Hostname: page-component-669899f699-rg895 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-25T11:44:51.589Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Inscription from Bavai and the Fifth-Century Christian Epigraphy of Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2010

Jeremy K. Knight
Jeremy K. Knight
Affiliation:
Caerphilly, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The consular dated memorial of a military accountant (scrinarius) of a.d. 404 with a chi-rho monogram from Bavai (France, Nord), previously thought to be a forgery, is reconsidered. Geographically close to Britain and well-dated, it is relevant to the origins of post-Roman insular epigraphy and to the possibility of recognising specifically Christian tombstones in Roman Britain. The insular series derives from a late antique tradition introduced to Britain via the Christian Church at an uncertain date. There is little sign of continuity with claimed Romano-British Christian tombstones, but an early phase of the insular series can be recognised. Literacy and perhaps the ‘epigraphic habit’ survived in other media.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 41 , November 2010 , pp. 283 - 292
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2010. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alsop, J.D. 1989: ‘Religious preambles in early modern English wills as formulae’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 40, 19–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Audin, A., and Burnand, Y. 1959a: ‘Alla ricerca della trace di Cristianesimo sulla tombe di Lione prima della pace della Chiesa’, Rivista di Archaeologia Cristiana 35, 51–70Google Scholar
Audin, A., and Burnand, Y. 1959b: ‘Chronologie des épitaphes romaines de Lyon’, Revue des études anciennes 61, 320–52Google Scholar
Audin, A., and Burnand, Y. 1961: ‘Chronologie des épitaphes romaines de Vienne’, Revue des études anciennes 63, 291–311Google Scholar
Bertram, J. 2001: ‘Inscriptions on late medieval brasses and monuments’, in Higgitt, et al. , 2001, 190–201Google Scholar
Campbell, E. 2007: Continental and Mediterranean Imports to Atlantic Britain and Ireland a.d. 400–800, CBA Research Report 157, YorkGoogle Scholar
Charles-Edwards, G. 2002: ‘The Springmount Bog tablets: their implications for insular palaeography and epigraphy’, Studia Celtica 36, 27–46Google Scholar
Charles-Edwards, G. 2007: ‘The palaeography of the inscriptions’, in Redknap and Lewis 2007, 77–87Google Scholar
CIL XIII: Hirschfeld, O. (ed.) 1899–: Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, Trium Galliarum et Germaniarum, BerlinGoogle Scholar
Delmaire, R. 2003: ‘Notes épigraphiques’, Revue du Nord 84, no. 348, 125–32Google Scholar
Handley, M. 2000: ‘Inscribing time and identity in the kingdom of Burgundy’, in Mitchell, S. and Greatrex, G. (eds), Ethnicity and Culture in Late Antiquity, London, 83–102Google Scholar
Handley, M. 2001: ‘The origins of Christian commemoration in late antique Britain’, Early Medieval Europe 10.2, 177–99Google Scholar
Handley, M. 2003: Death, Society and Culture: Inscriptions and Epitaphs in Gaul and Spain a.d. 300–750, BAR International Series 1135, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Higgitt, J., Forsyth, K., and Parsons, D.N. (eds) 2001: Roman, Runes and Ogham: Medieval Inscriptions in the Insular World and on the Continent, DoningtonGoogle Scholar
Knight, J. 1981: ‘In Temore Iustini Consulis: contacts between the British and Gaulish Churches before Augustine’, in Detsicas, A. (ed.), Collectanea Historica: Essays in Memory of Stuart Rigold, Maidstone, 54–62Google Scholar
Knight, J. 1992: ‘The early Christian Latin inscriptions of Britain and Gaul: chronology and context’, in Edwards, N. and Lane, A.(eds), The Early Church in Wales and the West: Recent Work in Early Christian Archaeology, History and Place-Names, Oxbow Monograph 166, Oxford, 45–50Google Scholar
Knight, J. 1999: The End of Antiquity: Archaeology, Society and Religion a.d. 235–700, StroudGoogle Scholar
Le Blant, E. 1856: Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule antérieurs au VIIIe siècle Vol. 1, Provinces Gallicanes, ParisGoogle Scholar
Le Blant, E. 1865: Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule antérieures au VIIIe siècle. Vol. II, Les Sept Provinces, ParisGoogle Scholar
Le Blant, E. 1892: Nouveau recueil des inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule antérieures au VIIIe siècle, ParisGoogle Scholar
Levison, W. (ed.) 1920: Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores Rerum Merovingicrum7, BerlinGoogle Scholar
Loridant, F., Bloemendaal, L., and Duflot, L. 1992: ‘Le Forum de Bavay, campagne de fouilles 1991’, Revue du Nord 74, no. 296, 83–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macalister, R.A.S. 1945: Corpus Inscriptionum Insularum Celticarum, Vol. 1, DublinGoogle Scholar
Mertens, J. 1983: ‘Urban wall circuits in Gallia Belgica in the Roman period’, in Maloney, J. and Hobley, B. (eds), Roman Urban Defences in the West, CBA Research Report 51, London, 40–57Google Scholar
Nash Williams, V.E. 1950: The Early Christian Monuments of Wales, CardiffGoogle Scholar
Redknap, M., and Lewis, J.M. 2007: A Corpus of Medieval Inscribed Stones and Stone Sculpture in Wales Vol. 1: South East Wales and the English Border, CardiffGoogle Scholar
RIB I: Collingwood, R.G., and Wright, R.P. 1965: The Roman Inscriptions of Britain. I: Inscriptions on Stone, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Tedeschi, C. 1995: ‘Osservazione sulla paleografia delle inscrizione britanniche paleocristiane (V–VII sec.). Contributo allo studio dell’origine delle scritture insulari’, Scrittura e Civiltà 19, 67–121Google Scholar
Tedeschi, C. 2001: ‘Some observations on the palaeography of early Christian inscriptions in Britain’, in Higgitt, et al. 2001, 16–25Google Scholar
Thomas, C. 1981: Christianity in Roman Britain to a.d. 500, LondonGoogle Scholar
Thomas, C. 1994: And Shall These Mute Stones Speak? Post-Roman Inscriptions in Western Britain, CardiffGoogle Scholar
Tomber, R., and Williams, D.F. 1986: ‘Late Roman amphorae in Britain’, Journal of Roman Pottery Studies 1, 42–54Google Scholar
Tomlin, R.S.O. 1975: ‘A sub-Roman gravestone from Aberhydfer near Trecastle’, Archaeologia Cambrensis 124, 68–72Google Scholar
Toynbee, J.M.C. 1953: ‘Christianity in Roman Britain’, Journal British Archaeological Association 16, 1–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyers, P.A. 1996: Roman Pottery in Britain, LondonGoogle Scholar
Watson, G.R. 1968: ‘Christianity in the Roman army in Britain’, in Barley, M. and Hanson, R.P.C. (eds), Christianity in Britain 300–700, Leicester, 51–4Google Scholar
Will, E. 1962: ‘Les enceintes du Bas-Empire à Bavay’, Revue du Nord 44, no. 176, 391–401Google Scholar
Wright, R.P., and Jackson, K.H. 1968: ‘A late inscription from Wroxeter’, Antiquaries Journal 48, 296–300Google Scholar
Zell, M. 1997: ‘The use of religious preambles as a measure of belief in the sixteenth century’, Bulletin Institute Historical Research 50, 246–9Google Scholar