No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Pervasive Ritual at Wroxeter: The Evidence of the Buried Ceramics from the Bushe-Fox Excavations 1912–14
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 November 2025
Abstract
The excavations at Wroxeter conducted by J.P. Bushe-Fox examined a zone of the Roman city very different to the public baths and macellum complex extensively investigated in the later twentieth century. Bushe-Fox’s work in Insula 8 is the best and largest sample of Wroxeter’s residential buildings investigated to date; the focus of this paper is the large number of complete ceramic vessels included in the pits and wells he excavated. Recognition of the act of burying complete vessels, and of that practice as a meaningful tradition in antiquity, has developed over the last 25 years. Revisiting the Bushe-Fox excavations has provided a large body of new evidence for the practising of domestic rituals at Wroxeter.
Information
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies.
Footnotes
*
Grateful thanks to Roger White for tactfully pointing me towards the things I had missed or forgotten (though any errors herein are entirely my own). On ceramics, thanks to Ruth Leary, Steve Willis and the Study Group for Roman Pottery for such helpful discussion at their 2024 conference. Thanks to Rachel Kitcherside for her help at Wrest Park Collections Store and to Nigel Baker for his willingness to provide scans and help with digital images. Thanks to then-colleagues at English Heritage who supported this research: Martin Allfrey and Jeremy Ashbee, and to Carlos Lemnos who provided the plans and Sharon Strong who found time to read and comment, and thanks also to Steven Baker at Historic England for his images of the ceramics. Grateful thanks to my readers for Britannia for their constructive suggestions, and to Will Bowden, the editor.
References
Atkinson, D. 1942: Report on Excavations at Wroxeter (the Roman city of Viroconium) in the County of Salop, 1923–1927, Oxford.Google Scholar
Barber, B., and Bowsher, D. 2000: The Eastern Cemetery of Roman London: Excavations 1983–90, MoLAS Monograph 4, London.Google Scholar
Barker, P.A., White, R.H., Pretty, K.B., Bird, H. and Corbishley, M.J. 1997: The Baths Basilica Wroxeter: Excavations 1966–90, English Heritage Archaeological Report 8, London.Google Scholar
Bateman, N., Cowan, C. and Wroe-Brown, R. 2008: London’s Roman Amphitheatre: Guildhall Yard, City of London, MoLAS Monograph 35, London.Google Scholar
Beasley, M., with Armitage, P. and Lyne, M. 2007: ‘Roman boundaries, roads and ritual: excavations at the Old Sorting Office, Swan Street, Southwark’, Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society 57 (2006), 23–68.Google Scholar
Bird, J. 1996: ‘Frogs from the Walbrook: a cult pot and its attribution’, in Bird, J., Hassall, M. and Sheldon, H., Interpreting Roman London: Papers in Memory of Hugh Chapman, Oxbow Monograph 58, London, 119–127.Google Scholar
Bird, J. 1998: ‘The frog pot fragments’, in Shepherd, J., The Temple of Mithras, London: Excavations by W.F. Grimes and A. Williams at the Walbrook, English Heritage Archaeological Report 12, London, 139–140.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, G. 1984: ‘Romano-British face pots and head pots’, Britannia 15, 99–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braithwaite, G. 2007: Faces from the Past: A Study of Roman Face Pots from Italy and the Western Provinces of the Roman Empire, British Archaeological Reports International Series S1651, Oxford.Google Scholar
Brassington, M. 1971: ‘A Trajanic kiln complex near Little Chester, Derby, 1968’, Antiquaries Journal 51.1, 36–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryan, J., Hill, J. and Watson, S. in prep: Building Roman London: Excavations in the Walbrook Valley for Bloomberg, 2010–14, MOLA Monograph 73.Google Scholar
Bushe-Fox, J.P. 1913: Excavations on the Site of the Roman Town at Wroxeter, Shropshire, in 1912, Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London 1, Oxford.Google Scholar
Bushe-Fox, J.P. 1914: Second Report on the Excavations on the Site of the Roman Town at Wroxeter, Shropshire 1913, Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London 2, Oxford.Google Scholar
Bushe-Fox, J.P. 1916: Third Report on the Excavations on the site of the Roman Town at Wroxeter, Shropshire 1914, Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London 4, Oxford.Google Scholar
Chadwick, A. 2015: ‘Doorways, ditches and dead dogs – excavating and recording material manifestations of practical magic amongst later prehistoric and Romano-British communities’, in Houlbrook, C. and Armitage, N. (eds), The Materiality of Magic: An Artefactual Investigation into Ritual Practices and Popular Beliefs, Oxford, 37–64.Google Scholar
Dennis, G. 1978: ‘1978 1–7 St Thomas Street’, in Bird, J., Graham, A.H., Sheldon, H. and Townend, P. (eds), Southwark Excavations 1972–4 (2 vols), London, 291–422.Google Scholar
Drummond-Murray, J. and Thompson, P. with Cowan, C. 2002: Settlement in Southwark: Archaeological Excavations (1991–8) for the London Underground Limited Jubilee Line Extension Project, MoLAS Monograph 12, London.Google Scholar
Eckardt, H. 2002: Illuminating Roman Britain, Monographies Instrumentum 23, Montagnac.Google Scholar
Edwardes, H.S.W. 1927: ‘Excavations at Armsley’, Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society 10, part 1, 56–62.Google Scholar
Ellis, P. (ed.) 2000: The Roman Baths and Macellum at Wroxeter: Excavations by Graham Webster 1955–85, English Heritage Archaeological Report 9, London.Google Scholar
Evans, C.J., Jones, L. and Ellis, P. 2000: Severn Valley Ware Production at Newland Hopfields. Excavation of a Romano-British Kiln Site at North End Farm, Great Malvern, Worcestershire in 1992 and 1994, Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit Monograph 2/British Archaeological Reports British Series 313, Oxford.Google Scholar
Evans, C.J., Booth, P. and Hodder, M. 2013: ‘A Romano-British pottery kiln at Sherifoot Lane, Sutton Coldfield’, Transactions Birmingham Warwickshire Archaeological Society 117, 1–32.Google Scholar
Fulford, M. 2001: ‘Links with the past: pervasive “ritual” behaviour in Roman Britain’, Britannia 32, 199–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fulford, M. and Timby, J. 2001: ‘Timing devices, fermentation vessels, “ritual” piercing? A consideration of deliberately “holed” pots from Silchester and elsewhere’, Britannia 32, 293–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaffney, V.L. and White, R.H. with Goodchild, H. 2007: Wroxeter, the Cornovii, and the Urban Process: Final Report on the Wroxeter Hinterland Project 1994–1997, Vol. 1 Researching the Hinterland, Journal of Roman Archaeology supplementary series 68, Portsmouth (RI).Google Scholar
Gillam, J.P. 1976: ‘Coarse fumed ware in north Britain and beyond’, Glasgow Archaeological Journal 4, 57-80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, S. 2001: ‘Pottery’, in Jones, A.E., ‘Roman Birmingham 2; Metchley Roman Forts: Excavations 1998-2000 and 2002. The Eastern and Southern Annexes and other Investigations’, Transactions Birmingham & Warwickshire Archaeological Society 108, 1–115, 90–106.Google Scholar
Grimes, W.F. 1930: Holt, Denbighshire: The Works Depot of the Twentieth Legion at Castle Lyons, Y Cymmrodor Vol. XLI, London.Google Scholar
Hartley, K.F. 2008: ’Catalogue of the stamped mortaria’, in Bateman, Cowan and Wroe-Brown, 2008, 188–191.Google Scholar
Hilts, C. 2024: ‘Imperial impact: illuminating Icenian interactions with Rome at Caistor St Edmund’, Current Archaeology 406, 28–33.Google Scholar
Hingley, R. 2024: ‘Contextualising counterfeits: Roman coin moulds in Britain and the Channel Islands, Britannia 54, 189–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenyon, K.M. 1981: ‘Excavations at Viroconium in Insula 9, 1952–3’, Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society 60, 5–73.Google Scholar
Lee, F., Lindquist, G. and Evans, J. 1994: ‘Roman-British coarse pottery’, in Cracknell, S. and Mahany, C. (eds), Roman Alcester: Southern Extramural Area. 1964–1966 Excavations. Part 2: Finds and Discussion, Council for British Archaeology Research Report 97, York, 3–92.Google Scholar
Marsh, G. 1978: Early Fine Wares in Roman Britain, British Archaeological Reports British Series 57, Oxford.Google Scholar
Merrifield, R. 1995: ‘Roman metalwork from the Walbrook – rubbish, ritual or redundancy?’, Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society 46, 27–44.Google Scholar
Moffett, C. 2019: ‘The amulets of Roman Wroxeter: evidence for everyday magic’, Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society 94, 45–58.Google Scholar
Pierpoint, S. 1986: ‘The Romano-British pottery’, in Whytehead, R., ‘The excavation of an area within a Roman cemetery at West Tenter Street, London E1’, Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society 37, 23–124, 68–84.Google Scholar
Rayner, L., Wardle, A. and Seeley, F. 2011: ‘Ritual and religion’, in Hill, J. and Rowsome, P., Roman London and the Walbrook Stream Crossing: Excavations at 1 Poultry and Vicinity, City of London, MoLAS Monograph 37, London, 404–408.Google Scholar
Richardson, B. 2008: ‘Non-samian and undecorated samian pottery’, in Bateman, Cowan, and Wroe-Brown, 2008, 169–184.Google Scholar
Seeley, F. and Drummond-Murray, J. 2005: Roman Pottery Production in the Walbrook Valley: Excavations at 20–28 Moorgate, City of London, 1998–2000, MoLAS Monograph 25, London.Google Scholar
Seeley, F. and Wardle, A. 2009: ‘Religion and ritual’, in Cowan, C., Seeley, F., Wardle, A., Westman, A. and Wheeler, L., Roman Southwark Settlement and Economy: Excavations in Southwark 1973–91, MoLAS Monograph 42, London, 143–157.Google Scholar
Symonds, R.P., Hassall, M., Tomber, R., White, R.H. and Wild, F. 1997: ‘Roman pottery’, in Barker, White, Pretty, Bird and Corbishley, 1997, 269–318.Google Scholar
Webster, G. 2002: The Legionary Fortress at Wroxeter: Excavations by Graham Webster, 1955–85, English Heritage Archaeological Report 19, London.Google Scholar
Webster, P.V. 1977: ‘Severn Valley ware: a preliminary study’, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeology Society 94, 18–46.Google Scholar
Webster, P.V. 1993: ‘The Post-Fortress coarsewares’, in Manning, W.H., Report on the Excavations at Usk 1965–1976, The Roman Pottery , Vol. 5, Cardiff, 227–361.Google Scholar
Wheeler, R.E.M. and Wheeler, T.V. 1936: Verulamium: A Belgic and Two Roman Cities, Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London 11, London.Google Scholar
White, R.H., Bayliss, A., Dee, M., Hajdas, I., Marshall, P. & Thompson, M. in prep: ‘Wroxeter revisited. A Bayesian chronology for the Baths Basilica excavations, Shropshire’, Britannia.Google Scholar
White, R.H., Gaffney, C. and Gaffney, V.L. 2013: Wroxeter, the Cornovii and the Urban Process: Final Report on the Wroxeter Hinterland Project 1994–1997, volume 2: Characterizing the City, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willis, S.H. 2012: ‘The Iron Age and Roman pottery’, in Jackson, R., Ariconium, Herefordshire. An Iron Age Settlement and Romano-British Small Town, Oxford, 41–110.Google Scholar
Woodward, A. and Leach, P. 1993: The Uley Shrines. Excavation of a Ritual Complex on West Hill, Uley, Gloucestershire: 1977–9, English Heritage Archaeological Report 17, London.Google Scholar
WAAS (Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service) and Hartley, K.F. 2020: Mancetter-Hartshill Roman Pottery Kilns Archive Project, Archaeology Data Service data-set, York. https://doi.org/10.5284/1079019Google Scholar