Abstract:This article contains full editions with commentaries of the second and final instalment of the approximately 37 ink writing-tablets from Vindolanda discovered in the excavation seasons of 2001, 2002 and 2003. The editions are numbered continuously from 870, following the sequence in Tab. Vindol. IV.1, and are grouped in the following categories: Military Document, Letters, Descripta.
“…From the outset these communities were closely tied to the military both socially and economically, and during the late first and second centuries there is little sense that they developed extensive ties with the wider rural populace and so failed to legitimize Roman urban life as a discourse. Some sense of this may be seen in the use of a centurio regionarius noted in the Vindolanda tablets, who was probably based at Carlisle to administer the region during or before AD 105 (McCarthy ; Bowman and Thomas , 221). If this arrangement was a long‐lasting one it suggests that governance of the region and Carlisle's authoritative status lay firmly in the hands of the military community.…”
Summary
The towns of Roman Britain have been subject to a long tradition of empirical research and discussion, but far less attention has been paid to the landscape context in which they developed. This paper considers the implications of this caveat for our understanding of Roman urbanism and suggests that most previous approaches have internalized the study of towns as social institutions and have failed to give due weight to the role of local rural agency in influencing the character of urban development. In so doing, it is suggested that the potential role of other important and competing nodes of economic, political and religious life, such as forts, fortresses, vici and small towns as well as rural sanctuaries and other settlements, is also not given due consideration in discussing the distinctive character of urbanism in Roman Britain.
“…From the outset these communities were closely tied to the military both socially and economically, and during the late first and second centuries there is little sense that they developed extensive ties with the wider rural populace and so failed to legitimize Roman urban life as a discourse. Some sense of this may be seen in the use of a centurio regionarius noted in the Vindolanda tablets, who was probably based at Carlisle to administer the region during or before AD 105 (McCarthy ; Bowman and Thomas , 221). If this arrangement was a long‐lasting one it suggests that governance of the region and Carlisle's authoritative status lay firmly in the hands of the military community.…”
Summary
The towns of Roman Britain have been subject to a long tradition of empirical research and discussion, but far less attention has been paid to the landscape context in which they developed. This paper considers the implications of this caveat for our understanding of Roman urbanism and suggests that most previous approaches have internalized the study of towns as social institutions and have failed to give due weight to the role of local rural agency in influencing the character of urban development. In so doing, it is suggested that the potential role of other important and competing nodes of economic, political and religious life, such as forts, fortresses, vici and small towns as well as rural sanctuaries and other settlements, is also not given due consideration in discussing the distinctive character of urbanism in Roman Britain.
“…Vindol. II 180, Bowman & Thomas, 1994) and the site has sealed anaerobic conditions suitable for the survival of organic material. Such deposits occur from Period I to Period VII, with the bulk of the material surviving in periods II to V, largely encompassing the reigns of the emperors Trajan and Hadrian.…”
Section: Vindolanda -A Northern Frontier Case Studymentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Vindol. II 180; Bowman & Thomas, 1994). The wheat accounted for is 320 modii, with a modius equivalent to approximately nine litres dry measure, a figure suggesting that, even accounting for some very large Roman barrels, more than one would have been required.…”
Section: Vindolanda An Edge Of Empire Destinationmentioning
By the time the Roman empire reached its greatest extent, in the early decades of the second century ad, wooden barrels were a key part of a trade network that supported a complex extended economy. These objects do not, however, routinely survive in the archaeological record and very few sites have yielded large, multi-phase, assemblages for study. Although relatively rare, individual finds and assemblages have been found sufficiently regularly to allow us to consider barrel production and use during the Roman period. These objects can have complex cultural biographies from their original production to their final deposition. Current and previous research at Vindolanda, a Roman fort in northern Britain at the edge of the Roman empire, provides a context for reflection on these objects and their biographies. Emphasis is given to whether this material demonstrates repeated, possibly habituated, practices of adaption and recycling.
“…Its text is as follows:Rati[oviiii K(alendas) De[ciiii K(alendas) Dec [Non(is) Dec[iiii Idus Dec[pr(idie) K(alendas) I[a]n [xi K(alendas) Febr[pr(idie) K(alendas) Febr[iii Idus Feb[pr(idie) Idus Febr[xiii K(alendas) Mart[xvii K(alendas Apr[pr(idie) Idus . [(Bowman and Thomas , 172, tablet 200. Also available at http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk/TVII-200.…”
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