April 2011 (issue 123) - The Sussex Archaeological Society

Excavation
CULVER LAMP
SDNPA
Feature
Romano-British Hanging Lamp
Rare lamp unearthed at Culver Farm, Barcombe
The Culver Archaeological
Project, under director Rob
Wallace, has been investigating the
wider archaeological landscape
surrounding the Roman villa estate
at Barcombe. After exposing a 40m
section of unknown Roman road
in Courthouse Field during 2009,
they concentrated in 2010 on a 40
x 20m open area excavation in the
adjacent Pond Field. This exposed
an area of industrial pits and ditches
to the south side of the road where
a corroded iron artefact with a
100mm diameter bowl at the end of
a dog-legged bar was uncovered.
The item was fractured into three
pieces and had a large headed
rivet/bolt adjacent (Figure 1).
Figure 1.
Photo: D Millum
It was first thought to be some
form of ladle but a talk by David
Rudling, on Romano-British
burials for the University of Sussex
Archaeological Society, presented
an alternative solution in a picture
of the oil-lamp and hanger found
in Springfield Road, Brighton in
1962. It is now hoped to obtain
x-rays of the Culver lamp to show
the individual parts more clearly
and allow for a more definite
interpretation.
Romano-British iron hanginglamps
appear not to be as common
in Britain’s archaeological record
as one might expect although this
possibly reflects the ease of reusing
iron objects as a raw material rather
than denoting an original scarcity.
Figure 2. Roman hanging lamp as it was most
probably configured and used.
Iron hangers have been noted on
several lamps in the British Museum
archive and a good example was
excavated in a hoard of armour and
tools from an early 2 nd century fort
at Corbridge in 1964. The lamps
are designed to hang freely from a
point above the centre of gravity of
the open reservoir (Figure 2) with a
soft wick laid into the oil protruding
at the front. They had a long and
widespread usage over Europe
and around the Mediterranean and
were still utilised in the Shetlands in
a developed, double-shell variety,
the ‘kollie’, in the 19 th century.
Figure 3.
Photo: D Millum
The Pond Field excavation also
produced the remains of a Romano
boot (Figure 3) from the base of a
ditch filled with dark charcoal-rich
soil containing a variety of both
course and fine Romano pottery
sherds. The impression of the sole
was left by the pattern of over 100
hob nails and as the sole appears
to have been totally covered the
pair must have had in excess of 240
nails. The nail pattern was removed
intact for further study using a
protective mould of plaster of Paris.
Several other lesser groups of nails
had also been excavated.
For further details of this project,
including how to get involved,
see the project’s website: www.
culverproject.com.
David H Millum MA
Site supervisor, 2007-2010.
Finally after over 50 years of
campaigning and a decade
of negotiation, the new South
Downs National Park will become
operational on 1 st April 2011. This
is a major achievement, and one
which will do much to protect the
archaeology and heritage of this
exceptional landscape.
Stretching almost 100 miles from
Winchester to Eastbourne, and
covering an area of approximately
1000 square miles, the South
Downs National Park includes
evidence of human activity from
the Palaeolithic to the present day.
There are nearly 600 Scheduled
Monuments, over 5,000 Listed
Buildings, about 165 Conservation
Areas and 30 Registered Parks and
Gardens, not to mention thousands
of undesignated archaeological
and historical features. The park
also includes a number of market
towns – Lewes, Midhurst, Petworth,
Petersfield and Liss – which are
rich in history and character. The
breadth and complexity of this
historic environment is staggering.
The conservation of cultural
heritage is one of the primary
purposes of the National Park.
In order to achieve this, the new
Authority has been active in
structuring an organisation that can
meet the challenges of conservation
within the 21 st century. Under the
leadership of Margaret Paren (Chair)
and Richard Shaw (Chief Executive),
the new Authority is starting to take
shape and has been very active in
consulting its partners in preparing
a set of ‘guiding principles’ which
will shape the future direction of
the park (available on-line at www.
southdowns.gov.uk). The next
step is establishing a number of
working groups who will shape our
vision for the future.
What Future for the Past?
Conserving cultural heritage within the SDNP
Distant view of The Caburn, an Iron Age ‘hillfort’ on the Lewes downs.
It has also wrestled with the
weighty problem of how to meet its
statutory duty as the Local Planning
Authority for the National Park and
has decided to adopt a planning
system where much of the work is
done, by agreement, by constituent
Local Councils, while the Authority
undertakes the park-wide strategic
planning and major casework.
The National Park is likely to be
the busiest, in terms of planning
workload, of any in the UK and this
approach is intended to ensure that
the weight of planning work does
not deflect the Authority from its
wider conservation, engagement
and socio-economic purposes. A
report outlining how this will work
is also available on the website.
Over the coming years, the
Authority will need to understand
and act on the key heritage issues,
and it will look to partners such as
the Society for help in doing this. A
new cultural heritage team is now
in place to lead on this, based in
our office in Midhurst. The main
heritage tasks for the first few years
include i) developing a Management
Plan for the South Downs to ensure
that appropriate priority is given
to heritage interests, ii) preparing
Photo: W Muriel
a Local Development Framework
to reflect the management plan
priorities, iii) agreeing a way to
draw on existing county and district
Historic Environment Records, and
iv) how best to work with local
groups and communities in caring
for, and learning from, our heritage.
But the Authority can’t do this
alone - in deciding on how best
to act to conserve and enhance
the cultural heritage of the South
Downs, it will work with others to
build on the excellent conservation,
land management, research and
educational work that is already
being done.
Conserving and enhancing the
“natural beauty” of the South
Downs landscape and promoting
understanding and enjoyment
of its special qualities will be
the Authority’s touchstones,
and we would suggest that, as
archaeologists and historians, it
is our role to help explain how
the natural beauty of the South
Downs has been influenced by
people through the ages and how
the legacy of that endeavour is
ingrained in the landscape today.
Paul Roberts
Regional Rural Strategy Advisor
English Heritage
Sussex Past & Present April 2011
www.sussexpast.co.uk www.romansinsussex.co.uk Sussex Past & Present April 2011