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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 November 2011
In December 1976 the construction of a new private road and car park at The Hall, Welwyn, exposed traces of Roman building material. These were observed by Tony Rook, who led the rescue team of the Welwyn Archaeological Society on the site. Initial excavation during the Christmas break was limited to the removal of the hardcore already on the new road and the plotting of the feature so exposed. Later, excavation was permitted throughout 1977 in two bays of the proposed car park. The corner of a very large robber-trench was investigated, and, with the information from the road, supplemented with trial-trenching, the plan of a mausoleum and its enclosure ditch was recovered. One length of the enclosure ditch contained inhumation burials of Roman date. A report on the skeletons by C. B. Denston is appended.
1 Analytical techniques are quoted from IGS Stable Isotope Report No. 49. ‘Carbon and oxygen isotope ratios were determined for the powdered marble samples. Carbon dioxide, produced from about 10 mg of sample by reaction with 100% phosphoric acid in vacuo (McCrea, 1950) was analysed on a V.G. Isotopes Ltd. ‘903’, triple-collector isotope ratio mass-spectrometer. The raw data were corrected for isobaric interferences and instrumental effects in a way similar to those given by Craig (1957) and Deines (1970). The results are given in the usual notation as parts per thousand variation of 13C/12C and 18O/16O ratios from those in the international standard, PDB calcite. The analytical errors (standard error of the mean) are about 0·020% and 0·025% for 13C and 18O respectively.’
See McCrea, J. M., ‘The isotopic chemistry of carbonates and a paleotemperature scale’, J.Chem. Phys. xviii (1950), 849–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Craig, H., ‘Isotopic standards for carbon and oxygen and correction factors for mass spectrometer analysis of CO2’ Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta xii (1957), 133–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Deines, P., ‘Mass spectrometer correction factors for the determination of small isotopic variations of carbon and oxygen’, Int. J. Mass Spectrom. Ion Phys. iv (1970), 283–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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2 See Walker, S., ‘Corinthian capitals with ringed voids: the work of Athenian craftsmen in the second century a.d.’ Arch. Anz. 1979, 103–29.Google Scholar
3 S.2296 is listed by Giuliano, A., Il Commercio dei sarcofagi attici (Rome, 1962) 316. S.957a, from Xanthos, is not included. S.2296 was analysed by M. Coleman and S. Walker (1979). S.957a has also been analysed and will be published in a British Museum Occasional Paper.Google Scholar
4 BM 2324, the sarcophagus found with BM 2296 at Ierapetra, Crete, has an unworked back, but although the decoration of the front and sides is in the Attic style, the lid decorated with laurel leaves is unusual. This sarcophagus is not made of Pentelic marble; the source of its marble is not known, but it may be a Cretan imitation of the Attic type. See Coleman and Walker (1979). This sarcophagus was listed by Giuliano (54, No. 317) and has been compared unfavourably to a sarcophagus excavated at Mallia, N. Crete, with similar, though more ornate decoration (Effenterre, H. van, BCH c (1976), 539).Google Scholar
5 Compare Gabelmann, H., Die Werkstattgruppen der Oberitalischen Sarkophage (Bonn, 1973) Taf. 44, 3: part of the left side of a sarcophagus with hunting scene (a.d. 240-50; Carpi, San Francesco). This type of tree appears on several sarcophagi made by Ravenna workshops (Gabelmann, 137).Google Scholar
6 Compare the left side of a sarcophagus in the Vatican: Andreae, B., Studien zur römischen Grabkunst (1963), Taf. 73, 2.Google Scholar
7 e.g. Matz, F., Die Dionysischen Sarkophage Teil I (1969), Taf. 27, no. 15 (Istanbul) and Taf. 13. 13, no. 9 (Boston, Farnese).Google Scholar
8 Matz, F., Die Dionysischen Sarkophage, Teil I-IV (1969-1974) and Turcan, R., Les sarcophages romains à réprésentations Dionysiaques (1966).Google Scholar
9 H. Sichtermann, Späte Endymion-Sarkophage (1966), 99, Abb. 61.
10 An account is given by Toynbee, J. M. C., Art in Britain under the Romans (1964), 211–12. Both are illustrated in RCHM London iii (1928), pl. 57. The sarcophagus found in Clapton dates to the turn of the third and fourth centuries a.d. The sarcophagus from Englefield Green appears to be a metropolitan Roman work of the third century a.d.Google Scholar
11 See Koch, G., ‘Ein Endymion-Sarkophag in Arles’ BJ clxxvii (1977), 245–70.Google Scholar
12 The figures are taken from Koch (1977). The numbers of sarcophagi found in Germany, Belgium, Spain and Portugal are too small to allow analysis. Most of the French examples come from the south, where Greek cultural traditions remained strong.
13 e.g. Bergmann, Marianne, Marc-Aurel (Liebieghaus-Monographie 2, 1978), 46–7.Google Scholar
14 e.g. BM 2316, illustrated by Turcan (1966) pl. 56a.
15 See note 7.
16 Strong, D. E., Roman Art (1976), 94.Google Scholar
17 Britannia x (1979), 349, no. 26Google Scholar; xi (1980), 412, no. 44. For other Greek names known from Roman Britain, see Birley, A. R., The People of Roman Britain (1979), 111–12, 120, 124. No Greeks of the curial class are known from Verulamium.Google Scholar
18 Wright, R. P., ‘A Graeco-Egyptian Amulet from a Romano-British site at Welwyn, Herts’ Ant. Journ. xliv (1964), 143–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19 A. Rook-S. Walker, forthcoming.
20 They are conveniently reported by Toynbee, J. M. C., op. cit. (note 10).Google Scholar
21 Neal, D. S., ‘The growth and decline of villas in the Verulamium area’ in Todd, M. (ed.), Studies in the Romano-British Villa (1976), 33–58.Google Scholar
22 idem., 36. Unfortunately it has not been possible to establish the exact relationship of Dicket Mead to the gap in occupation at Lockleys.
23 Toynbee, , op. cit. (note 10), 59–63. One of the busts was roughly cut down to fit into a niche at Lullingstone.Google Scholar
24 On the export of sarcophagi see the opposed views of Ward-Perkins, J. B., ‘Workshops and clients: the Dionysiac sarcophagi in Baltimore’, Rend. Pont. Accad. xlviii (1976), 191–238Google Scholar and Wiegartz, H., Kleinasiatischen Säulensarkophage (1st. Forschungen, Band 26, 1966)Google Scholar. On Asiatic garland sarcophagi see Asgari, N., AA 1977, 329–80Google Scholar and Pensabene, P., ‘Nota sullo stadio di lavorazionee la tipologia dei sarcofagi a ghirlande microasiatici esportati in occidente’ Dialoghi di Archeologia i (1981), 85–108.Google Scholar
25 Neal, , op. cit. (note 21), 34, no. 20Google Scholar. The excavation was published in Trans. St. Albans & Herts Architectural and Archaeological Society, 1937Google Scholar. A summary and a plan appeared in JRS xxviii (1938), 186Google Scholar. See also Wilson, R. J. A., A guide to the Roman remains in Britain (1975), 148.Google Scholar
26 A circular mausoleum was also excavated at West Mersea Island, Essex. See Rodwell, W., ‘Rivenhall and the emergence of first-century villas in northern Essex’Google Scholar in Todd, op. cit. (note 21), 11–32, esp. 19Google Scholar. The mausoleum is published with illustrations by Powell, W. R., VCH Essex iii (1963), 159.Google Scholar
27 Gillam, J. P. and Daniels, C. M., ‘The Roman Mausoleum on Shorden Brae, Beaufront, Corbridge, Northumberland’, Archaeologia Aeliana xxxix (fourth series, 1961), 37–61; the quotation is taken from p. 60.Google Scholar
28 JRS xxviii (1938), 187.Google Scholar
29 For a general discussion of the growth of the marble trade and the trade in sarcophagi, see the late Ward-Perkins, J. B., ‘Nicomedia and the Marble Trade’, PBSR xlviii (1980), 23–69.Google Scholar
