141 research outputs found
The "end of the gods" in late Roman Britain
International audienceThe 3rd and 4th c. did not mark a period of abandonment or discontinuity for temples of the fanum type in Roman Britain, rather it was a period of continued use with sites being created and some existing sites substantially expanded or modified. This is particularly true of the region either side of the Bristol Channel in south-western Britain, but holds good for other regions also. The temples and the ancillary buildings at a number of these sites are considered, along with the evidence for the deposition of classes of material: coins; bracelets; curse-tablets/defixiones; animal bones. It is argued that the real ‘end of the gods’ supervened not in the 3rd or the 4th c. but rather in the 5th as part of the complex of changes consequent upon the ending of Roman rule in the island, and that Romano-British temple sites did not influence either ‘Anglo-Saxon’ pagan ritual sites or the location of Christian churches of the Augustinian mission from AD 597.En Britannia, les IIIe et IVe s. ne marquent pas une période d’abandon ou d’interruption du fonctionnement des temples de type fanum, car c’est plutôt une période d’utilisation continue avec des sanctuaires qui sont créés ou d’autres déjà existants qui se sont développés ou ont été transformés. C’est particulièrement le cas pour la région située de part et d’autre du « canal de Bristol » au sud-ouest de la Bretagne, mais ceci est aussi valable pour d’autres régions. Les temples et bâtiments annexes de certains sites sont évoqués dans cet article, et le dépôt de diverses catégories de mobilier (monnaies, bracelets, tablettes de défixion, os animaux) y a été mis en évidence. L’auteur estime que « la fin des dieux » n’a pas eu lieu aux IIIe et IVe s. mais plutôt au Ve s., et qu’elle fait partie des changements complexes survenus dans l’île après la chute du pouvoir romain. Les sanctuaires romano-celtiques n’ont pas non plus influencé les sites « anglo-saxons » observant des rituels païens, ni l’emplacement des églises chrétiennes implantées lors de la mission d’Augustin de Canterbury en 597 apr. J.-C
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The Silchester 'Nymphaeum'
A carved coping stone found on the site of a spring near the amphitheatre, Silchester and first reported in 1873 was re-discovered in 2014. The stone does not compare in its carved detail with coping stones from the amphitheatres at Chester and London nor with that recovered from the West Gate, Silchester in 1890, nor does its basal width correspond with that of the arena wall of the Silchester amphitheatre. It is likely to have formed part of a monumental basin similar to that found at Coventina’s Well, Northumberland and commemorating the location of a spring and its associated (unknown) deity. Similarity with the type and decoration of architectural stone used in the construction of the forum basilica suggests a Hadrianic-Antonine date
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The defended Vici of Roman Britain: recent research and new agendas
The evidence of the character and purpose of settlements previously described as defended ‘small towns’ is reviewed in the light of knowledge accrued since the implementation of Planning Policy Guidance 16 in 1990, the same year as the publication of Burnham and Wacher's survey, The ‘Small Towns’ of Roman Britain. This review focuses on four of the more extensively excavated settlements: Alcester, Cambridge, Godmanchester and Worcester. In the absence of convincing urban attributes, it is suggested that this category of settlement should more appropriately be regarded as defended villages (vici). These cluster in and around the West Anglian plain and on Ermine Street, suggesting a strategic function to protect grain and other food supplies and their movement, potentially either to the northern frontier or south to London and, perhaps, export to the Continent
Regional variation in the continuity of land-use patterns through the first millennium A.D. in lowland Britain
Les liaisons transmanche à l’époque antique, une perspective depuis les falaises blanches de Douvres
Trop souvent, la politique moderne nous amène à penser que la Manche ne sert qu’à écarter la Bretagne insulaire du continent européen, et/ou vice versa. Chez les Anglais, les white cliffs of Dover sont utilisées comme métonymie de l’insularité de la Bretagne face aux pouvoirs continentaux, parfois hostiles. Mais la Manche est aussi depuis longtemps un axe de communication et de pénétration qui relie les deux littoraux et leurs peuples. Dans cette contribution, je voudrais développer ce point ..
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