During July and August 1990 several finds of Roman metalwork and other material were reported to the Milton Keynes Archaeology Unit by metal-detector-users searching on the line of the Fenny Stratford bypass, which was at that time being constructed to the south of Milton Keynes, close to the boundary of the scheduled area covering the site of the small Roman town of Magiovinium. Of particular note among these discoveries was the finding of three coarse-ware vessels containing quantities of copper-alloy coin blanks and pellets, and a pair of possible iron coin dies (PL. IA), reported to the Unit by the finder. After preliminary recording and some statistical analysis by Bob Zeepvat, samples of the coin blanks and pellets were chemically analysed by Matthew Ponting at the Institute of Archaeology, London, while conservation and cleaning of the dies, followed by chemical and physical tests, were undertaken by the Conservation and Scientific Research departments at the British Museum. This work was carried out by Janet Lang and Mike Cowell. The pottery was examined and reported on by Pauline Marney. The hoard remains the property of the landowners, Buckinghamshire County Council, and the initial stages of the watching-brief at Galley Lane were carried out by the Milton Keynes Unit on behalf of the Buckinghamshire County Museum.

During 1981 a large quantity of Roman brick and tile was recovered from excavations at Pudding Lane/118-127 Lower Thames Street, London. Examination of this material revealed a small assemblage of roofing-tile characterised by the presence of red or brown moulding-sand, and unusual rounded tegula flanges. All were made using calcareous clays quite unlike that used for the majority of Roman tile in London. As tile from further sites in London was recorded, more roofing-tile made in the same, or similar, clay types was discovered. From the mid-1980s work outside London has revealed other sites in southern England with tiles made with the same distinctive clay types. They are located over an extremely wide geographical area ranging from Devon in the west to London in the east. Movement of tile from the as yet unidentified tilery was almost certainly by ship along the south coast. The dating of these distinctive tiles is still problematic, although there is now considerable evidence for their use in the late Roman period.

It is the intention of this paper to establish, insofar as the evidence permits, the auxiliary units in the army of Roman Britain and their forts of garrison at different periods. In Part One all such units are listed and the evidence for movement within Britain is cited, even when that evidence is no more than a single diploma which records presence in Britain. For units which served or may have served in other provinces as well as Britain the non-British evidence is cited selectively: the latest record before transfer to Britain or the first after movement away from the province; and records of vexillations serving in other provinces.

Pendants are frequent finds on sites of the Roman period. ‘Daily life was deeply penetrated, perhaps dominated, by supernatural considerations … in consequence talismans are common’. They were used for a variety of purposes; not only individuals, but houses, walls and even towns could be protected by them. This short paper concentrates on one particular type of pendant, manufactured from the crown or burr of red deer antler which is found predominantly on sites in the North-western provinces of the Empire. Whilst a small number of these pendants have received limited attention, discussion has centred primarily on the presence of a phallus as a decorative motif (Types 4-7 below) and the lesser known, but more common, undecorated forms (Types 1-3 below) have been relatively ignored.

In the study of Romano-British villas the reconstruction of a site's economy is treated as fully as the evidence will allow. One approach to this has been to attempt to calculate the size and productivity of an estate from the excavated remains of the principal dwelling and other buildings in its close vicinity. It is now recognised that such guesses are of little value, and for some the response has been to excavate larger and larger areas so that a more complete picture can be offered. However, our present emphasis on the productive economy of villas reflects the pre-occupations of our own day and age. In this there is a danger that we will be tempted to neglect what villas can tell us about consumption and expenditure, and in particular to transfer our own patterns of private spending back into the first and second centuries A.D. This paper attempts to focus on some aspects of expenditure and consumption, and of other non-productive activity, that are perhaps now being overlooked in our present climate of thinking.

In his article ‘A new look at some fourth-century mosaics’, Roger Ling has convincingly argued that the subject-matter of the mosaics at the villa of Brading, Isle of Wight, is derived from standard mythological and genre scenes. In the case of the mosaic from Room III (the so-called Abraxas or Iao mosaic) he has suggested that the two surviving rectangular panels owe their origins to African hunt-mosaics. The purpose of this article is to develop Professor Ling's explanation by looking in more detail at the mosaic and, in particular, at the two linear features associated with the griffins on the ‘Abraxas’ panel (PL. V) which have not previously been noted or discussed. These lines arguably represent millet stalks. As such they have significance for the interpretation of the mosaic as a whole, as they indicate that it is concerned with the activities of the amphitheatre.

At least three reconstructions of the Silchester church have been published this century by Quennell, Boon, and Sorrell. While there are basic similarities between them, there are also distinct differences. As the writer's intention was to construct a display model for the Silchester site museum, a project involving many weeks' work, a completely fresh start without prejudgement seemed to be required.

The theology of the Imperial Numen continues to stir vigorous debate. In an article recently published in this journal J.C. Mann has proposed a radically different interpretation of the concept as seen through Celtic eyes in the Roman provinces of the North-West. He lays down in the first place that it is epigraphically impossible for numinibus Aug. to refer to multiple living emperors, who would rather have been indicated by the reduplicated ‘g’. Nor can the reference be to the living emperor in combination with the deceased: deified dead emperors would certainly have had the divus title and could not in any case be credited with numen since they possessed no ‘divine power’. As a result, the formula n[u]minibus Aug. on an altar from Benwell (RIB 1330), for example, must be taken to refer to the numina of the reigning emperor, who in popular thought was considered to have multiple numina, powers ‘in every human field’ (p. 177). Long before its publication, an oral version of this thesis had convinced E. Birley, who on the strength of it completed both RIB 707 and 1330 in such a way as to refer likewise to the numina of the living emperor. Since this expansion affects the interpretation of epigraphical texts that are of interest in ways other than just recording the cult of the numen, the whole question merits re-examination.

Compared with many other branches of Romano-British archaeology, the study of buildings is in its infancy. This paper concentrates on one aspect of building study, the principles of design upon which plans were based; and it is further confined to military buildings. These were selected partly to limit the material under consideration to a manageable group and partly because the methods used to erect them were more likely to have been standardised to some degree. Military architecture should not, however, be seen as a selfcontained discipline: it can only really be understood as a manifestation of architectural methods and philosophy in a wider world.

A major late Roman hoard of coins, gold jewellery and silver table utensils was found in November 1992 at Hoxne, Suffolk. The finder, Eric Lawes, located the treasure on 16 November 1992, and together with the tenant farmer of the land, Peter Whatling, immediately reported the discovery to Suffolk County Council, the landowners. This prompt action enabled a team from the Suffolk Archaeological Unit, under the direction of Judith Plouviez, to carry out a controlled emergency excavation of the remainder of the deposit on 17 November. This was completed on the same day, and the finds were collected and taken to the British Museum on the following day. The deposit was lifted in small context blocks, and the recording and detailed excavation was therefore completed under laboratory conditions in the Museum. The hoard was declared Treasure Trove at a Coroner's Inquest in Lowestoft on 3 September 1993.

The Wentlooge Level in SE Wales represents an extensive area of some 35 km2 of alluvium reclaimed from estuarine saltmarsh from the Romano-British period onwards (FIGS 1-2). As was noted by Allen, the landscape is characterised at its southern and northern extremities by a pattern of small irregular fields, often fossilizing the meanderings of natural drainage channels (FIG. 2). This arrangement is typical of many of the reclaimed alluvial wetlands that fringe the Severn Estuary. The remainder of the Wentlooge Level is distinguished by a very different landscape, comprising regularly planned blocks of long, narrow, and generally straight-sided fields, quite unique among the wetlands of the Severn Estuary. At Rumney Great Wharf, north east of Cardiff, part of the latter field-system can be seen cut into a clay-peat shelf in the intertidal zone (see below), thus indicating a major episode of coastal retreat and the repositioning of the sea-wall across it; similar evidence from the intertidal zone can be recognised as far to the north-east as Peterstone Gout. An extensive spread of Romano-British pottery and primitive iron-making slag was associated locally with this field-system in the intertidal zone at Rumney Great Wharf, while survey of the adjacent mud cliff revealed at least one ditch, sealed by a buried palaeosol, which yielded stratified Roman material. Further erosion of the mud cliffrevealed more ditches with Romano-British material, as well as other indications of settlement, and prompted a programme of survey and excavation grant-aided by Cadw and the National Museum of Wales in the spring of 1992.