Blog

  • Verulamium visited

    Went today to see the lovely Roman ruins at St Albans, or Verulamium as it was known from C1 AD when the Romans were rampaging about making a nuisance of themselves/in cahoots with the locals (depending on which academics’ arguments/the evidence you find most persuasive). Now I’m spoilt when it comes to ruins, having lived… Read more

  • Wall marks?

    Some real archaeology this weekend – joining fellow ‘frogs’ on the Thames Discovery Programme to survey the ancient timbers at Greenwich. Lots of washing mud off the medieval jetty – and scrubbing the weed from the riverwall…to uncover some curious marks. I’ve heard of ‘masons marks’ and had assumed they were a sort of signature… Read more

  • Over the Lethe and far away

    St Mary-at-Lambeth church now hosts a garden museum which (as I visited today during lunch) I hadn’t time to look at. The grounds were pretty though, and felt like spring – and had some interesting graves in them. There was this huge C18 tomb with an urn with a meander round it and coiled round… Read more

  • Right TRAC?

    Went to the Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference this weekend (yes, for the wag who asked, there is an actual Roman Archaeology Conference too).  I’ve been to a fair few conferences in the role of hireling/organiser, setting them up, writing delegate briefing, occasionally speaking or chairing, but this is only the second conference I’ve ever attended… Read more

  • All tech bright and beautiful.

    Technology can be made exciting, cool and tempting. After all, if you’re to reach for that apple, you’ve first got to reach for your purse. And nobody wants to waste money buying the wrong thing. What about wasted time though, the purveyors of technology don’t point this out but choosing, trying and learning new technology… Read more

  • Invading, with elephants.

    As part of the far too random reading I’ve been doing for my dissertation I stumbled on a fascinating detail of ancient history:  apparently* elephants took part in the siege of Colchester in AD43.  Somewhere outside the town, the Roman Army were kicking their heels, unable to get on with taking Colchester until the main… Read more