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XVIII.—Excavations on the site of the Roman city at Silchester, Hants, in 1906.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2011

W. H. St. John Hope
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Extract

The report which I have the honour of submitting to the Society, on behalf of my colleagues, of the work carried out by the Executive Committee of the Silchester Excavation Fund in 1906, is the seventeenth successive account of our investigations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 60 , Issue 2 , 1907 , pp. 431 - 450
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1907

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References

page 433 note a Mr. Joyce's notes on the house, for a copy of which we are indebted to the Rev. H. G. Monro, mention the discovery of a piece of lead piping in Room 5.

page 441 note a The indications of massive stone jambs are worthy of note. Heavy stones of this kind are rarely to be found in the south of Britain, but wherever stone of sufficient size was obtainable they may be come upon, and are very characteristic of Roman work. For example, monolithic stone jambs were used in some at least of the doorways of the mile castles on the Wall of Hadrian, and a good specimen is to be seen in the baths of Cilurnum, a station on that wall. In the above instances they were run into grooves in the sill on each side. Openings of the same massive construction may be seen in the rains of the public baths of Uriconium (Wroxeter), in Shropshire, and coming south another example is to be found in the bath chambers of the villa at Whitcombe in Gloucestershire.

page 442 note a Such voussoir tiles as this vault is constructed with are not often found. Some, used up again as building material, were discovered in the walls of West Hampnett church, Sussex, at the time of its restoration. They probably came from the rains of a villa in the neighbourhood. Others were to be seen in 1887 in the baths of the villa at Chedworth, in Gloucestershire. The use to which these had been put in either case was probably to form an arch over the entrance to the recess containing the hot bath. In the construction of the vaulting of the hall, which may have been the apodyterium, of the public baths at Uriconium (Wroxeter), in Shropshire, these tiles played a part. They also formed an important element in the construction of the vaulting over the great caldarium of the public baths of Aquæ Solis (Bath), which, judging by the massive fragment lying at the west end of the hall, must have been largely composed of such material.

page 448 note a The extensive deposit of lower jaws without skulls found in 1905 under Block I. Iusula VI. may not be unconnected with this discovery.