The Roman town of Forum Novum lies in the Sabine hills to the northeast of Rome. Its study forms part of the British School at Rome's Tiber Valley Project, a collaborative research initiative which studies the Tiber valley as the hinterland of Rome, tracing the impact of Rome's development on the history of its settlement, economy, and cultural identity from 1000 B.C. to A.D. 1300 (Patterson and Millett 1999; Patterson et al. 2000) (fig. 1). The project draws on the extensive work carried out in this area to produce a new, material-based history of the valley. While the project seeks to re-evaluate past survey material, a vital contrast is provided by the development of new field projects to fill the gaps in settlement knowledge. Three main lacunae have been identified: the study of urban centres; the dearth of data from the E bank of the Tiber; and the poor understanding of the late-antique and early Mediaeval landscape. Forum Novum offers an opportunity to address all these lacunae.Urbanism forms a key research theme for the Tiber Valley Project. In marked contrast to the intensity of archaeological work on rural settlement in this area, there has been little systematic research on towns. Study has tended to concentrate on the excavation of monumental structures or, more rarely, the investigation of single and exceptional towns such as Ostia and Rome itself. Surprisingly little is known of the organization of the smaller towns and knowledge of their history is based largely on the epigraphic and documentary evidence.
At the eastern foot of Bromehill, where the prehistoric trackway known as the “Drove” (antea Vol. I., pp. 427–434) passes from Weeting to Santon, it approaches within yards of the river Little Ouse, and cuts at right angles through a series of six earthen banks, which come from the southern end of the Grime's Graves plantation, and originally ran to the edge of the marshland, until their ends were removed in making the railway. From west to east the distances between these banks are 7, 3, 3, 9, and 82 yards, and they are now about 2 feet in height and 6 feet in width, though much broken by rabbits. The penultimate bank towards the east is the boundary between the parishes of Weeting and Santon.East of these banks and south of the “Drove” is “Santon Breck,” part of which was ploughed in 1907, but most of which is primitive heath. Here, in September, 1908, I found many Roman potsherds, including Castor and Upchurch ware. (See Norf. Antiq. Miscellany, 2nd Series, Pt. 3, p. 98). Similar pottery fragments are found on the surface over an extensive area.
In 1906 I described a “Cissbury type” station at Ringland, Norfolk, the implements lying abundantly on the surface of two fields and covering an area of about 440 yards in length by 90 yards in width. The fields are at the foot of a steep tree-clad ridge known as Cobb's Hills, and slope gently to the river Wensum which is but a few yards distant from the lower part of the fields and is here about 34 feet above O.D. Some of the implements were described and figured in our “Proceedings,” and the site has yielded about 900 implements and several thousand flakes.
On August 3, 1874, excavations were again commenced at the Borness Cave. 1 Thus far the main body of the cave had been, excavated to the depth of 3 feet, with the exception of the narrower portion at the end, which has been spoken of as the passage. Besides this a few hard portions of breccia remained to be cleared out round the edges.The vertical face of the earth which was presented to view at the entrance of the passage was about 3 feet 9 inches in height, for just at the back of the cave the earth sloped upwards slightly before it was disturbed. In order, therefore, to make the upper or A layer of the passage accord the A layer of the main chamber, it was decided to take off 1 foot 9 inches in that layer, leaving the remaining 2 feet for B and C.As the passage was so narrow and irregular, it was decided to take out the whole width in each layer at once, and not to subdivide the several parallels, as had been done where the width was considerably greater.To work in the passage, however, was no easy matter, for the roof was so low that it was impossible to stand upright, or to wield any ordinary tool; and bo crown other difficulties, a very considerable amount of breccia was encountered. However, after renewed attacks for some days,
In January, 1916, we discovered the east end of a “Cissbury type,” station at Great Melton, Norfolk, on the south bank of the River Yare, and at the same time Mr. J. E. Sainty, B.Sc., discovered the west end, including a pit in which flakes were exposed in a layer about a foot from the surface, resting on a stiff loam into which the flakes had sunk in some places. The layer was not continuous, but at one place there was a solid mass of cores and flakes, the latter ranging in size from huge specimens to quite minute pieces. The flakes, with which were mingled several potboilers, varied in colour from blue to white, and were so tightly packed together as only to be extracted with difficulty. In a very few cases the striking platforms were facetted.
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