Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T06:48:09.012Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Excavation of the Roman Spring at Bath 1979: a Preliminary Description

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

Barry Cunliffe
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

A limited excavation was undertaken in the Roman reservoir beneath the medieval King's Bath which lies in the centre of Bath. The reservoir had been partially cleaned in 1878 but the lower filling remained in position. Structural details were recovered, sufficient to show the different stages in the reservoir's construction: part of its vaulted roof, added later, was also found. The finds included coins, pewter curses, silver and pewter vessels and other trinkets dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva. The subsequent development of the site from the medieval period to the nineteenth century is briefly noted. Future work on the temple precinct beneath the Pump Room is outlined.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 60 , Issue 2 , September 1980 , pp. 187 - 206
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

1 The fullest account of the excavation was provided by Davis in a paper read before the Society of Antiquaries on 24th June 1880. Additional details were included in another paper which he read to the Bath Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club on 10th March 1881, a summary of which was published in the club's Proceedings for that year (vol 10, no. 4, 357–60)Google Scholar. Davis' descriptions were summary and without illustrations. Fortunately, however, the builder he employed throughout much of the work, Richard Mann, prepared a series of drawings of the reservoir which, together with others of the baths drawn in 1900, were acquired by the Society of Antiquaries in whose library they now reside. A summary of the work of 1878–80 was given in Cunliffe, B. W., Roman Bath (1969), pp. 16–20Google Scholar.

2 I would like to acknowledge my debt of gratitude to the volunteers who worked under the most difficult circumstances: Cynthia Poole, Lisa Brown, Janet Slocombe, Dave Batchelor, Eric Bally, Gary Locke, Mark Dennison, Graham Barton, Ian Brooks and Peter Davenport. Mr. Batchelor was seconded to the team from the Department of Environment's Central Excavation Unit. Thanks are also due to the officers of Bath City Corporation for their support and encouragement in particular to the Chief Executive, David Beeton, the Director of Bath City Museums, Sam Hunt and the representatives of the City Engineer's Department, Ray Roberts and Terry Bletso. Their active and willing cooperation ensured the successful completion of the work as did the encouragement of Laurie Coombs, Chairman of the Spa Committee.

3 The bore holes were made under the supervision of Dr. Geoffrey Kellerway, geological consultant to Bath City Corporation, to whom I am indebted for many helpful discussions about the spring and for information on the bore hole sections. David Batchelor supervised the archaeological aspects of the drilling work.

4 I am indebted to Verna Care for reporting on the flint debris.

5 Further discussion must await the detailed study of the coins by Lyn Sellwood, who kindly provided this preliminary information. Degree of wear may be a factor in deciding their date of deposition.

6 Davis, in a lecture to the Society of Antiquaries, noted in n. 1, and on Richard Mann's drawing (Society of Antiquaries Library) which was subsequently redrawn and published by Knowles, W. H. in his paper ‘The Roman baths at Bath; with an account of the excavations conducted during 1923’, Archaeologia, lxxv (1926), 1–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially pl. ill and p. 17. Mann's records differ in small detail from our recent observations.

7 Cunliffe, B. W., op. cit. (1969), pp. 121–6.Google Scholar

8 Ibid., p. 17.

9 Summarized in ibid., pp. 65–88.

10 These remarks are based on the preliminary reports of a number of colleagues. Dr. Daphne Nash is examining the Roman coins, while Lyn Sellwood has studied the Celtic examples. Dr. Roger Tomlin and Mark Hassall are deciphering the other inscriptions. Dr. D. Baatz has advised on the Roman ballista fitting. The other finds are being studied by David Brown. Conservation is in the hands of Sarah Pollard, Archaeological Conservator at the Institute of Archaeology at Oxford.

11 For a full translation see Kershaw, N., Anglo-Saxon and Norse Poems (Cambridge, 1922)Google Scholar from which this extract is taken. More recently in Leslie, R. F. (ed.), Three Old English Elegies (Manchester, 1961), with discussion by Richmond, I. A.Google Scholar.