 101-8S Read & M Henig 1985, 'A decorativebronze appliqu6 from Silchester' , Britannia16,242-4

coffins. They were made of oak planksbutted together in a simple fashion tomake the joints. The bases werecomplete and the four sides of eachcoffin had been preserved. The lid ofone coffin had also survived, but wasin a poor state of preservationbecause the weight of the soil abovehad compressed the wood andmoulded it around the skeleton. Theweight of one of the skeletons hadalso caused indentations in thesoftened wet wood of the base and theoutline of the rib cage could be clearlyseen. The structures had been madeof re-used low-quality wood, and eachof the four 'side' boards fitted tightlyagainst a wall of the grave pit. Ratherthan being true coffins, they appear tohave acted as simple wooden liningsto the graves.

FROM RICHES TO RAGS

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This is the first time that woodencoffins have been found preserved inRoman London, and one will go ondisplay in the Museum of London'sRoman Gallery once conservationwork has been completed. Usually allthat is left is wood stains and iron nails.Do colleagues know of any survivingexamples of wooden coffins from theirarea?And now, back to where we startedThe Spitalfields sarcophagus, leadcoffin, and grave goods are now on

permanent display in the Romangallery, along with the reconstructedhead produced for 'Meet theAncesfors'. The skeleton will remainon display for the next year, to bereplaced by the wooden coffin.Jenny Hall,Early London Dept,Museurn of London,London Wall,London EC2Y sHN

A LATE ROMAN GRAVE GROUP FROMDUROBRIVAEln June 1998, maintenance workalong the A1 near Water Newton,Cambridgeshire, exposed humanbones and two stone coffins.Subsequent archaeological recordingby the Archaeological Field Unit ofCambridgeshire County Councilrevealed the inhumed remains of atleast 57 late Roman individuals,including infants. The site lies to thesouth of the Roman town ofDurobrivae, in an area where manyother burials have been found in thepast (Casa-Hatton & Wall 1999).1Some of the burials found in 1998 hadbeen in nailed wooden coffins, therewere some possible instances ofstone-/tile-packing, and at least twocases of decapitation were recorded.Most of the graves were unfurnished,but one, the burial of a S-year old child(t 16 months), was accompanied bycopper-alloy and ivory bangles, apossible earring, and a necklace ofamber and glass beads , apparentlyplace in a pile close to the body(Grave 114). lt is the necklace thatmakes this grave so different from

other late Roman graves with depositsof jewellery.One of the copper-alloy bangles is ofplain wire with simple twisted join,another is simply decorated withslanting grooves on both edges,probably a very debased form ofimitation cabling. Two are of Clarke'sType E (1979, 307-9), othenrvisedescribed as with 'multiple motifs'(Crummy 1983, fig 47) or 'multipleunits' (Cool & Mills 1993, 90). Twohave alternating plain and hatchedpanels, and another has panels ofalternating diagonal grooving. Aneighth armlet, catalogued from aphotograph, appears to be of stoutconstruction, but plain. Only one ivoryarmlet was reasonebty well preserved.It is of one-piece construction, with theend butted together and held in acopper-alloy sleeve. Other survivingfragments suggest that at leastanother two had been deposited.The possible earring is a fragment of athin copper-alloy wire loop, but theterminals are missing and its exactform is uncertain.

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The necklace was composed of sixlarge amber discoid beads of wedge-shaped section, a plain blackgadrooned (melon) bead, and threebeads of black glass each enlivenedwith a coloured zigzag, one red, oneyellow, ofie white.The amber presumably came from theBaltic, though occasionally raw lumpsmay be washed up on the eastAnglian coast, suggesting that amberobjects in this area may sometimeshave been locally worked rather thanimported (Shepherd 1985, 204). Theblack glass beads are definitely ofcontinental Germanic origin. ln hercorpus of Roman beads Guidosuggested that black gadroonedbeads came from southern Bavana(1 978, gg), and that the black glassbeads with zigzag were probably ofFrankish origin {ibid, 135). ln herAnglo-Saxon corpus, however, shedoes not suggest points ofman ufactu re ( 1 999, 21-3), thoug hthere can be no doubt that her originalinstincts were not far short of the rnark.

The beads from the Water Newton necklace.courtesy of the cambridge Archaeological Field Unit& Sue Holden. Slightly reduced from 1:1.

Amber beads are rare in late RomanBritain, and are usually well-rnade andcut to one of the shapes current in theperiod, such as a facetted cuboid(Crummy 1983, fig 36, 1419) or a well-formed disc (ibid, fig 34, 559). Theremay be just one or two on a necklacewith glass and perhaps jet beads ofothemrise conventional Roman style(eg Liversidge 1973, fig 52a; Guido1979, 295)" Wedge-shaped exampleslike those from Water Newton do,however, make their appearance onan armlet or necklace of beads andpendants in a grave at Butt Road,Colchester, dated to the last quarter ofthe 4th century or the early sth(Crummy 1983, fig 34,634; Crummy &Crossan 1993, Table 2.67, grave 15),and are common in the pagan Anglo-Saxon period. The Durobrivae amberbeads would not be out of place in agrave from one of Cambridgeshire'sMigration Period Anglian cemetenes,several of which have been found inthe Nene and Welland valleys within afew kilometres of Water Nevrton.

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--t7mrG@ffi arytm,IITEM Black and redBlackBlack and yellowBlack and white

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On the black glass beads the yellowand red zigzags are marvered into thesurface while the white is not. Thelatter bead is also smaller than theother two and of slightly differentprofile, indicating different workingpractices in a different workshop. Themajority of these beads in Britaincome from Anglo-Saxon contexts(Guido 1999, Type Zvi,a-c), thoughthere are some unstratified (typical )examples from Roman Richborough,Silchester, and Segontium. Thedistribution is wide, with several fromKent (probably the point of entry), anda scatter west to Worcester and northto Fife. They are present, though notparticularly well-represented, amongthe beads favoured by the earlyAnglians (eg West 1985, fig 276. 10;Evison 1994, fig 6, D19). Like theamber beads, they probably firsttrickled into Britain in the very late 4thcentury, but are much more likely to beof Sth-century date.Given the Roman character of thearmlets and the 'Germanic' nature ofthe beads, in writing the report on thegrave goods I suggested aconservative date-range of c 390-420for the grave (Crummy 1999).The well-known burials fromDorchester-on-Thames were initiallydated by Kirk & Leeds to the late 4thcentury (1953, 63-76), but later shiftedby White into the first quarter of the sthcentury (1988, 109).So, less conservatively, perhaps Icould stick my neck out and suggestinstead that 40A-25 or 41A-$A mightbe a better date-range. Cemeterieswith few grave goods, such as thisone, leave those burials that arefurnished floating free in a general 'lateRoman' sea. Where the grave goodsthen have both a Roman and an'Anglo-Saxon' flavour, the difficulty ofdating is doubly compounded. Do welaunch them unequivocally into theSth-century, or moor them in the safe390s?

On a slightly different note, it isinteresting that this is the grave of ayoung child. Two graves from ButtRoad, Colchester, also of youngchildren, contained strings gf. beadsand pendants that show they are alsoof very late Rornan to early sth centurydate (Crummy & Crossan 1993, tables2.52, 2.52, 2.67). ln those cases Isuggested that the bead strings hadan amuletic character, to protect thechild either in life, and in particular,during the illness that led to death, orin the afterlife (ibid, 141).Could the Water Newton beads alsobe arnuletic? They are not a jumble ofshape and material as were the ButtRoad groups, but show a tidycombination of red (amber) and black(glass) that hints at 'style' rather thanpurpose.Why then with a young child? A gravedeposit of jewellery or other items witha female child, teenager or youngadult may represent a dowry ratherthan simply her best finery (ibid, 130).Or does it, as it might well in this case,show a parent giving in to 'pesterpowef, ie buying the latest thing inbeads to pacify a dearly-loved,perhaps ailing and fractious, child.Nina Crummy

' I am grateful to the Archaeological FieldUnit of Cambridgeshire County Council forpermission to reproduce sections of thetext and illustrations from Casa-Hattonand Wall 1999 and my appendix in thatpublication on the grave goods from (1 14).The drawings are by Sue Holden(freelance), who also kindly gavepermission for their reproduction.BibliographyR Casa-Hatton & W Wall 1999, A lateRoman cemetery besrde the A1 nearDurobrivae (Water Newton): archae-ological recording, Cambridgeshire CountyCouncil Report 165

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G Clarke 1979, Tfie Roman cemetery atLankhr'ils, Winchester Studies 3, llH E M Cool & J M Mills 1993, 'The copper-alloy and silver grave goods' in Excavationsat Poundbury 1966- 80, Il: The cemetenesbyDEFarwell &TlMolleson, DorsetNatural History & Archaeol Soc Monograph11 (Dorchester)N Crumrny 1983 , The Roman small findsfrom excavations in Colchesfer 1971-9,Colchester Archaeological Report 2

1999, Appendix I - the grave goods fromGrave 114 in Casa-hatton and Wall 1999N Crummy & C Crossan 1993, 'Excavationsat Butt Road 1976-9, 1986, and 1988' inExcavations of Roman and later cemeteres,churches and monastic srfes in Colchesfer,1971-88 by N Crummy, P Crummy, & CCrossan, Colchester Archaeological ReportI

V Evison 1994, An Anglo-Saxon cemeteryat Great Chesfe rford, Essex, CBA Res Rep91M Guido 1978, The glass beads of theprehistaric and Roman periods in Britain andlreland

1979, 'Beads and necklaces' in Clarke1 979

1999 , The g/ass 0eads of Anglo-SaxonEngland, c 400-700J R Kirk & E T Leeds 1953, 'Three earlySaxon graves from Dorchester, Oxon' inOxoniensia 17 -1 8, 63-76J Liversidge 1973, Bntain in the RomanEmpireS lVest 1985 , West Sfow, the Anglo-Saxonvillage, East Anglian Archaeology 24R White 1988, Roman and Celtic objectsfrom Anglo-Saxo n graves, BAR BritishSeries 191

Finds Research Group AD 700-1700(17 4 00)The spring meeting of the FRG will be heldin The Music Room, Nonvich AssemblyHouse, Norwich on the topic of 'Fishing andfishing equipment'. Papers on fish remains,fishing equipment, jewellery made from fishparts, and fish motifs and symbols. Furtherdetails from: lan Riddler, CanterburyArchaeological Trust, 92A Broad Street,Canterbury CY1 zLU. Tel: 01227 462062rFA (4 4 00.4 00)The annual IFA conference will be held atthe University of Sussex. Sessions willinclude 'For love or rnoney'; 'Professionalsand amateurs'; 'A theory for archaeologicalevaluations'; 'Why study buildings'; and'Archaeologists or artists'. Further detailsfrom: Conference Comrnittee, lFA,University of Reading, 2 Earley Gate, POBox 239, Reading RG6 6AU. Tel: A11B 9316446; fax. A118-93 1-6448; email:admin ifa@virgin net

TRAC ((6 4 AA-7 4 00)The next TRAC conference will be held atthe Institute of Archaeology, UCL. Sessions

CONFERENCESalready proposed include. 'The Romanarmy in context'; 'Centres of power';'Representing the Romans'; and 'Theidentities of Romano-British artefacts' TheTRAC debate will be the next 10 yearsFurther details from: TRAC 2000 OrganisingCommittee, UCL lnstitute of Archaeology,31-4 Gordon Square, London WClH 0PY'Emai I : tra_c2000@ucl. ac. ukAncient DNA 5 (12.7 00-1 4 7 00)The sth international conference on ancientDNA will be held in Manchester Furtherdetails from: Terry Brown, Dept ofBiornolecular Sciences, UMIST, PO Box BB,Manchester M60 1QD. Email:adnaS@bi umist.ac.ukLrrnes Xvlll (2 g 00- 11 9 00)The 18th lnternational Congress of RomanFrontier Studies will be held in Amman,Jordan. Further details from: Limes XVlll,Dept of Archaeology, SACOS, WilliamHartley Building, University of Liverpool,Liverpool 169 3BX" Fax: 0151 794 5057;email. pfreeman@liv. ac. uk

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APPEALS FOR HELPRoman domestic woodBritain is particularly well placed for thestudy of Roman domestic wood. Thetourist industry would love this positivespin on what is substantially a rottenclimate. But even with the wealth ofmaterial from Carlisle, Vindolanda, andLondon it was soon clear that furniture(the obvious topic) was a non-starter. Iwanted to investigate use, variety andmanufacturing techniques, butunfortunately, the quantity of furnitureremains available is not sufficient.After a year spent inspecting thematerial in the care of museums andarchaeological units, I have drawn up alist of topics that fits the bill. lt includescombs and "related items",woodensoles, carved, turned and bentwoodcontainers and kitchen equipment.Clearly some topics can be inyestigatedmore exhaustively than others. Almosthalf my material are combs: they can beanalysed in greater detail than the"related items". But it is important to mymind, to consider the contribution ofwood as a medium to the lady'sdressing table, and that is what I havetried to do by looking at the scantevidence for its use in mirror boxes, pinsand jewellery.Wooden soles (pattens) are also achallenge. I want to get them out of theghetto. I am not convinced by thestandard explanation that they were onlyintended for use in the baths.Containers, especially the turned ones,offer a great scope for experimentalarchaeology. I was very lucky inenlisting the assistance of aknowledgeable turner. I managed toreplicate the combs and the soles bymyself, but I did need some practicalassistance for the needlecases and thepyxides (small lidded boxes).I am now halfway through and presentlywriting up the shoes. I think I have seen

all the relevant materiai but I would liketo take this opportunity to check on that,lf anyone has Roman domestic woodenmaterial, be it combs, soles, turned,carved or bentwood containers,spatulae, scoops and spoons, and theyhave not seen me in the past twelve orso months, please get in touch.Paola Pugsley,Rockhaven,St George's Well,Cullompton,Devon

Roman lighting eguipmentI am currently working on my PhD thesis'llluminating Roman Britain' at theUniversity of Reading under thesupervision of Professor M Fulford. Theaim of my thesis is to study all forms ofRomano-British lighting equipment witha particular emphasis on theirarchaeological context and the socialand economic implications of their use,My research focuses only on lightingequipment with a known Romano-British provenance, but it includes allforms of lighting equipment (such aslamps, open lamps/larnp-stands, andcandlesticks) and objects of all materials(ceramic, metal and stone).lf you know of any unpublished lightingequipment from Roman Britain I wouldbe very grateful if you could contact me.Hella Eckardt,Dept of Archaeology,University of Reading,FOLSS,Whiteknights,PO Box 218Reading RG6 6AAemail. lar9The@reading._ac. uk

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NOTES FROM ROMAN BATHThe RFG meettng at Bath in Septemberwas highly successful. The first lectureconsisted of a rapid but thoroughdescription of excavators andexcavations in the city from the early18th century, and a guide to thecollections of the Museum, founded inthe late l Bth century to house thewealth of material that was being dugup. The importance of recording andpublishing items was stressed bymention of some objects, large andsmall, gone missing over the centuries,The value of applying new techniques toold objects was also pointed out, asexamination of the head of SulisMinerva found in 1727 has recentlyrevealed that of the six layers of gold onthe head only two were contemporarywith its manufacture. Four were laterapplications used to 'smarten' it up.Perhaps the biggest surprise of the daywas that the walled area of Roman Bathwas not the town proper, but probablyan enclave for religious buildings andpossibly also for the more importantcivic buildings. Roman roads tend todisappear 1-2 miles outside the town,but projecling them points to Walcot,where there was a river crossing, 3s themain area of occupation, not the areaaround the baths. This has now beenconfirmed by several seasons ofexcavation on a variety of sites,revealing 1st- to 4th-century occupation,including strip-buildings, evidence formetalworking, a building with massivefoundatioffs, good quality stonework,and late burials.A villa with a probable courtyard buildingand its own bath-house was excavatedclose to the walled area, and anothervilla, a simple corridor building half amile east of the Sacred Spring, wasfound to have been built on top of anlron Age farm. Late in its life this sitewas used for the manufacture of

mitlefiori glass, and has produced alarge quantity of cullet gathered readyfor recycling.The next paper on Roman lightingconcentrated on open lamps. Lampscan be particularly revealing about thesocial and cultural identity of their users.Dividing the sites with lamps into fivemajor groups: military, high status/largetown, villa/rural, and smaller town, with'unknown' to mop up any strays, showsthat pre-Flavian ceramic open larnpscome mainly from military sites and thelarger urban centres, ie are typical of avery Romanised society. ln the 2ndcentury open lamps are usually of ironor lead. The former mainly come fromburials on rural sites, mainly rich barrowgraves such as the Bartlow Hills,-showing that cultured living and dining inthe Roman style was expected tocontinue after death for the Romano-British elite" Lead open lamps, on theother hand, come principally frommilitary sites in Wales. This difference inmatenal may be affected by the locationof the lead mines and their control bythe military, but is rnore likely to showthat lead lamps were functional items,while iron open lamps had a ritualaspect.It was back to Roman Bath for two tatkson the small finds - recent and not-so-recent. Particularly interesting amongthe latter were two painted pipeclay dogfigurines, rare in Britain but wellrepresented on the continent" Thesewere found close to the Sacred Springand clearly had a religious importance"Other finds included pre-Flavianbrooches, military equipment, a shaletable leg, and some later Romanpieces. Among the most recent findswere some very odd stone objects.NC

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MEETING ON HADRIAN'S WALLThe RFG is heading north in theMillennium the next meeting will beheld at Birdoswald on Monday 20thMarch 2000. The title of the day is 'Findsfrom the Roman Frontier' and speakerswill include Lindsay Allason-Jones, AlexCroom, and Tony Wilrnott. However,don't feel restricted by the title - all arewelcome and there will be spaces forpresentations on any aspect of Romanfinds work.We will be using Cumbria CountyCouncil's new Hadrian's WallResidential Study Centre in the Rornanfort a 17th-century farmhouse withunique access to the fort and the Wall.For people travelling from elsewhere inthe country, accommodation is availablein the Study Centre for the Sundayevening. According to the Birdoswaldpromotional literature, this 'consists ofshared bedrooms, each with a genuinefeature fireplace, bunk beds ( ), a washbasin and full central heating'. For lessadventurous persons there is also asmall B&Bnearby.

The RFG subscription year runs fromOctober 1st, so subscriptions are nowwell and truly due for the year1999/2000, and long overdue if youhaven't yet paid for 199811999.While I am sure most of you are highlyefficient, mark the date in your diaries,and pay up promptly, there must besome like me who feel a twinge ofconscience whenever you speak toAngela, but never seem to have yourcheque book on you at the same time.Now is the time to cough up

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Transport has been arranged to takepeople from Carlisle railway station toBirdoswald on Sunday evening, andback again on Monday afternoon.The meeting will cost t 12 (includinglunch), and the Sunday nightaccommodation costs a further f,26 perperson (this includes evening meal andbreakfast).lf there is time we might squeeze in atour of the fort, so bring wellies andwarm/waterproof ctothing" Furtherdetails will be sent to members in theNew Year, but if you want to book aplace sooner rather than later, contactPeter Guest at 47 Richmond Road,Montpelier, Bristol BSO sEN.See you there

The rate remains a very reasonable85.00, so please write your cheque andpost it to:Angela Wardle,1 Stebbing Farm,Fishers Green,STEVENAGE,Herts SG1 zJBPrompt paying saves Angela having tosend out reminders, and so keeps therunning costs of the Group down. Youknow it makes sense.

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Rornan Castleford l: The small finds.Edited by H E M Cool & C Philo. 1998The small finds from the two 1st-centuryRoman forts and the adjacent vicus atCastleford are presented by material,written up by a variety of specialists. Thefinal part, 'Life in Roman Castleford', byHilary Cool, offers an overview pullingtogether the information offered in theother sections under various headings,such as 'Soldiers and civilians', 'Tradeand exchange','Religion and belief',and, most importantly, looks at theassemblages from structures in the fortsand vicus.A highlight of the volume is the sectionon the clay moulds for making spoonsand enamelled vessels, mainly flasks.Yorkshire Archaeology 4, ISBN I 87A453 204, ISSN 0959-3500, 421 pp, 164 ill, t24.00

The Archaeology of Lincoln Vll-2. TheDefences of the Lower City:excavations at the park and Westparade 1970-2, and a discussion ofother sites excavated up to 1994.Edited by M J Jones, 1999.A companion volume to those on theUpper Defences (1980 , 1984), thiscovers the remains of the lower circuitand the south-western quarter of theRoman and medieval walled city.lncludes studies of the Roman andmedieval pottery and other finds.CBA Res Rep 114, ISBN 1 872414 88 5,304 pp, 164 ill, t36.00

The Glass Beads of Anglo-SaxonEngland c. AD 400-700" M Guido,edited by M Welch.The follow-up to Guido's lgTBPrehistoric & Roman volume. Some lateRoman bead types are repeated here,not always with the same conclusions,and inevitably some recently-publishedAnglo-Saxon types are not included. Sonot all beads from current excavationswill find a parallel in here, but thereshould be something reasonably close.After all, the subtitle is A preliminaryvisual classificatian af the maredefinitive and diagnosfic fypes. lt is atthe Roman/Migration period junctionthat the volume is not really reliable (notsurprising), but the problems arecompounded by some avoidable errors.For example, in the text (p 23ll a beadfrom Nettleton is given as perhaps theearliest stratified example of Type Zvi(black with white, yellow or red zigag),but is in the Schedules as Type 2vb(black with blue wave). Ordinarily, thiswould be a minor annoyance, but as it isthe piece on which the type might bedated, it means going back to thesource.Enjoy, but use with care.The Boydell Press, ISBN 0 851 1 5 7181 ,ISSN 0953-7 163, 361 pp, 2 figs, I colourpls, 32 maps, 850.00

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