The Small Towns of Roman Britain surveys a wide range of Roman town sites, answering many questions about their character and the archaeological problems they raise. The past thirty years have seen a dramatic increase in the quality of the evidence on these sites gained from fieldwork, excavation, and aerial archaeology. Because there is almost no documentary or epigraphic material of any real value on the small towns, this archaeological evidence provides a heretofore unavailable perspective. Authors Barry Burnham and John Walker have organized the information in a manner that is both useful to scholars and stimulating to history buffs or walkers interested in touring these sites. Each site is illustrated with a site plan, and many aerial photographs are provided as well. Introductory chapters provide an overview of the origins, development, and morphology of the towns; the special religious, governmental, or industrial significance of many sites; and the economic functions common to all. A comprehensive bibliography completes the volume. This is the eagerly awaited companion volume to John Wacher's watershed study The Towns of Roman Britain, which was highly praised for "its clean prose, excellent illustrations and fascinating story, . . . a most important contribution to scholarship, while remaining eminently attractive to the general reader." (Barry Cunliffe, Times Literary Supplement).

The Small Towns of Roman Britain

History

Wacher, John

Burnham, Barry C.

Ancient Civilizations

University of California Press

Dolaucothi, near the modern village of Pumsaint in south-west Wales, is the only site in Britain where the Romans are known certainly to have mined for gold. The main workings, which are thought to span various phases of exploitation from the pre-Roman through to the present, can be traced over a distance of more than a kilometre. This volume reports on a series of investigations carried out at this important complex over a period of 12 years. These investigations have helped to clarify several aspects of the mine's development, the technologies involved, and the impact of the mines on the wider cultural and environmental landscape during the later 1st and 2nd centuries, when the Romans had a major presence in the Dolaucothi area. The volume includes reports on: the new excavations and survey of the Roman fort and vicus at the village of Pumsaint; the excavation and survey of various leat systems which supplied water to the mines; excavations in the vicinity of a possible mill complex, which revealed new evidence about ore crushing and processing; the geophysical survey of the east side of the fort at Pumsaint, which revealed an extensive area of civilian settlement; excavations in the vicinity of a possible bath-house; geophysical survey and excavation in the vicinity of the Roman road from Llandovery to Pumsaint, which revealed further evidence of civilian settlement; and an overview of the recent detailed surface survey of the mine workings. The authors also provide a history of previous excavations and research at the site.

Dolaucothi-Pumsaint: Survey and Excavation at a Roman gold-mining complex 1987-1999

Burnham, Helen

Oxbow Books

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Books by Burnham, Barry C.