Much interest has been taken recently in the reuse of prehistoric ceremonial sites during later prehistory and early history, but only limited attention has been paid to this phenomenon during the Romano-British period. This article seeks to build on existing work by making a detailed study of such activity in three specific cases: the limestone caves of the Bristol Channel region, the Neolithic chambered tombs of the Cotswold-Severn area and the Peak District, and the three most spectacular prehistoric monuments of the Wessex chalklands: Stonehenge, the Avebury complex and the Uffington White Horse.

Antiquarian and modern excavations at Castor, Cambs., have been taking place since the seventeenth century. The site, which lies under the modern village, has been variously described as a Roman villa, a guild centre and a palace, while Edmund Artis working in the 1820s termed it the ‘Praetorium’. The Roman buildings covered an area of 3.77 ha (9.4 acres) and appear to have had two main phases, the latter of which formed a single unified structure some 130 by 90 m. This article attempts to draw together all of the previous work at the site and provide a comprehensive plan, a set of suggested dates, and options on how the remains could be interpreted.

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.

Tab.Vindol. III, 628 is a letter of an auxiliary decurion of cohors VIIII Batavorum that begins with the greeting ‘Masclus Ceriali regi suo’. A.R. Birley tentatively suggested that the title held a literal force, while Bowman and Thomas interpreted the word as meaning ‘patron’ on the basis of OLD s.v. 8 and a parallel with P. Mich. 8.472 = CEL 147, a letter, also from a military context, from ‘Claudius Tiberianus Longino Prisco domin[o] et regi suo’. This article examines the Batavian and military contexts of these interpretations alongside other epigraphic examples of rex as ‘patron’.

In 2009 a leaded bronze vessel foot topped by a figure of Harpocrates was found in a Neronian or early Flavian levelling deposit on the University of Reading's excavations in Insula IX at Silchester. Comparanda point to the foot originally having been fitted to a vessel for cooking or for heating liquids that was made in Campania in the Tiberian or early Claudian period. Its recovery is further evidence that a high-status early Roman building was located close to Insula IX.

Samian ware being widely present, of striking quality, and highly useful to the archaeologist has a special position within Roman studies. This article brings a large body of samian ware data together to explore the nature of its incidence at settlements and in graves. The examination shows how the nature of samian ware distribution is highly structured between different types of site and between different consumers. This is shown to be so in the case of both Britain and the other Western provinces. The findings raise issues around the use of samian ware in society and point the way to harnessing the rich potential of samian as a source of information as understanding of its utility for the archaeologist expands.

It is over 30 years since Paul Buckland first presented a series of arguments concerning beetle (Coleoptera) grain pests: their origin, the timing of their introduction to Britain, and their implications for agricultural production during the Roman occupation. Here we return to the topic in the light of new data from a range of archaeological deposits, including civilian and military sites dating from the earliest period of Roman occupation. Infestation rates and, potentially, grain loss may have been high throughout Roman Britain, though many infestations may have been in equine feed. Beetle grain pests are not recorded in Britain prior to the Roman invasion, and it appears that they were absent, or extremely rare, in the early medieval period and up to the Norman Conquest. This pattern of occurrence is reviewed and it is suggested that ecological theory offers an explanation which is in accord with supposed socio-economic changes and trade. The role of grain pests is considered in the economic modelling of Romano-British agriculture.

Recent debate about the dating of Building XXVII 2 at Verulamium highlights a potential conflict between archaeological and stylistic dating of mosaics. The stratigraphic and artefactual, particularly the numismatic, evidence for the dating of the construction of Building XXVII 2 and subsequent phases of activity are examined in detail. The coin finds indicate a late date (after c. a.d. 380) for the initial construction of this building and its mosaics, with a sequence of development suggesting the continuation of urban life well into the fifth century. This dating has been challenged, however, and it has been suggested that the mosaics, stylistically, are significantly earlier. Comments are offered on the stylistic dating of the Verulamium mosaics in an Appendix by Patricia Witts. In conclusion, there would appear to be no compelling reason why the historically important sequence of structures, suggesting the continuation of urban life in Verulamium well into the fifth century, as originally proposed, has to be rewritten.

The demise of the Western Roman Empire combined with Germanic migration and influence from Continental Europe had a tumultuous and profound affect on the cultural and social identities of Britain's population. The fifth to seventh centuries a.d. remain a poorly understood epoch in British history, hence the once traditional ‘Dark Ages’ label. A variety of factors have contributed to this phenomenon, which include the exact nature and timing of the Roman administration's abandonment of Britannia, the precise character and extent of Germanic migration, questionable historical sources, the paucity of physical evidence, and problematic artefact dating. Zooarchaeological analysis can, therefore, aid the elucidation of this period through the development of new perspectives, highlighting the socio-cultural (and economic) processes involved in the emergence of early medieval Britain from Roman Britannia. Large-scale excavations were carried out at the baths basilica of Wroxeter (Shrops.) between 1966 and 1990. The city was the fourth largest urban centre in Roman Britain, and was the civitas-capital of the Cornovii. The excavations demonstrated how the public buildings of this central insula fell into disuse, prior to the possible construction of a grandiose private residence and complex in the sub-Roman period. It has been postulated that this building represents the palatial complex of a tyrannus, or possibly a bishopric of the ‘Western British’ church. Analysis of the resultant animal bone assemblage has provided an opportunity to explore the social and ethnic identity of the site's inhabitants through their dietary habits.