Due to unforseen circumstances Martyn Allen, who was originally booked to talk to us on Roman rural settlement in Surrey, is unable to join us. We hope Martyn will be able to join us early in  the next winter series of talks to kick-start the theme of rural settlement, which we hope to follow up with a seminar/workshop. 

Meanwhile David Bird, RSG Chairman, has kindly agreed to talk on the Roman-Saxon transition; his recent thoughts on this subject have been the inspiration for the forthcoming regional conference:  

Site Director, Emma Corke  will be talking about the results of the 2017 excavations that took place on the hill adjacent to the scheduled villa site. A magnetometry survey carried out by RSG uncovered a number of features which have been explored over the last few seasons. Excavations have revealed a human presence on the hill  from prehistory, with evidence for Neolithic and Bronze Age activity, Iron Age enclosure ditches and grain storage pits,  superceded by Roman boundary ditches and agricultural activity.

This session will highlight some of the fieldwork that  has taken place over the last year. It will also be a chance for members to enjoy Christmas refreshments.

Rose Hooker, of the Prehistoric Group will give an update on fieldwork that has taken place at a Late Iron Age/ Romano-British site at  Charlwood. 

Emma Corke and David Williams  will be reporting on a Romano-British site near St. Martha's Church, Chilworth.

The directors of the Culver Archaeological Project, Rob Wallace and David Millum will be giving a presentation on Bridge Farm – revealing a Romano-British ‘defended’ settlement. The Culver Archaeological Project began in 2005  with the aim of  identifying further archaeological sites within the landscape around Barcombe Villa.  Recent seasons have seen the focus of activity at Bridge Farm, east of the River Ouse, where a large unrecorded Romano-British riverside settlement has been discovered.

The Roman Studies Annual General Meeting will be followed by a talk from David Rudling - Roman period settlement and land use in the Ouse Valley. David is well known to RSG. Until 2004 David worked for the UCL Field Archaeology Unit, being its Director from October 1991 to December 2003. In 2004 David joined the Centre for Continuing Education at the University of Sussex as a Lecturer in Archaeology.

Peter Guest, Senior Lecturer in Roman Archaeology at Cardiff University and Dig Director, will guide us around the Roman fortress of Caerleon in the morning (amphitheatre, Prysg Field Barracks, Fortress baths and the Roman Legionary museum) and  Caerwent in the afternoon (forum-basilica, Pound Lane, Courtyard House, Temple and South Walls).

Charge:            £10.00 per head

Max. no. 25

Reading Roman Inscriptions - afternoon of 2 September 2017 

*David Bird will lead a workshop on “Reading Roman Inscriptions” which will include a general introduction to Roman Inscriptions. This will be followed by a look at standard abbreviations, changes through time and examples of different types of inscription. There will be ample time for participants to try their hand at translation.

Charge: £7.50 per person

Max. no. 17

This is an opportunity to hear Emma Corke talk about the Roman tile kiln found in Reigate in 2004. She will be joined by Peter Burgess who will explain how it was rebuilt. After these talks, there will be a chance to visit Reigate caves.

Charge: none. Please put a donation in the box.

Max. no 15

If you are interested please e-mail Irene Goring at  irene@greenhayes.plus.com

To complement David Bird’s “ Reading Roman Inscriptions” workshop on 2 September, there will be a visit to the British Museum. Dirk Booms, Curator in the Department of Greece and Rome, will walk us round 2 galleries for about an hour to help us appreciate and translate the inscriptions there. He will explain the abbreviations and the different facts that can be interpreted from inscriptions in general.

Instructions and timings will be distributed closer to the time.

Charge: None. Please make a donation to the BM

Max. no. 15

This visit offers the opportunity to see two Sussex excavations in progress. In the morning David Rudling, Academic Director of the Sussex School of Archaeology, will take us around Plumpton Roman Villa, a winged corridor house, and tell us about the three years of excavations there. In the afternoon, either Rob Wallace or David Millum, Dig Directors, will guide us around Bridge Farm - a Romano British settlement - where excavations have been in progress since 2013. There will be a pub lunch between the two visits.