Newsletter Issue 22 - Association for Roman Archaeology

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G0071,ARA Newsletter22 01/11/2009 18:43 Page 6Fig. 16. The view of the northern defences of Amathus. Photo: © Ken Holt.one achieves a splendid view of theNorthern defences complete withp a rtially excavated curtain wall,towers and water cisterns (Fig 16).The aqueduct comes in at this pointfrom the hills to the north and theremains of this are visible runninga c ross the fieldsnearby.F rom this pointyou should retraceyour steps downto the smallChristian Basilicaand the coastroad. You maywish to cross theroad and join the‘promenade’ – apleasant walktowards the eastfor around 300y a rds and leavethe walkwayw h e re a smallmodern church can be seen acrossthe road. Behind this is a tarmac roadinto a new housing area. Within afew yards, the road turns right. Nextto a house on the bend are a numberof rock cut Roman tombs reached bystone staircases. Down the slopebelow the first tomb are the ruins ofa Roman Mausoleum, unique to thisarea. More tombs follow the sloperound towards the east.Some interesting finds from thesesites can be seen at Limassol museum– including a scale model of theAcropolis as it was in Roman times.I have spent several holidays in thearea of Amathus and have wanderedround at leisure on this interestingsite. Whilst it does not receive asmuch publicity as the other Romansites of Paphos and Curium a visithere is a most rewarding experience,even including the somewhatenergetic climb up to the summit ofthe plateau. This, together with a tripto Limassol museum and Limassolcastle will surely make anunforgettable day.Ken Holt.INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ANDCOMMUNICATIONSAs part of an ongoing review of itsoperations and functions, the Boardof Trustees has agreed that Vi xHughes should assume responsibilityfor IT and Communications, with thechange-over being effected by theend of this year. The Boardanticipates this will result inconsiderable improvements in thesea reas to the benefit of all ourmembership. Initially, she will beconcentrating on three areas.The WebsiteSince its inception, the site hasreceived over 13,000 hits. While thisis not a grand figure in comparison toother popular sites such as Twitter orFacebook, it is none the lessencouraging. We are getting a smallbut steady input of new membersand we are ranked second on Googlein response to searches on ’romana rchaeology‘, which is highlyencouraging. Colette Maxfield, ourWebmaster, has recently upgradedthe site to improve presentation. Inview of the lack of interest from themembership, we have put theC h a t room and Picture Gallerytemporarily on hold but Vix is in thep rocess of developing an overallstrategy for the site and hopes toi n t roduce new features andenhancements in the New Year. Anyideas (a r a . e n q u i ry @ h o t m a i l . c o m)would be welcome.The e-NewsletterIn response to a number of requestsfrom members, particularly at theAGM, we will make the Newsletteravailable by e-mail, commencingwith the first issue in 2010, to thosemembers who wish to receive it bythis route rather than by post. To thisend, can members who wish to availthemselves of this facility so indicateto us (a r a . e n q u i ry @ h o t m a i l . c o m)before the end of the year. Weintend to set up a secure e-mailcirculation list on a highly protectedstand-alone machine to accomplishthis. We recommend that onlymembers with fast (Broadband orequivalent) links register themselvesfor this as the file size will be large,and download speeds will otherwisebe excessively slow. Your e-mailaccount must be capable of handlinglarge (megabyte) files. When thisis up and running, we wouldappreciate feedback to improve theservice and remove glitches.Internal CommunicationsMore and more of our communications,particularly with members,i n t e rnally between individualTrustees and with outside bodies, areincreasingly dependent upon e-mails;yet internally, the Association has anumber of problems which areimpeding our processes. We arelooking very carefully at these andare hoping to introduce improvementsby the end of the year torectify them. Again, any suggestionswould be welcome.AcknowledgementWithout the skills and commitmentof Colette Maxfield, none of thep ro g ress we have made on thewebsite would have been possible.We are extremely grateful to her.6
G0071,ARA Newsletter22 01/11/2009 18:43 Page 7TOWNS IN BRITAIN AD300 - 700A REPORT ON A CONFERENCE AT OXFORD UNIVERSITYTowns in Britain 300 -700 – surelythere is no need for a conference onthis issue? Don’t we all know alreadythere were no towns in Britain afterAD 410, when the Romans turned outthe lights, and left the nativeswithout enough denarii to feed them e t e r. Perhaps so – but severala rchaeologists reviewed theevidence, and gave us someimportant new insights. I provide apersonal summary of the debatewhich took place at OxfordUniversity in March 2009. Thanks toRoger White, Simon Loseby, JasonWood and Mark Corney for generoushelp in obtaining the illustrations.The evidence from BritanniaPrima – Roger White –University of BirminghamPhilip Barker’s seminal work onWroxeter suggests that town lifesurvived for a while after the Romans‘ d e p a rted’, but towns wereabandoned during the fifth century –largely because they were no longerre q u i red. Towns were not anessential part of human society, andonly survived as long as they wereneeded. Figure 1 shows the numberof towns that seem to haveeventually disappeared. He showedhow even Wroxeter graduallydecayed as it changed its purpose,e.g. the removal of the basilica roofin the early sixth century, althoughthe shell continued to be used as amarket. Figure 2 shows the ultimatedecay at Caerwent.Roger presented tables showing thepresence of key features of urban lifein the small towns of Britannia Prima.They had more zeros than ticks. TheyIntroduction to the issues –Professor Mike Fulford –University of ReadingThe decrease in the production ofpottery and use of coinage seem toconfirm the decline of towns. Butcontrary evidence may have beenmissed, because it was notrecognised, or was removed withoutp roper interpretation. Wherestratigraphy survives there arepointers to post-Roman activity.Anglo-Saxon cemeteries are oftenlocated just outside the town, e.g.C o l c h e s t e r, Caistor- b y - N o rw i c h ,D o rc h e s t e r, Winchester andCanterbury. In Colchester at ButtRoad, excavations have re v e a l e dsome early Saxon occupation,including a fifth-century wooden hutbuilt on the ruins of a Roman housein present-day Lion Walk. Somecentres show renewal in Saxon times.At Venta Icenorum coins, other metalitems, and pottery of the seventh andeighth centuries have been found inthe area opposite the west gate.Venta Icenorum may have becomeonce again an important regionalcentre in the Middle Saxon period.T h e re are ‘g ru b e n h a u s e r’ datingfrom the fifth and seventh centuries,so what happened in the sixthcentury? Similar questions can beasked of other sites. There are sixthand seventh century grubenhauser inCanterbury. Did towns disappear orchange in function and character?Fig. 1. Former Roman towns in the west. Plan: © Roger White.7
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Newsletter Issue 22 - Association for Roman Archaeology

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