In the mid-1950's attempts were made to solve Leicester's traffic problems by the construction of an inner ring road by-passing the present city centre around the clock tower. The projected line ran through the Roman and medieval towns of Leicester from the north-east corner to the medieval south gate, passing just west of the ancient site of the High Cross (FIG. I ). The engineering work for this road was expected to destroy substantial archaeological evidence of the history of the town, and the City of Leicester Museums, in association with the then Ministry of Works, planned a jointly-financed programme of excavations. The first was undertaken in Blue Boar Lane by Mr. J. S. Wacher. In 1961 Leicester Museums appointed a full-time Field Archaeologist to direct the work of rescue in advance of road building. The work recorded in this paper under 1961–4 was directed by M. G. Hebditch: that under 1965–6, and again under 1971–2, by Jean Mellor. In all its excavations, the Museum staff enjoyed the co-operation of colleagues in other departments of Leicester Corporation, especially those of the Engineer and the Estates Officer. A besetting problem has been the limited area for excavation available at any one time (because of irregular demolition and clearance of the site and the need to leave substantial areas for the support of adjoining buildings).

The Roman villa at Brantingham in East Yorkshire was discovered in 1941, when two mosaic pavements were found in a stone quarry, the ‘Cockle Pits’ (SE 932287), on the west side of the main road (A63) from Hull to Leeds and a little over a mile north-north-west of Brough (Petuaria) (FIG. I). The pavements were first uncovered and recorded, and then protected and re-buried; but in 1948 it was decided to move them to the Hull Museum. This operation gave rise to one of the mysteries of Yorkshire archaeology, for one of the floors disappeared overnight and has never been recovered. The second pavement was successfully re-housed at Hull.

The figures of Sarapis and the Tutela from Calleva, both of superhuman scale, were of a quality seldom met in Roman Britain. The head of Sarapis was found by J. B. P. Karslake in the garden of his house about 1 km from the walls, and without doubt had come from the ancient site on some remote occasion, when it was put to use as the weight in a cheese-press, an iron bar being let into the top of the head, perhaps in the very hole which had once taken a dowel to affix the vanished modius. The head measures some 32 cm from chin to crown of head; the beard of the chin, which would have parted in two luxuriant rolls to left and right, and the nose, have gone; and there is damage and abrasion elsewhere. The identification, however, is not in doubt, for the locks falling on to the forehead are an especial characteristic of portraits of Sarapis belonging to the Roman age. From what survives elsewhere, we can see that the artist cut well and deeply, and made great use of the drill. There are points of comparison with the splendid marble head from the Walbrook Mithraeum, and Professor Toynbee has gone so far as to describe our head as ‘very sensitively carved’ and the work of a ‘first-rate continental sculptor’ possibly of Mediterranean origin (PLS. XVII-XVIII).

Rivenhall lies 10 miles south-west of Colchester and a mile north of the main Roman road to London, in a sheltered valley adjacent to copious springs which feed a tributary stream of the river Blackwater (FIG. I). The subsoil geology is mainly boulder clay containing random gravel pockets; this is capped by brickearth in places. There are numerous prehistoric and Romano-British sites in the vicinity.

A Roman Villa at Weekley in Northamptonshire (SP 885 818) was first referred to by eighteenth-century antiquaries, who stated that ‘pavements, foundations, pottery and a great deal of money’ had been ploughed up in a field known as Castle Hedges. The site of these discoveries is one mile north-east of what appears to be a fairly extensive Roman settlement on the northern outskirts of Kettering. The area is now under threat from ironstone-quarrying, and preliminary surveys were carried out during 1970 both from the air and on the ground. These indicate that the site began in the late Iron Age with a series of enclosures and occupation subsequently continued into the Roman period. A number of pottery kilns were found which probably date to the third quarter of the first century A.D.

Mediobogdum is founded on comparatively level ground half-way down the west side of Hardknott pass, above the 800 ft. contour. It is an extremely wet site, peat having formed up to o·60 m thick in hollows between the rock outcrops or where collapsed walling has blocked the natural drainage. It was by chance in digging a drain through the retentura to improve the upper part of the site behind the granaries that the first piece of leather was found in 1965. This is thought to be part of a soldier's jerkin.

During 1970 the City and County Museum, Lincoln, was fortunate in acquiring by purchase and by loan two interesting examples of metalwork from south Lincolnshire dating from the period of the Roman Conquest. The Whaplode terret is in the tradition of native Celtic metalwork, and the fluted patera handle from Dry Doddington is almost certainly an import from southern Italy. In both cases, however, these objects are likely to have been associated with the early Romanized population of the area (PL. XXIV).

The products of the New Forest Roman pottery kilns have been known since the middle of the nineteenth century through the work of Akerman, Wise and Bartlett, and in this century through Sumner and Cunliffe; but, as yet, there has been no attempt to define the distribution of the individual types made in the New Forest. As a result certain late colour-coated wares in distant parts of Britain have been mistakenly attributed to the New Forest with little consideration of obviously different fabric characteristics. Products of the New Forest kilns have often been confused with those of the Oxfordshire kilns discovered at Sandford, Rose Hill and Dorchester, Cowley and Headington; the pottery is similar in form, and similar but by no means identical in fabric, to that of the New Forest and so a clearer distinction between the products of the two industries has become necessary. The aim of this article is to show the nature and distribution of the New Forest pottery types and the place of the industry in the development of colour-coated industries in Roman Britain.

At a time when the conjectured 1900th anniversary of the founding of York has recently been celebrated, and a medal has even been struck commemorating the founder, Petillius Cerialis, it may be appropriate to take a closer look at this man, certainly one of the most interesting persons to figure in the pages of Tacitus. He is best known to students of Roman Britain from the brief lines in the Agricola:

But when, together with the rest of the world, Vespasian recovered Britain also, there were great generals, splendid armies, the hope of the enemy was diminished. And Petillius Oerialis at once induced terror, attacking the civitas of the Brigantes, which is regarded as the most numerous in the whole province. There were many battles, and sometimes they were not without bloodshed; and he embraced a great part of the Brigantes either with victory or with war. And Oerialis, indeed, would have eclipsed the administration and the renown of any other successor: but Julius Frontinus took up and sustained the burden, a great man, in so far as greatness was permissible (Agricola 17.1-2).

Before discussing the evidence for the origines of the men recruited into Roman army units in Britain, and the evidence for Britons being recruited into units in Britain or elsewhere, it will be convenient to summarize the evidence for recruitment-patterns for legions and auxilia for the empire as a whole. It will then be possible to see if the evidence suggests a significantly different situation from that in other provinces, or alternatively if there are similarities which justify the equation of the situation in Britain with that obtaining elsewhere.

RIB 601 is a sandstone altar which was discovered in 1794 in the churchyard at Halton-on-Lune, three miles upstream of Lancaster. The stone, which is broken on its right-hand side, records a dedication made to Mars by a certain Sabinus and the men of a Numerus Barcariorum. It has been generally assumed that this is the same unit as the Numerus Barcariorum Tigrisiensium placed in the Notitia Dignitatum at ARBEIA (South Shields); this reference in the Notitia has been plausibly taken to apply to the late fourth century. This assumption of identity therefore entails postulating an earlier date for the unit's stay at Lancaster. As far as purpose is concerned, the usual assumption is that the function of the barcarii was one of transportation and lighterage. It is the purpose of this note to re-examine both assumptions.

The late Roman defences which are found in many of the chief cities of France have long been remarkable for similarities of design. In the northern and western parts of France many of the cities were protected by thick, high walls, built in rubble concrete with a facing of ‘petit appareil’, interspersed with rows of tiles usually in double or triple courses. The foundations were of large unmortared stone blocks, which were, as often as not, re-used from earlier buildings destroyed in the barbarian raids of the later third century or else deliberately demolished to provide a solid foundation for the new walls. The whole circuit was strengthened by the addition of external towers, usually of one build with the walls. Fortifications of this type are also found in other provinces of the western empire.

Carausius struck legionary coins, mostly in a very base silver alloy but also in good silver; only one specimen, however, of such a coin struck by Allectus is recorded. This piece was found during excavations at South Shields in 1880, and a woodcut illustration together with initial publication of its discovery may be found in Archaeologia Aeliana. Since that time mention has been made of this coin in various other journals and works but I can find no other attempts to illustrate it. The photograph of the coin (PL. XXVIII A) proves that it was faithfully recorded in the initial instance and undoubtedly represents a legionary antoninianus of Allectus:

The coins which form the basis for this discussion, summarized in Tables I to IV (facing p. 252), have been published in more detail in the Numismatic Chronicle (Southern France 1964, northern Italy 1971, northern France 1972) and in Britannia iii, 269-76, where full details of the nature, location and peculiarities of the groups may be found, together with a subjective estimate of each group's archaeological reliability. For ease of reference the full names of the groups, and the periods into which the coinage has been divided is repeated:

The two most important studies of the Notitia Dignitatum (by Bury in 1920 and by Jones in 1964) were in basic agreement that the Western Notitia as we have it represents an official document, compiled in the mid-390s and kept in use (and thus more or less up to date) into the 420s. Although this conclusion has been questioned from time to time it has generally withstood attacks and remains the accepted assessment of the western document. Indeed, any detailed examination of the Western Notitia as a whole must lead to a similar conclusion, although differences as to the exact dates of compilation and abandonment are inevitable.