Before 1697, Scotland’s only Roman milestone was found near Cramond on the Forth. The ansate panel recorded the distance to Trimontium, the Roman name for the vexillation-sized fortress sited close to modern day Newstead in the Scottish Borders. The fort, lying on Dere Street, had been a major frontier fort and also a supply depot for the Antonine Wall, occupied until its destruction sometime in the reign of Commodus. This talk presents something of the enigmatic history of this important site and highlights its key role in the Roman invasion of the North.

The famous Ninth legion disappeared from history some time between its last dated appearance (in Britain, AD 107-8) and the compilation of a list of legions around AD 165. The idea that the legion was transferred from Britain before it met its end somewhere in the eastern part of the empire has become so firmly entrenched that many believe it is a matter of fact. This lecture stands back, looks at the evidence, and shows that it is possible – indeed likely – that the legion was destroyed or disbanded in Britain during serious warfare in the reign of the emperor Hadrian.

Dere Street was the Roman Great North Road, this talk will concern the forts of Risingham and High Rocherster, the outposts of Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, other forts and camps and the road itself and the link road to the Devil’s Causeway. Geophysical surveys in the 1990 and 2000s has been complemented by recent community excavations to reveal greater complextity of the forts and their surroundings.

The team revealed an exciting array of features connected with the life cycle of the villa, from its beginnings as an Iron Age village, through the construction of two Roman roads to serve it and associated iron-working industry, with the landscape’s tranasformation in the fourth century into a huge industrial complex, which manufactured thousands of tiles and pottery vessels .

and the whole story can be traced along its Roman roads. This talk will journey along the spectacular results of the excavations, highlighting the rare and important example of an excavated stretch of extremely well-preserved Roman road and its idiosyncratic connectivity to the contemporary neural network of villas, forts and towns in the Romano-British landscape.

Roman roads cut across landscapes heading towards sites or by-passing them. All these sites, whether military or civilian, produce finds but the day we held in Berwick recently on the matter of the Devil’s Causeway led to the question: is there a typical assemblage that one might expect to find on a fort or on a Romano-British settlement?

This talk looks at the finds that might be discovered in a Roman fort and on a Romano-British settlement site but also discusses the assemblage that might identify the Roman equivalent of a motorway service station. What has been found along Roman roads and why do artefact discoveries tend to cluster around river crossings will also be considered.

The archaeology of road construction in Roman Britain rightly has a focus on the documentation of evidence, and we need to recognise how the actions of road building after 43 CE shaped the structure of England and to some extent Wales. This paper sets out to use the evidence for road building within Italy with a view to setting out what might have been the thinking of the Roman elite about communications, and how they may have seen the place of roads in the ideological structure of Rome’s colonial project. The intention is not to explain everything in one lecture, but to think about how we should see their pre-conceptions of what was “good communications” and what was “absolutely awful communications”.

Obviously, in applying these concepts – we may establish intentions, but of course (as we all know all too well) intentions are not always delivered in major construction projects – roads fail as well as succeed. We may also begin to contemplate what compromises need to take place and to contemplate this aspect, the talk will draw on some examples from the 19th century British colony in New South Wales.  In addition, the talk will provide an introduction to key concepts for understanding the wider transport infrastructure of the Roman empire.

Currently studying for a MA in Archaeology at the University of Reading, Keith has been leading a project to research the archaeology of Roman West Berkshire and in particular the area around Wickham with colleagues from the Berkshire Archaeological Society. To date four extensive geophys surveys have been undertaken to better understand the route taken by the Roman Road to Bath (Margary 53) eastwards from its last known location towards its  intersection with Ermin Street (Margary 41), and also to explore possible Romano-British settlement close to this road intersection.

There will be lots of photographs of the Military Roads in Scotland, largely as built in the 1700s under General Wade and his successor, as Inspector of Roads, Major Caulfeild. A comparison will be made with Roman Roads, which were planned and constructed quite differently, albeit with similar purposes for their existence. The historical background will also be presented, along with the subsequent history of the Military Roads, and consideration will also be given to the personalities involved – or not! – including not only Wade and Caulfeild but also General Roy and Thomas Telford.