Interpreting Roman London: Papers in Memory of Hugh Chapman (Oxbow Monographs in Archaeology , No 58)

These essays have been written as a tribute from his friends and colleagues to Hugh Chapman, whose tragic death in 1992 took from London’s archaeology one of its most outstanding practitioners. Although Hugh’s interests and enthusiasms ranged over many fields, we decided that such a tribute should have as its core a theme central to much of his career as an archaeologist and museum curator, London during the centuries of Roman rule. The papers here presented in his honour cover, as might be expected, a wide range of subjects, and we have attempted to group them thematically. They begin with accounts of early ideas about the Roman city and the first serious archaeological efforts to understand it, followed by discussions of the status and character of Londinium. These are succeeded by studies of sculpture and of some of the more humble objects used by its inhabitants, of their religion and burial customs, and of the countryside and settlements that sustained and surrounded London; and the volume ends with past and present ideas on presenting Roman London to the modern public. Editors’ foreword vii List of contributors viii Hugh Chapman, Michael Robbins x Bibliography of Hugh Chapman’s publications / Bernard Nurse xi 1. The temple of Diana / John Clark 1 2. The beginnings of archaeology in the City of London / Peter Marsden 11 3. London as a provincial capital / Mark Hassall 19 4. The status of Londinium / John Wilkes 27 5. Characterizing Roman London / Martin Millett 33 6. How to interpret Roman London? / Richard Reece 39 7. Monumental architecture in Roman London / T. F. C. Blagg 43 8. A palace disproved: reassessing the provincial governor’s presence in 1st-century London / Gustav Milne 49 9. The cemeteries of Roman London: a review / Jenny Hall 57 10. A miniature chalk head from the Thames at Battersea and the 'cult of the head' in Roman London / Jonathan Cotton 85 11. Sculptors from the west in Roman London / Martin Henig 97 12. The London hunter-god and his significance in the history of Londinium / Ralph Merrifield 105 13. Isis, not Cybele: a bone hairpin from London / Catherine Johns 115 14. Frogs from the Walbrook: a cult pot and its attribution / Joanna Bird 119 15. Petrecus connected: thirty years on / G. B. Dannell 129 16. The hare with three front legs: London to Toronto / Alison H. Easson 135 17. Late Iron Age and early Roman pottery traditions of the London region / Paul A. Tyers 139 18. Procuratorial mortarium stamps / Katharine F. Hartley 147 19. Problems of Roman coin interpretation in Greater London / Michael J. Hammerson 153 20. Early decorated Roman spoons from London / Christine E. E. Jones & David Sherlock 165 21. A new collyrium-stamp from Staines and some thoughts on eye medicine in Roman London and Britannia / Ralph Jackson 177 22. Roman material from London in the Pitt Rivers collection at Salisbury Museum / N. Griffiths 189 23. Dem dry bones / Clive Orton 199 24. A five-acre wood in Roman Kent / R. S. O. Tomlin 209 25. The London region in the Roman period / D. G. Bird 217 26. In search of Sulloniacis / Harvey Sheldon 233 27. Stony Jack’s Roman London / Jean Macdonald 243 28. The display of Roman London / Max Hebditch 253 Index / Lysbeth Merrifield 263 The archaeology of London is the central theme of these essays dedicated to Hugh Chapman, curator of the Museum of London and secretary of the London Society of Antiquaries.