Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:38:42.926Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Silchester ‘Nymphaeum’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2018

Michael Fulford
Michael Fulford*
Affiliation:
University of Readingm.g.fulford@reading.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A carved coping stone found on the site of a spring near the amphitheatre, Silchester, and first reported in 1873, was rediscovered in 2014. It does not compare in its carved detail with coping stones from the amphitheatres at Chester and London, nor with that recovered from the West Gate, Silchester, in 1890; nor does its basal width correspond with that of the arena wall of the Silchester amphitheatre. It is likely to have formed part of a monumental basin, similar to that found at Coventina's Well, Northumberland, and to have commemorated the location of a spring and its associated (unknown) deity. Similarity with the type and decoration of architectural stone used in the construction of the forum-basilica suggests a Hadrianic–Antonine date.

Keywords

Silchesterspringnymphaeumamphitheatrecoping stoneLower Greensandforum-basilicaCoventina's Well
Type
Shorter Contributions
Information
Britannia , Volume 49 , November 2018 , pp. 309 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2018. Published by The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allason-Jones, L., and McKay, B. 1985: Coventina's Well. A Shrine on Hadrian's Wall, GloucesterGoogle Scholar
Bateman, N., Cowan, C., and Wroe-Brown, R. 2008: London's Roman Amphitheatre: Guildhall Yard, City of London, MoLAS Monograph 35, LondonGoogle Scholar
Blagg, T.F.C. 2002: Roman Architectural Ornament in Britain, BAR British Series 329, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Boon, G.C. 1974: Silchester: The Roman Town of Calleva, Newton AbbotGoogle Scholar
Creighton, J., with Fry, R. 2016: Silchester: Changing Visions of a Roman Town. Integrating Geophysics and Archaeology: The Results of the Silchester Mapping Project 2005–10, Britannia Monograph 28, LondonGoogle Scholar
Esmonde Cleary, S. 2012: A Souvenir Guide. Chedworth Roman Villa, Gloucestershire, SwindonGoogle Scholar
Fox, G.E., and Hope, W.H. St J. 1891: ‘Excavations on the site of the Roman City at Silchester, Hants, in 1890’, Archaeologia 52, 733–58Google Scholar
Fulford, M. 1989: The Silchester Amphitheatre. Excavations of 1979–85, Britannia Monograph 10, LondonGoogle Scholar
Fulford, M., and Timby, J. 2000: Late Iron Age and Roman Silchester. Excavations on the Site of the Forum-Basilica 1977, 1980–86, Britannia Monograph 15, LondonGoogle Scholar
Fulford, M.G., Rippon, S., Ford, S., Timby, J., and Williams, B. 1997: ‘Silchester: excavations at the North Gate, on the north walls, and in the northern suburbs’, Britannia 28, 87–168Google Scholar
Goodburn, R. 1972: The Roman Villa Chedworth, LondonGoogle Scholar
Joyce, J.G. 1881: ‘Third account of excavations at Silchester’, Archaeologia 46, 344–65Google Scholar
Newstead, R., and Droop, J.P. 1932: ‘The Roman amphitheatre at Chester’, Journal of the Chester and North Wales Architectural, Archaeological and Historic Society 29, 1–40Google Scholar
Thompson, F.H. 1976: ‘The excavation of the Roman amphitheatre at Chester’, Archaeologia 105, 127–239Google Scholar
Wilmott, T., and Garner, D. 2017: The Roman Amphitheatre of Chester. Vol. 1. The Prehistoric and Roman Archaeology, OxfordGoogle Scholar