A saltern associated with salt production was excavated at Pyde Drove, near Woolavington. The large assemblage of briquetage recovered has allowed for some novel interpretations of the function of the different component types within the hearth structures. The saltern comprised a mound of waste material adjacent to 12 brine-settling tank pits and two salt water channels. A further settling tank was revealed beneath the mound. The pottery indicates that activity on the site dates to the later Romano-British period.

This paper assesses the effects which the building of Hadrian's Wall had on the patterns of supply and communication from the continent. Existing systems were strengthened rather than altered, and Hadrian's reign saw the full development of ports and military installations on the North Sea and Channel coasts. Navigation to Britain and sailing conditions on various routes are discussed, comparing their importance in the transport of wine, oil, exotic plants and samian ware and the movement of military personnel. Use of the Rhône–Rhine axis is emphasised for the movement of goods from Central Gaul and the Mediterranean, but other rivers in western and north-western Gaul were of some importance, as the details of samian distribution demonstrate. Finally, non-state organisation of the acquisition and distribution of commodities supplied to the army on Hadrian's Wall is strongly favoured.

The dice tower, or pyrgus, an ancient device for rolling dice, was an everyday object in the Roman world, but up to now only two towers, from Germany and Egypt, have been found. In re-examining a group of bone box-casings from Richborough Roman Fort, however, the author has found that some of these casings must have belonged to such a tower. This article shows how this dice tower may have been constructed. The author also summarises the literary and artistic evidence for dice towers, and shows how the rosette decoration on this tower links it to the Roman game of Duodecim Scripta.

The summer of 1983 was remarkable in certain parts of North Britain for the severity of the drought which developed during the months of July and August, all the more so because it was unexpected. The weather had been far from settled, even in early June, and among those engaged in aerial reconnaissance praesumpta illius anni quies. By the end of the season, however, flying in central and eastern Scotland, south of the Highland Line, had met with unparalleled success in terms of the quality and quantity of archaeological evidence recorded from the air. Considerable interest attaches to the identification of no fewer than three Roman forts, all of which appear to be of Flavian date (see below, p. 275), but one of them, the newly discovered work at Doune, appears to possess a special significance which justifies the presentation of this early report.

The stone relief (PL. XI, FIG. I) which forms the subject of this paper was submitted to the British Museum (Department of Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities) for identification. The relief had been added to the collections of the Saffron Walden Museum in 1836, (reg. no. 1836. no LXXIX). Though it was rumoured to have come from York or Chester, the register entries give the provenance as variously Herculaneum and Pompeii.

The western end of Hadrian's Wall has received relatively far less archaeological study than the central and eastern sectors, and in the Solway area there is room for re-assessment. The final section of the stone-built wall was observed on 29 August 1707 running into the Solway some quarter mile west of the terminal fort at Bowness. Beyond this further forts along the Cumberland coast as far as Moresby and beyond have long been recognised along with a number of apparently isolated milefortlets in the northern section. To this picture, largely through the work of Bellhouse, has been added a growing collection of free-standing towers similar to the turrets of the mural system. Yet the system as hitherto known could be thought in-complete. For although Bowness marks the position of a ford, there is no major break in the southern Solway coastline until Moricambe, the combined estuary of the Rivers Waver and Wampool; that broad estuary marks a far more obvious point at which to terminate a linear defence system (FIG. I).