tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/ancient-britain-25931/articles
Ancient Britain – The Conversation
2023-11-13T17:33:47Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/216769
2023-11-13T17:33:47Z
2023-11-13T17:33:47Z
Orkney’s lost tomb – how my team and I made the Neolithic discovery
<p>Orkney, off the north coast of Scotland, <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/514/">is renowned for</a> its remarkably well-preserved monuments. Many of these are Neolithic (10,000 BC to 2,200 BC) and consist of stone circles and chambered tombs, which are still highly visible in the landscape. Chambered tombs are monuments built of stone with a chamber area designed to hold the remains of the dead. </p>
<p>In many parts of Britain, chambered tombs have been robbed for stone, and while this was also the case on Orkney, most sites do not seem to have been as badly affected as in other parts of the country.</p>
<p>In 2020 one of my team encountered a series of letters preserved in National Museums Scotland’s library relating to a dispute over some Neolithic objects discovered in Orkney in the 19th century. </p>
<p>This led us to a newspaper account in the Orkney Herald in 1896, which reported that Orkney antiques specialist <a href="https://sketchfab.com/hugoandersonwhymark/collections/james-walls-cursiters-artefacts-c80ed66f100b4db380dc83533806d74d">James Walls Cursiter</a> had encountered a series of archaeological discoveries made by the son of the landowner at Holm, on the east side of Orkney’s mainland. </p>
<p>The finds included a <a href="https://sketchfab.com/hugoandersonwhymark/collections/james-walls-cursiters-artefacts-c80ed66f100b4db380dc83533806d74d">mace-head made from gneiss</a> (a metamorphic rock with a distinct banding), a plain stone ball and eight skeletons. They were found within the ruins of a stone mound that had previously supplied stone to build a nearby farmhouse. The surviving stonework was interpreted by Cursiter as the remains of a “chambered burial mound”. </p>
<p>This discovery was rapidly forgotten. By coincidence, a recently discovered archaeological notebook belonging to Cursiter revealed further details of the finds. This included a sketch of the monument and, most importantly, an approximate location of the discovery. </p>
<p>All of this appeared to suggest that there may well be an unknown chambered tomb, mostly destroyed, but surviving to some extent nevertheless awaiting rediscovery.</p>
<h2>Discovering the tomb</h2>
<p>In 2022 a geophysical survey was carried out in the same location as described by Cursiter. Among other features, these surveys located a substantial archaeological anomaly on top of a prominent mound almost precisely in the location described as a position of the monument.</p>
<p>In 2023, we decided to open up a trench to see if anything survived. When we arrived at the site, it did not look promising. All that remained on the ground was a very slight grassy dome which had clearly been ploughed over the years. In a field of many grassy knolls, it was hard to see how this was anything exceptional. Yet, the location was quite prominent, with views out over the landscape in many directions, comparable to other passage tombs in the area. A passage tomb is a type of chambered tomb with a long thin passage leading to a central chamber with smaller cells off the main chamber. </p>
<p>As we peeled off the turf, we quickly came down onto heavily disturbed soil containing smashed Victorian ceramics and stone rubble. This came from a nearby farmhouse that had robbed stone from the tomb in order to build their barn. There was no rubbish collection then, so their waste went out on to the fields. But scattered among this recent material were small fragments of bone which looked much older. </p>
<p>As we dug further down, we started to encounter the lower walls of a stone structure, exactly as described by Cursiter. Much of the bone within the stone structure was highly fragmentary, which seemed to reinforce the idea that this monument had been mostly destroyed in the 19th century. </p>
<p>However, in one of the side cells off the main passage – which was largely filled with small stone rubble that accumulated from the dismantling of an intact side cell which would once have had a high roof – we found a perfectly preserved and undisturbed Neolithic tomb deposit. </p>
<p>This consisted of a minimum of 14 burials of seven adults and seven children. The skeletons were placed in a variety of different positions. Two were crouched (knees to chest) and laid on their side, while another was tightly flexed with the knees pulled tight to the chest, and placed face down. Two were placed in the grave embracing one another, with the remains of two young children placed on their heads. </p>
<p>This level of preservation is remarkable. It is quite unusual to find tomb deposits intact and so well preserved.</p>
<p>In revealing and excavating these remains, we have found a lost passage tomb, but also revealed that these finds will not be preserved forever. The soil added into the monument during the Victorian destruction of the site has been eroding the bones ever since, so it is now a race against time to retrieve what survives. </p>
<p>The human remains will enable to us discover many different aspects of peoples’ lives in the Neolithic age, including what they ate and how they died. It also shows that in a landscape where many monuments are exceptionally well preserved, there are still new and exciting discoveries to be made.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vicki Cummings receives funding from Society of Antiquaries of London and Orkney Islands Council for work on this project</span></em></p>
It is unusual to find a tomb so intact and so well preserved.
Vicki Cummings, Professor of Neolithic Archaeology, Cardiff University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/215563
2023-10-30T17:04:08Z
2023-10-30T17:04:08Z
Boudica: Queen of War reviewed by an expert in the real ancient British ruler
<p><em>Warning: this review contains some spoilers for Boudica: Queen of War.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22688572/">Boudica: Queen of War</a> is a lively and violent retelling of the ancient British queen’s story. Written and directed by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0425364/?ref_=tt_ov_dr">Jessie V. Johnson</a>, the film draws deeply upon Tacitus’ account of Boudica’s rebellion while also adopting Cassius Dio’s description of Boudica’s appearance and dress. <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-annals-9780192824219?cc=gb&lang=en&">Tacitus</a> was a Roman author writing in the late first century AD, while <a href="https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL083/1917/volume.xml">Dio</a> was a Greek author writing well over a century after the events.</p>
<p>Prasutagus (Clive Standen) is the leader of a peaceful people, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Iceni">Iceni</a>, who live in East Anglia (now in England) and want to avoid conflict with Rome. Content to live at peace on the borders of the new province, Prasutagus and his wife Boudica (Olga Kurylenko) even employ a Roman tutor to teach Latin to their daughters. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nFwuqwVLCl8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for Boudica: Queen of War.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Early in the film, Boudica visits a Roman city apparently quite close to where she is living and dresses as a Roman lady. Boudica has been portrayed in many other accounts (such as Miranda Aldhouse-Green’s <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Boudica-Britannia/Aldhouse-Green/p/book/9781032180083">Boudica Britannia</a>) as instinctively anti-Roman, so the depiction her pro-Roman family at the start of this film provides an interesting contrast. </p>
<p>The Britons are not all peaceful, however. The Iceni’s neighbours, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Trinovantes">the Trinovantes</a>, want revenge on the Romans for overthrowing their oppidum (town) and building the Roman colony at <a href="https://www.visitcolchester.com/explore/colchesters-history/roman-colchester">Camulodunum</a> (now Colchester). The film takes on board an idea emphasised in <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/conquering-the-ocean-9780190937416?cc=gb&lang=en&">recent academic accounts</a> that the ancient peoples of Britain were not united in their actions and that resistance to Rome was piecemeal.</p>
<p>Johnson’s film addresses some of the complex identities of the ancient peoples of Britain and their variable approaches to contact with and conquest by Rome, but with some confusion over the ethnicity of those involved in the action.</p>
<p>For example, Boudica’s followers in her rebellion in this film include “Saxons”, led by a warrior called Wolfgar (Peter Franzén). The Saxons did not arrive in Britain until centuries after Boudica, so they couldn’t have fought against Romans in first-century AD Britain. Films always need to be given some leeway.</p>
<p>The Scottish “Celts” are also deeply involved in the action and appear to be the same people referred to in the film as “northern Britons”. The term “Celt” has sometimes been erroneously used to suggest that the population of Iron Age Britain formed a unified whole. </p>
<h2>Depictions of the Britons and Romans</h2>
<p>The Romans in Britain, by contrast to the British, are depicted as highly aggressive and deceitful. Catus Decianus (Nick Moran), the provincial procurator, arranges the ambushing and killing of Boudica’s peaceful and loyal husband. </p>
<p>Boudica herself is flogged and dispossessed of her territories, while the Romans kill her two young daughters. This is unclear until some way through the film, since the ghostly forms of the young girls appear in subsequent actions to advise Boudica on her campaign.</p>
<p>In rebellion, Boudica abandons her Roman apparel and dresses in a long cloak with a <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/how-do-you-put-torc">torc</a> (stiff gold necklace) around her neck. This costume choice draws on Cassius Dio’s description of her, which is the only detailed account of the appearance of an ancient Briton in the classical texts. </p>
<p>The Britons in the film are dressed in cloaks and trousers and do not fight naked (which I am sure is correct, though <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/%7Egrout/encyclopaedia_romana/britannia/miscellanea/geography.html">classical accounts of barbarians</a> often emphasised their nakedness). And, of course, as always, this Boudica has red hair – another detail drawn from Dio’s description. She is also given a bronze sword handed down from a warrior ancestor. </p>
<h2>A magical touch</h2>
<p>Boudica is challenged for her role as the war leader of the Britons by Wolfgar, who seizes this sword, bends it in two and throws it into a lake which is dangerous to swimmers. This ineffectual nature of this Bronze Age weapon, according to Wolfgar, symbolises Boudica’s unsuitability to lead the rebellion. </p>
<p>Jumping into the lake, Boudica retrieves her sword – remarkably restored to pristine condition – and amply demonstrates its magical properties with a straw dummy. The director seems to have added elements of the medieval legend of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Excalibur-Arthurian-legend">Arthur and Excalibur</a> to his tale of Boudica, but I think that there may be some other inspirations. </p>
<p>This sword reminds me of the ancient weapon drawn upon by Manda Scott in the first of her excellent Boudica novels, <a href="https://mandascott.co.uk/boudica-dreaming-the-eagle/">Dreaming the Eagle</a> (2003). I wonder if Scott, in turn, was influenced by <a href="https://colchesterheritage.co.uk/Monument/MCC1356">the Bronze Age palstave</a> (axe) found in the grave of a late Iron Age king at Lexden (Colchester).</p>
<p>Not all the Romans are depicted as horrid. Emperor Nero (Harry Kirton), who resides in the city of Rome, is a troubled figure who wants to be a musician and seems to abhor violence.</p>
<p>Olga Kurylenko plays a convincing Boudica, transformed from a loving mother into a violent warrior by the events of war.</p>
<p>I found the complex issues explored by the film interesting. I particularly appreciated the way the idea that Britons could change allegiance was used. We cannot assume that Boudica was instinctively deeply anti-Roman. As Tacitus – and Johnson’s film – indicates, she was probably driven to violent action by Roman aggression.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Hingley has received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>
A lively and violent retelling of the ancient British queen’s story.
Richard Hingley, Professor of Archaeology, Durham University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/196093
2022-12-07T12:55:11Z
2022-12-07T12:55:11Z
Rutland Roman villa: how we found one of the most significant mosaics discovered in the UK
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499335/original/file-20221206-8459-mdaygr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C223%2C4013%2C2794&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Archaeology students and ULAS staff from University of Leicester carefully clean the fully exposed Trojan War mosaic. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© ULAS</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The discovery of a <a href="https://ulasnews.com/2021/11/25/the-rutland-roman-villa/">previously unknown Roman villa</a> in rural Rutland during the 2020 lockdown was one of the archaeological stories of the year.</p>
<p>Villas are emblematic features of the Roman countryside, and many are known across Britain. But this <a href="https://ulasnews.com/2021/11/25/encounters-with-achilles/">new discovery</a> is unique. It has what could be considered the most significant Roman mosaic discovery in the past century at its heart.</p>
<p>The mosaic was originally partly exposed by the landowners, who were investigating in the field after discovering pottery and tile fragments. A year later I led a team of archaeologists and students from the University of Leicester in fully exposing the mosaic floor.</p>
<p>This summer we returned as part of <a href="https://ulasnews.com/2022/11/28/roman-lifestyles-in-rural-rutland-fresh-insights-give-context-to-a-unique-trojan-war-mosaic/">a joint excavation</a> with Historic England. </p>
<p>The villa was protected as a <a href="https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/rutland-roman-villa-mosaic-protected/">scheduled monument by Historic England</a> in 2021 (meaning it’s preserved for future generations to study when new techniques are developed that may assist further research), so these were to be the last excavations at the villa for the foreseeable future. We had plenty of questions.</p>
<h2>What did the team discover?</h2>
<p>The mosaic forms the floor of a <em>triclinium</em> (dining room) at the northern end of what appears to be a main villa building from the third or fourth century AD. </p>
<p>Here, residents would have wined and dined guests, providing luxurious entertainment while showing off their wealth, affinity with Roman lifestyles – and perhaps in this case – their understanding of classical Greek literature.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499340/original/file-20221206-10480-687666.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An aerial view of the excavation shows the outline of the former buildings in a parched, brown field." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499340/original/file-20221206-10480-687666.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499340/original/file-20221206-10480-687666.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499340/original/file-20221206-10480-687666.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499340/original/file-20221206-10480-687666.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499340/original/file-20221206-10480-687666.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499340/original/file-20221206-10480-687666.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499340/original/file-20221206-10480-687666.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The excavation of the dining room (triclinium) on the left and an adjacent building seen from the air.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Historic England</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The mosaic tells a grim tale of revenge from towards the end of the Trojan war, famously described in Homer’s Iliad. </p>
<p>Over three panels it depicts the duel between the Greek hero Achilles and Prince Hector of Troy and the unsavoury outcome of Achilles’s victory. </p>
<p>The mosaic is an incredible find. It is the only representation of the Trojan war from Roman Britain, and tells the story in an unusual “comic strip” style. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QtHx__NkMnw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Dr Jane Masséglia, from the University of Leicester’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History, tells the story behind the mosaic.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The value of this new villa lies not only with the mosaic, however, but in its completeness and the fantastic preservation of the archaeology. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-60603329">A geophysical survey</a> of the field revealed an entire complex of buildings.</p>
<h2>New discoveries</h2>
<p>One of the ancillary buildings appears to have initially been a timber barn but was converted to stone sometime in the third or fourth century AD.</p>
<p>At this time, while the eastern end continued to be used for agricultural and small-scale industrial activity, the western end was converted for residential use. The remains of several partition walls and successive layers of floor suggest it was repeatedly renovated. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499337/original/file-20221206-11770-xtadd6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An aerial photograph shows the boundaries of the excavation area amid expansive rural fields." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499337/original/file-20221206-11770-xtadd6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499337/original/file-20221206-11770-xtadd6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499337/original/file-20221206-11770-xtadd6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499337/original/file-20221206-11770-xtadd6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499337/original/file-20221206-11770-xtadd6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499337/original/file-20221206-11770-xtadd6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499337/original/file-20221206-11770-xtadd6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An aerial overview of the villa field showing all of the excavation areas examined in the summer of 2022, with the aisled building in the foreground.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Historic England</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This reflects <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/britannia/article/encountering-romanitas-characterising-the-role-of-agricultural-communities-in-roman-britain/6BEFC779D45ACE933C8FA97C1D029D2F#article">evidence from other excavated Roman villas</a>, and provides a good indication of the lifespan and continuing development of this type of building.</p>
<p>On the southern side, the team also found remains of a bath suite. A series of three rooms – hot (<em>caldarium</em>), medium (<em>tepidarium</em>), and cold (<em>frigidarium</em>) incorporated underfloor heating and a water tank which may have been used for collecting rainwater.</p>
<p>Further excavation also took place around the dining room that held the mosaic. Evidence was found for an earlier boundary ditch, provisionally dated to the second or third century AD, built during an earlier iteration of the villa. The ditch lay beneath the mosaic and had caused slumping of the floor over time. Perhaps this led to the room eventually going out of use. </p>
<p>Investigation of the corridors on either side of the <em>triclinium</em> found a collapsed patterned mosaic on the western side and a preserved mosaic in the eastern corridor, which showed a complex kaleidoscope design.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499342/original/file-20221206-22-e6us9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in the foreground and woman to the back of the shot bend down with buckets to excavate parts of the mosaic." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499342/original/file-20221206-22-e6us9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499342/original/file-20221206-22-e6us9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499342/original/file-20221206-22-e6us9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499342/original/file-20221206-22-e6us9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499342/original/file-20221206-22-e6us9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499342/original/file-20221206-22-e6us9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499342/original/file-20221206-22-e6us9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Figures emerge from the past as a scene from the Trojan War mosaic is uncovered.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Historic England</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The key discovery was that the dining room was a later addition to the building. Examination of the wall relationships indicated a major refurbishment in the third or fourth century to incorporate the <em>triclinium</em> and Trojan war mosaic.</p>
<p>For now, it’s unclear why this major work took place. It may be that the villa had reached sufficient wealth to afford such a luxury installation. Alternatively, the owners may have desired to reaffirm their connections to Roman culture and its classical background.</p>
<p>Whatever the reason, it seems that the grand mosaic only featured fleetingly in the life of the villa. A fireplace installed in one corner of the room and large areas of scorching across the mosaic indicate that the space was repurposed for more workaday activities, before the building finally fell into disrepair.</p>
<p>Now that the excavations are complete, the trenches have been back-filled and the field will return to pasture. Attention will now focus on the detail of the artefacts and environmental information gathered to try to piece the story of this fantastic archaeological site back together.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499336/original/file-20221206-15-pa3jy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Archaeology students observe Dr. David Neal, expert on mosaics, as he draws a scaled plan of the Trojan War mosaic." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499336/original/file-20221206-15-pa3jy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499336/original/file-20221206-15-pa3jy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499336/original/file-20221206-15-pa3jy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499336/original/file-20221206-15-pa3jy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499336/original/file-20221206-15-pa3jy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499336/original/file-20221206-15-pa3jy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499336/original/file-20221206-15-pa3jy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Archaeology students observe Dr David Neal, expert on mosaics, as he draws a scaled plan of the Trojan War mosaic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Historic England</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We know that Roman villas like this were at the centre of large farming estates. While the buildings may have now been put to rest, we hope to widen the search into the surrounding landscape to understand the bigger picture of what was happening in this part of the Roman countryside. </p>
<p>This will allow us <a href="https://ulasnews.com/2022/11/30/trenches-training-and-television/">to develop the links</a> we have created with the local archaeological community so we can involve them in discovering further ties to their local heritage.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196093/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John S Thomas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Rutland’s Roman villa caused a media storm when it was first discovered in 2020 – now researchers have returned to uncover even more surprises.
John S Thomas, Deputy Director of Archaeological Services, University of Leicester
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/104343
2018-10-04T07:32:55Z
2018-10-04T07:32:55Z
Warrior women: despite what gamers might believe, the ancient world was full of female fighters
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239141/original/file-20181003-52660-zntrut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Zenobia addressing her troops.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Giambattista Tiepolo (National Gallery)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the great things about computer games is that anything is possible in the almost endless array of situations on offer, whether they are realistic or fantasy worlds. But <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/09/27/gamers-ditch-total-war-rome-2-female-generals-appear/">it has been reported</a> that gamers are boycotting <a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/total-war-rome-2-is-getting-review-bombed-on-steam-because-of-women-generals/">Total War: Rome II</a> on the grounds of historical accuracy after developers introduced women generals, apparently to please “feminists”.</p>
<p>But while it’s true that the Romans would not have had female soldiers in their armies, they certainly encountered women in battle – and when they did it created quite a stir. The historians of the ancient world recorded tales of impressive female military commanders from across many cultures.</p>
<p>In the ancient world, when women did go to war, it was usually reported as a complete reversal of the natural order of things. The ancients believed, as Homer’s Iliad claimed, that “<a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/2012/12/a-womans-place-in-homer/">war will be men’s business</a>”. In the eyes of the (male) contemporary historians, female warriors were aberrations and often remembered as embodiments of the <a href="https://www.greeka.com/greece-myths/amazons.htm">mythical one-breasted Amazons</a>. These legendary warriors were usually portrayed as slightly unhinged women who behaved unnaturally, and symbolised – to ancient men at least – a world turned on its head.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239136/original/file-20181003-52695-15cbpum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239136/original/file-20181003-52695-15cbpum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239136/original/file-20181003-52695-15cbpum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239136/original/file-20181003-52695-15cbpum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239136/original/file-20181003-52695-15cbpum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239136/original/file-20181003-52695-15cbpum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239136/original/file-20181003-52695-15cbpum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Achilles slaying Amazon queen Penthesilea in combat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">British Museum</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet the star-crossed tale of Achilles and the Amazon warrior queen Penthesilea fascinated the ancient chroniclers. Penthesilea, who led her troops to the support of Troy, was the mythical daughter of Ares, the god of war. She was killed in combat by Achilles who then mourned her, falling in love with the warrior queen for her beauty and valour. The moment is captured on a famous 6th-century BC vase now in the British Museum and was <a href="http://www.theoi.com/Heroine/AmazonPenthesileia.html">represented in text and imagery</a> across classical Greece and Rome.</p>
<p>When <a href="http://www.stoa.org/diotima/anthology/artemisia.shtml">Artemisia of Caria</a> commanded ships on the side of Persians at the battle of Salamis in 480BC she fought so well that the Persian king Xerxes exclaimed: “My men have become women and my women men.” It was a world turned upside down according to the Greek historian Herodotus – but the soldiers who willingly followed Artemisia into battle could not have thought that way. She must have been skilled and competent and inspired those she commanded. </p>
<h2>Cleopatra’s warlike family</h2>
<p>In the <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/Hellenistic_Period/">Hellenistic period</a> – which is generally held to be the period between the death of Alexander the Great in 323BC and the conquest of Egypt by Rome in 31BC – women with real power and agency appear in numerous kingdoms across the Eastern Mediterranean. These extraordinary and influential queens often held the keys to power, had personal armies and would not hesitate to go to war. </p>
<p>They were the mothers, daughters and sisters of the kings and generals who succeeded Alexander the Great. The fabulous <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/cleopatra-vii-9250984">Cleopatra VII</a> – best known for her affair with Julius Caesar and marriage to Marc Anthony – was the last of a long line of impressive Egyptian queens who went to war. The role of fighting queen had already been well established by her namesakes including <a href="http://www.livius.org/articles/person/cleopatra-thea/">Cleopatra Thea</a> and <a href="http://www.tyndalehouse.com/egypt/ptolemies/cleopatra_iv_fr.htm">Cleopatra IV</a>. </p>
<p>The indomitable Cleopatra Thea held her own in the ruthless world of Hellenistic dynastic chaos as the queen to three Hellenistic kings, while Cleopatra IV, when divorced from one husband, took a personal army with her to her next husband as dowry.</p>
<h2>Palmyra’s warrior queen</h2>
<p>Centuries later, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2017/11-12/history-queen-zenobia-defied-rome/">Zenobia</a>, queen of Palmyra, took advantage of a period of upheaval in the Near East in the late 3rd century AD to carve a kingdom for herself and her city – and it was no coincidence that she connected her ancestry back to the fighting traditions of the Hellenistic Cleopatras. </p>
<p>When <a href="http://judithweingarten.blogspot.com/2017/05/zenobia-visionary-queen-of-ancient.html">Zenobia led her armies</a> she did so in the name of her son and took on the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aurelian">Roman emperor Aurelian</a> to protect her city, her region and the interests of her realm. According to the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1858706">Greek historian Zosimus</a>, Zenobia <a href="http://www.livius.org/sources/content/zosimus/zosimus-new-history-1/zosimus-new-history-1.50/">commanded her troops in battle</a> and people from across the region flocked to her side. Ancient writers were scandalised at the idea of a woman dominating Roman power but she remained a legend across the Middle East in Classical and early Islamic histories. </p>
<h2>Boudica: Britain’s greatest warrior queen</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239142/original/file-20181003-52674-ntfiv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239142/original/file-20181003-52674-ntfiv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239142/original/file-20181003-52674-ntfiv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239142/original/file-20181003-52674-ntfiv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239142/original/file-20181003-52674-ntfiv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239142/original/file-20181003-52674-ntfiv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239142/original/file-20181003-52674-ntfiv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Boudica statue on the Thames Embankment in London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thomas Thornycroft</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The most iconic of the female warriors from antiquity has to be the Iceni queen Boudica. When Boudica led her rebellion against the Roman occupation of her land in c. AD60, the historian Cassius Dio <a href="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/62*.html">remembered it thus</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>All this ruin was brought upon the Romans by a woman, the fact which in itself caused them the greatest shame. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is a visceral image that accompanies her name, with long red hair (although Dio says she was blonde) flowing behind as she charges forth in her war chariot. The ancient writers speak of her terrorising the Roman occupants of newly conquered Britannia with her tall stature and fierce eyes. Boudica was viewed by the Roman men who recorded her history as a woman wronged and hell-bent on vengeance. </p>
<p>Tacitus, <a href="http://www.athenapub.com/tacitus1.htm">our best source</a> for Boudica’s rebellion, claims that the Celtic women of the British Isles and Ireland frequently fought alongside their men. And when wars were about the survival of a kingdom, a family or a home and children, women would fight if they had to, especially when the only other option was slavery or death.</p>
<p>So when women took to the field in battle in antiquity it was both astonishing and terrifying for the men who recorded the events and shameful to lose to them. It almost always occurred at times of political chaos and dynastic upheaval, when society’s structures loosened and women had to, and could, stand up for themselves. Ancient men did not like to think about having to fight women or having women fight – and it still seems to irk some people today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104343/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eve MacDonald does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Anything is possible in the world of computers games – except women who fight, apparently.
Eve MacDonald, Lecturer in Ancient History, Cardiff University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/74105
2017-03-28T09:42:19Z
2017-03-28T09:42:19Z
How rupture with mainland Europe caused Britain to falter for hundreds of years
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160543/original/image-20170313-9600-pbw2la.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A window on the past: the ruins of Lindisfarne priory off the Northumberland coast. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/irenicrhonda/3803832789/in/photolist-6N8CXX-9Y4Hqr-6fX4M7-6fSQ8i-6fSPoi-6fX5dL-6fX5Yw-6fWUWN-6fX5y3-6fX7GS-5dod5D-6XfXcu-6XfXpf-nhD97V-5sSyyQ-dZ48eL-ec4naA-NDiBS-9vm7w4-dZ48af-6XfWNW-dZ47Zj-7rbyuq-6bnFJA-RJgXsk-oaDKar-7r7CQ2-bEQH23-7r7CBR-NDiAy-fJzs6-7rbyRw-7rby3u-dYXqRi-dZ484J-oXwq5-VKAJP-2ZTrKi-7rbz6S-dYwaZa-2ZhcNs-eskERS-dYXqLx-VKAKR-bWLUFC-Hq2ty-p2rFF9-nijWFK-oZDVS3-ei2vai">IrenicRhonda/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>By triggering Article 50 to start Britain’s process of exiting the European Union, Theresa May will launch the country into the unknown. History provides examples of Britain leaving Europe – and sometimes Europe leaving Britain – that help give some perspective on the events that are about to unfold. The clearest lesson of all is that the European mainland has been essential to Britain’s prosperity, and that when the relationship with Europe is poor, the lot of the ordinary Briton is poorer for it. </p>
<p>Sometimes, for sure, contact with the continent has brought its problems. For example, <a href="http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719034985/">the arrival</a> of the Black Death on the shores of Britain from southern France in 1348. For the most part, however, Britain’s relationship with the continent between the arrival of the Romans and the end of the Middle Ages brought prosperity – when was nurtured by both parties. And there have been significant moments in Britain’s relationship with Europe when rupture with the mainland brought dire consequences. </p>
<p>For most people in Roman Britain, the departure of Roman government in 410 brought widespread economic hardship. The British historian, Gildas, writing from somewhere in the west of the island in the 5th century, entitled his work on the subject <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Ruin_of_Britain_and_Other_Works.html?id=xKgtAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">The Ruin of Britain</a>. According to Gildas, when the Romans left, attacks by barbarians and pestilence followed. </p>
<p>The archaeological record shows that Gildas did not exaggerate the consequences of the retreat of Rome. In the fifth and sixth centuries, native Britons were no longer able to obtain their continental wares. Towns were abandoned, the economic power houses of the villa economy went into terminal decay, and the indigenous population <a href="http://harvardmagazine.com/2009/07/who-killed-the-men-england">underwent</a> a sharp decline in its number. </p>
<h2>Renewed prosperity</h2>
<p>The beginnings of the return to prosperity had to await the Christian mission of Augustine and his followers in the 7th century, who reconnected the island with the mainstream of the continent. There was massive and permanent disruption which occurred in lowland Britain between 410 and the arrival of the Christian missionaries in 597. Only after the arrival of Augustine and his followers did the material culture of the Anglo-Saxons begin the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Britain_After_Rome.html?id=kFQ9YgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">long slow path</a> of recreating the quality of what had been available to the British under Rome. Only when the Normans arrived in 1066 was Britain dragged into the mainstream of European political culture. </p>
<p>If we measure the wealth of a nation by the quality of the goods that its ordinary citizens can enjoy, then the period after 1066 was one in which growing specialisation and <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Commercialisation_of_English_Society.html?id=jKuNPwAACAAJ&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y">consumerism</a> brought enormous wealth to Britain. People had more to spend and they had more to spend it on as the economy became increasingly commercialised. For ordinary men and women, trading and cultural connections to the continent gave them luxuries that their grandparents and great grandparents could have barely imagined. </p>
<p>Britain’s entry into the mainstream of Christian Europe also delivered important freedoms to ordinary men and women, the people about whom we hear so little in the historical sources but who, nonetheless, lived out their lives in the medieval world. After 1066, the Anglo-Saxons and Celtic peoples gradually stopped enslaving their own people and their captured enemies, and increasing wealth in the course of the next 300 years brought about a decline and then the end of serfdom. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/john_01.shtml#one">loss</a> of the lands of the Angevins in France by King John in 1204 brought about a new, destructive relationship with Europe which lasted much of the rest of the Middle Ages. </p>
<h2>A century of war</h2>
<p>The United Kingdom is four nations in one, and was forged in the Middle Ages by war and blood as the English rulers sought to dominate their neighbours and to take from them their lands and resources. Wales effectively ceased to exist as a place of <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dmeuBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=1283+wales&source=bl&ots=36uRptvWhR&sig=3u_JoDO-05drHDpwX8Hge6Sqj40&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiawonH1NPSAhVKylQKHSE2BvAQ6AEITTAH#v=onepage&q=1283%20wales&f=false">independence by 1283</a>. Scotland survived independently, but at enormous cost in life, land, and resources, and Ireland was squashed beneath the heel of the oppressor.</p>
<p>All this misery was brought about because England entered a destructive phase in its relationship with Europe as it sought to replace European revenue by conquest at home, and then sought to take war back to the continent in a century-long drive to win control of the kingdom of France. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160522/original/image-20170313-9613-12usb75.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160522/original/image-20170313-9613-12usb75.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160522/original/image-20170313-9613-12usb75.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160522/original/image-20170313-9613-12usb75.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160522/original/image-20170313-9613-12usb75.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160522/original/image-20170313-9613-12usb75.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160522/original/image-20170313-9613-12usb75.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 1346 Battle of Crécy during the Hundred Years’ War.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACr%C3%A9cy_-_Grandes_Chroniques_de_France.jpg">By Copiste inconnu via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When England was at war with Europe, its citizens (and those of its European neighbours, let’s not forget) were poorer, its institutions smaller and narrower, its economic potential much reduced. While some historians <a href="https://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/pi/article/view/1409/952">have sought</a> to find “good” in the impact of the Hundred Years’ War on England and its neighbours, just like modern-day Brexiteers on the retreat from Europe, this does not give the full picture. The impact of conflict with Britain’s European neighbours <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/essays-on-medieval-agriculture-and-general-problems-of-the-medieval-economy/23CD51D5ADD64856AC6B2FA896F67F34">was catastrophic</a> for everyone involved. </p>
<p>Whatever happens next in Article 50 negotiations, the lesson from Britain’s first 1,500 years is that the lot of the ordinary British citizen has been better when the British isles are working in harmony with their European neighbours. Here’s to hoping that May’s negotiators can keep Britain in the European loop even if outside the institution of the EU. The alternative is much less attractive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74105/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Church receives funding from The Leverhulme Foundation. </span></em></p>
From the fall of the Romans to the Middle Ages, Britain was more prosperous when it fostered a relationship with Europe.
Stephen Church, Professor of Medieval History, School of History, University of East Anglia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/56458
2016-03-18T16:10:27Z
2016-03-18T16:10:27Z
Bones of Iron Age warriors may reveal link between Yorkshire’s ‘spear-people’ and the ancient Gauls
<p>Around <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/mar/17/warrior-king-uncovered-yorkshire-iron-age-settlement">150 skeletons buried in 75 graves</a> have been discovered in an Iron Age cemetery near the town of Pocklington in East Riding, Yorkshire, in what is undoubtedly one of the most significant recent finds in Britain. They are the latest discoveries from archaeological sites in the area that reveal a culture whose burial traditions suggest links to the ancient Gaulish people of northern France. </p>
<p>At Pocklington, the most striking of the recent finds is the grave of a young man, probably a warrior, buried with an iron sword between 2,000 and 2,500 years ago. What is remarkable is the presence of five spearheads, whose position shows unequivocally that they had been thrown at the corpse itself. Most of the burials were without grave goods, though one female was buried with a fine brooch similar to examples found on the continent. </p>
<p>There are <a href="http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/eh_monographs_2014/contents.cfm?mono=1089041">around 23 so-called “speared corpse” burials</a> in eastern Yorkshire, with between one and 14 spear points found in the grave. Was this the equivalent of a rifle volley fired over a military burial as in modern times? Were the swords thrown into the grave as a mark of respect by fellow warriors? Or might it even represent a Dracula-style impaling after death to prevent the dead from rising? </p>
<p>This tradition of speared corpses, burial in square barrows – a small, square, ditched enclosure surrounding a central grave covered by a low mound – and chariot burials are traditions clustered in eastern Yorkshire with only a few outliers. The closest parallels to the square barrows found in East Yorkshire are in north-eastern France and Belgium. Although there are subtle differences in the form of burial and grave goods, some form of continental link seems undeniable. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115588/original/image-20160318-4446-1gwcvev.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115588/original/image-20160318-4446-1gwcvev.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115588/original/image-20160318-4446-1gwcvev.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115588/original/image-20160318-4446-1gwcvev.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115588/original/image-20160318-4446-1gwcvev.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115588/original/image-20160318-4446-1gwcvev.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115588/original/image-20160318-4446-1gwcvev.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Pocklington speared corpse burial under excavation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Halkon</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>These traditions are associated with the ancient people known as the Arras culture, named after Arras Farm near Market Weighton in Yorkshire where the first archaeological discoveries were made between 1815–17. These 19th-century digs unearthed remarkable finds including chariot burials complete with iron tyres and other metal fittings, and in one case the remains of the two horses used to pull the chariot. They were identified by the diggers as “Ancient British”, thought of as the chariot-fighting Britons described by Julius Caesar. </p>
<p>More chariot burials were found during the 19th century, including one excavated at Beverley nearby by the early archaeologist <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=74582">William Greenwell</a>, and during the 20th century more were found among hundreds of Iron Age burials unearthed around the villages of Garton and Wetwang. These included burials complete with swords in decorated sheaths, and another of a woman buried with a decorated copper alloy canister, an iron mirror, and one of only two pieces of gold found in the region – used to embellish an iron brooch also decorated with coral, probably from the Mediterranean. Perhaps the best example of a chariot burial <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/apr/07/martinwainwright">was excavated in Wetwang village in 2001</a>, which revealed another high-status woman and featured in the BBC’s <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008fj5s">Meet the Ancestors TV series</a>.</p>
<p>Radiocarbon dating has shown the burials around Wetwang to be clustered around the mid-3rd century BC, with an analysis of various isotopes present in the bones demonstrating that most had been brought up in the region.</p>
<h2>Who were the Arras people?</h2>
<p>The term Arras culture was coined in the 1940s by Vere Gordon Childe, Abercromby professor of archaeology at Edinburgh University and director of the Institute of Archaeology at University College London. Based on the similarities in burial traditions, Childe believed the Arras people had invaded from the Marne area of northern France. Other scholars such as <a href="http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095924937">CFC Hawkes</a> saw the Arras culture as one of the waves of invaders who crossed over from continental Europe in later prehistory. </p>
<p>Ian Stead, whose PhD was on these people, undertook many excavations in the 1980s, and his 1991 book <a href="http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/eh_monographs_2014/contents.cfm?mono=1089041">Iron Age Cemeteries of East Yorkshire</a> remains the major work on this topic. The similarities in these burials to those on the near continent prompted Stead to conduct excavations in the <a href="http://www.academia.edu/245987/Review_of_Iron_Age_and_Roman_Burials_In_Champagne_IM_Stead_J.-L._Flouest_and_V._Rigby_With_Contributions_by_S._Stead_IC_Freestone_PC_Buckland_JRA_Greig_C._">Champagne and Ardennes regions of France</a>. </p>
<p>The distribution of square barrows, chariot and speared corpse burials suggests some form of regional identity within eastern Yorkshire, and it was this region that 2nd-century geographer Ptolemy wrote of as being inhabited by people known as the Parisi. <a href="http://www.academia.edu/5475326/Iron_Landscape_and_Power_Halkon">According to some linguistic scholars</a>, the Old Welsh word for spear is “par”, and so the name of the tribe can be read as “the spear people”. Delgovicia – a settlement mentioned in the <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/525833?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Roman Antonine Itinerary</a> as being somewhere east of York – is thought to derive from “delgo”, meaning a thorn or spear, and so could be interpreted as “town of the spear fighters”.</p>
<p>Archaeologists tend to be sceptical about the use of place names in such circumstances, but perhaps this idea should be considered – particularly in light of the spectacular hoard of 33 iron spearheads and five swords in decorated sheaths found at South Cave, 15 miles to the south-east of Pocklington in 2002. </p>
<p>Referred to by Caesar, the Parisii people of what is now northern France who gave their name to the French capital are well known, but <a href="http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/The-Parisi/9780752448411/">links to the Parisi of East Yorkshire are more difficult to prove</a>. Certainly the circumstantial evidence shows continental connections – and perhaps scientific analysis of the remarkably well-preserved Pocklington skeletons may shed light on these ancient connections.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56458/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Halkon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
What’s in a name? In search of the link between the Parisi people of East Yorkshire and Parisii of northern France.
Peter Halkon, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Hull
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.