Description
Book SynopsisVillas, Sanctuaries and Settlement in the Romano-British Countryside had its genesis in a conference held at the British Museum in 2009 and brings together a range of papers on buildings that have been categorised as ‘villas’, mainly in Roman Britain, from the Isle of Wight to Shropshire. It comprises the first such survey for almost half a century. While some of these structures were indeed country houses and the centres of agricultural estates as their designation as ‘villas’ implies, others are here shown to have been administrative or industrial centres, hunting lodges or religious sanctuaries, or a combination of more than one such function. The art associated with these prestige structures and its relevance to their function is also considered.
Table of ContentsRoman villas in Britain and beyond –
Martin Henig, Anthony King and Grahame Soffe ;
Where, when and what for? Coin use in the Romano-British countryside –
Philippa Walton ;
Villa mosaics and archaeology –
Patricia Witts ;
The Roman villas of the Lower Nene Valley and the
Praetorium at Castor –
Stephen G. Upex ;
Piddington, Northamptonshire: wealthy private farm or imperial property? –
Roy and Diana Friendship-Taylor ;
Whitley Grange villa, Shropshire: a hunting lodge and its landscape –
Roger White ;
Moor Park, Hertfordshire: two evaluations of an excavation of the 1950s –
Victoria Leitch and Martin Biddle ;
Great Witcombe, Gloucestershire: a reinterpretation of the site as a temple rather than a villa –
Bryn Walters and David Rider ;
Chedworth, Gloucestershire: a question of interpretation –
Bryn Walters and David Rider ;
Acroterial decoration and
cantharus fountains –
Anthony Beeson ;
The stones with Chi-Rho inscriptions at Chedworth –
Stephen R. Cosh ;
The St Laurence School villa, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire –
Mark Corney ;
Dinnington and Yarford: two villas in south and west Somerset –
Anthony C. King, with a contribution by Christina Grande ;
The Ashtead Roman villa and tileworks –
David Bird ;
Lullingstone Roman villa –
Martin Henig and Grahame Soffe, with a contribution by Anthony King ;
Clinging to Britannia’s hemline: continuity and discontinuity in villa estates, boundaries and historic land use on the islands of
Vectis and
Tanatis –
David Tomalin ;
Where did Sidonius Apollinaris live? –
John Collis ;
From Roman villa to medieval village at the Mola di Monte Gelato, Lazio, Italy –
Anthony C. King ;
Index
