Digging in the past: the arable farmer who's an archaeologist .... on the wireless now

It's not the zippiest of titles but it does the biz, because this is the story of one farmer in the Vale of Yorkshire who has uncovered some remarkable archaeological finds in his farm*.

Roman coin, Claudius, 43-54 AD

It comes from BBC Radio 4's On Your Farm which goes out every day at 6.30 am.  under the collective title of Farming Today and "gets to the heart of country life with a look at individual farming endeavours".

Its got the lot, covering heaps of different stories all related to farming,  So I have listened to "The Art of Asparagus", "A Cumbrian Farm", "Meet Syrian bee expert", "Marino Wool for Surfers", "Carbon Counting", and today's "Digging in the past".

 "Arable and archaeology are the two passions in Nick Wilson's life. 

He farms in the Vale of York but the discovery of a Roman burial site in one of his fields turbo-charged his interest in the past. 

That was nearly 10 years ago, since then he has studied for a PhD in archaeology and excavated acres of farmland. 

Reverse of the Claudian coin

As well as the Roman tomb, he's unearthed Bronze-age cooking pots, quern stones for grinding corn, jewellery and a hob-nail boot from Roman times"*.

Produced and presented by Rebecca Rooney".

Location; The Vale of York

Pictures; a Roman coin from the era of the Emperor Claudius, [I think], 1975,from the collection of Andrew Simpson 

*Digging in the past: the arable farmer who's an archaeologist,On Your Farm, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002xdbd

**On Your Farm, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006s571

Back with Being Roman ...... with Mary Beard ... the whistleblower

Now I am a great fan of the Roman historian Mary Beard, and so I was pleased to see she is back on Radio 4 with a new series on Being Roman.*

Artemidorus, Hawara, Egypt, second century

It is a series which explores the lives of what we might call "ordinary" Romans.

"Beneath starched Shakespearean togas and the pungent fug of gladiator sweat there are real Romans waiting to be discovered. To know what it was to be Roman you need to gather the scattered clues until they form a living, breathing human, witness to the highs and horrors of Europe’s greatest empire.

Mary Beard, Britain’s best-selling historian of the ancient world, rebuilds the lives of six citizens of the Roman Empire, from a poet to a squaddie. 

Her investigations reveal death and deceit on the Nile and the art of running a Roman pub, but it’s the thoughts and feelings of individual Romans she’s really interested in.

It's 61CE. The rebellion of Boudicca has finally been quashed, but London and other Roman cities lie in ruins. A new finance officer for the province, Gaius Julius Classicianus arrives, to face an enormous recovery job. 

Standing in his way is the Governor, busy exacting terrible reprisals from the local population. Classicianus does what brave subordinates have done ever since. 

Boudicca. London

He whistle-blows – writing to the emperor to remove the Governor from British shores. The stage is set for an imperial face-off. For the people of Britain, the stakes could not be higher.

Producer: Alasdair Cross

Expert Contributors: Matthew Nicholls, University of Oxford and Michael Marshall, Museum of London Archaeology

Cast: Tacitus played by Robert Wilfort

Translations by Mary Beard

Special thanks to the British Museum"*

Models of Roman soldiers, 1974

Picture; portrait of Artemidorus, Hawara, Egypt, second century, British Museum, taken from cover image  of the Poems of Catullus, Penguin Classics, 1968, statue of Boudicca, from the collection of Stephen Hall, models of Roman soldiers, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Being Roman, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_fourfm

Bits of my history ……….

It started out as a folded wall chart progressed into a block mounted display and survived one house move, rested on several walls in several rooms and for a while was banished to the cellar.

But in that 46 years it was always a favourite bit of my history and has now been restored to a prominent place in the room where I scribble away on historical matters and delve deep into other people's past.

It came in a Sunday Times booklet on Roman Britain, which I bought for £1.95 in 1978, and that too was for a while also sent down to the cellar and to my shame spent longer in that dark place.

Some of the scholarship will have been overtaken by new archaeological finds and by revisions and reinterpretations about the Romans in Britain but it is still a fascinating glimpse into how they lived.

And as ever here are some of my favourites from the “leather bikini trunks of a dancing girl or acrobat” found in the Thames mud to  fine pictures of four Roman Emperors, an equally fine map of the Province and heaps more.

But the block mounted wall chart has not fared so well.  Forty years of being exposed to the sunlight has caused it fade in places, while one edge was damaged and part of it has come away from the its backing.

All of which means bits of it no longer deliver the story of the Roman Army as they did, but enough survives to make it a talking point.

I did once consider getting rid of it but our Ben said that would be an awful thing to do and so I didn’t, and glad I am that it is still here.

Most days I don’t give it a second glance, but occasionally I will stand in front of it, get lost in the detail, and reflect on how the Romans captured my imagination sometime around 1958 and still hold a power over me.

For others it will be the Vikings, the Tudors of the Industrial Revolution, and I do wonder what individually draws so many of us to a particular period or group of people ……. So answers on a postcard, preferably one with a historical image on the front.

Location; our house

Pictures from The Sunday Times Roman Britain  “Full-colour wall chart, map and guide to Roman life”, 1978

Happy birthday Hadrian's Wall .........

1,900 years old this year.*

The Wall as interpreted in 1955

Hadrian's wall just east of Cawfields quarry 2005

Location; norther England

Pictures; The Wall as interpreted in 1955, Hadrian's wall just east of Cawfields quarry, Northumberland in October 2005, I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain

*Back on Hadrian's Wall rediscovering a love of all things Roman, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2014/10/back-on-hadrians-wall-rediscovering.html

Boudica ...... Boudicea? ..... the story with a dash of fun

Now I grew up with stories of Boudica "the warrior Queen" who trashed the Romans in 61 AD.

Although to be exactly accurate she trashed three Roman towns, a Roman legion and assorted Celts who had sided with the Romans, after which she, her daughters and lots of the Iceni and Trinovantes were seen off by Suetonious Paulinus the Governor of Britain and two of his legions.

All of which is a lead in to yesterday programme on the Queen and the events of that year from Boudica, in the series Your Dead to Me on Radio 4.

"Greg Jenner and his guests discuss the important questions surrounding Queen Boudica including: Is she a feminist icon? How do you pronounce her name? And was she really ginger?

Get ready to forget everything you thought you knew about Boudica and learn what it was really like when the Romans invaded.

Featuring comedian, author and actress Sara Pascoe, known for QI, Have I Got News For You, and W1A among many other shows, and historian Dr Emma Southon, specialist in Roman history and co-host of the History is Sexy podcast.

Script and Research: Greg Jenner

Producer: Dan Morelle

A Muddy Knees Media production for BBC Radio 4"

Pictures; Boudica, drawing  by J.C.B. Knight, from People in History, R.J. Unstead, Volume one, 1955,  Boudicca about to set off on the rampage, 2020, from the collection of Stephen Hale

Boudica, Your Dead to Me, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07n8nrg

Collecting another Roman Villa ....... Brading in the Isle of Wight

You can never get enough Roman Villas in my opinion.

And so I was pleased when Angela Buckley, shared some pictures of the mosaic floor of the Roman Villa at Brading in the Isle of Wight.

Angela is a historian who has written some excellent books on Victorian crime, along with a regular blog.*

The villa at Brading is not one I have visited, and if you can’t get there, then other people’s pictures are the next best thing, along with the offical guide  from the museum of the villa.**

“The museum preserves the West Range, built around AD300, which is the last and grandest of three buildings on the site. 

The foundations of two earlier North and South Ranges are now outlined in chalk outside. 

The South Range was erected around AD 100, not long after the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43 and was followed by the completion of the grander North Range around AD 200.

Since its re-discovery the villa and surrounding land have been excavated many times. Using artefacts and archaeological reports, the museum will take you on a tour from prehistory up to the modern day.

Why choose the site at Brading?
For those living here, this location was a perfect choice. 

It enabled these freedom to communicate with and travel to local Island settlements, mainland Britain and cross the Channel to Gaul (France).

Fertile arable lands around the Villa complex allowed good crops of grain to be grown. Sheep and cattle could fertilise the land between seasons and springs nearby gave a good water supply.

The West Range
By the early fourth century this high status house was completed. 

As a winged corridor villa, common in southern Britain, it provided separate private living accommodation for the owner and their family together with space for entertaining guests. 

Like modern homes today the West Range had many changes and adaptions to the living space. This included removing and moving internal walls and adding new mosaics."

So that is it ……… another bit of Roman history to add to my collection, leaving me just to thank Angela for letting me use her pictures, and to say that the Villa has its own facebook site.

How neat is that?

Location; The Isle of Wight

Pictures; mosaic floor, from Brading Roman Villa, 2020, courtesy of Angela Buckley


*Victorian Supersleuth, https://victorian-supersleuth.com/?fbclid=IwAR3p-ieeN8snFOBL7QM9ULFtuIs00KAoB5f5DgU_MpMdK0ZFrVM9SGaR1tk

***Brading Roman Villa, https://bradingromanvilla.org.uk/discover/#introducing-the-villa

The Real Lives of Roman Britain ............. one to read

I have never lost my fascination for Roman history, and so I am looking forward to reading The Real Lives of Roman Britain by Guy De La Bedoyere.*

According to the publishers Mr De la Bédoyère “introduces Fortunata the slave girl, Emeritus the frustrated centurion, the grieving father Quintus Corellius Fortis, and the brilliant metal worker Boduogenus, among numerous others. 

Through a wide array of records and artifacts, the author introduces the colourful cast of immigrants who arrived during the Roman era while offering an unusual glimpse of indigenous Britons, until now nearly invisible in histories of Roman Britain.”

Anyone who watched Time Team will be familiar with Mr De la Bédoyère who was a regular contributor as well appearing in other programmes and writing a series of books.

And this is my sort of history.

Added to which I ordered it up from Chorlton Book Shop which can be guaranteed to   get it for you the following day.

Now I could have course slipped back and used Amazon but unless you shop locally you lose the shop so I reckon this way we all win.

Picture; cover from The Real Lives of Roman Britain

* The Real Lives of Roman Britain,  Guy De La Bedoyere, Yale University, £20

** Chorlton Book Shop, http://www.fire-hire.co.uk/bookshop.html