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Woodeaton Coins

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

J. G. Milne
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Extract

The site on Middle Hill at Woodeaton, known as the ‘Roman field,’ has long been famous locally for the number of objects which have been picked up on its surface: and a detailed account of the chief finds, so far as they could be traced, was given by Miss Taylor in vol. vii of the Journal. In regard to coins, however, a good deal can now be added to her account from the collections that have come to the Ashmolean Museum since it was written: and it will be seen that there is some evidence to be derived from them as to the currency in use during the period when the place was a centre of activity.

It is not easy to say exactly what this activity was: though numerous coins and small articles, especially fibulae, have been found on the surface, there are hardly any traces of permanent buildings on the site. The Oxford University Archaeological Society, in the course of its trial excavations, came on some fragments of painted plaster which look as if they had belonged to a substantial erection, but there were no foundations of a corresponding character discovered. Potsherds are not uncommon, but are nearly all of late and rough ware, and seem to be distributed irregularly about the field. In fact, there is nothing to suggest that the place was continuously inhabited by a population of such importance as would be expected from the multitude of small finds.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , 1931 , pp. 101 - 109
Copyright
Copyright ©J. G. Milne 1931. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

page 101 note 1 The Ashmolean Museum collection of coins from Woodeaton includes those of Canon Gordon, Mr. H. Parker, and Mr. P. Manning, with smaller lots found in the excavations of the Oxford University Archaeological Society or acquired at various times: the important collection of Mr. Windham Hughes is also at the Museum on loan. The Rev. E. A. Sydenham has kindly supplied lists of coins in his own possession and in that of Sir Arthur Evans.

page 101 note 2 A short description of these excavations was given in the Antiquaries Journal i (1921), 339.

page 102 note 1 The old trade routes, which had been developed along the lines most convenient for pack-horse traffic, would not be superseded for local traffic by the new roads made by the Romans, which were essentially arterial roads for long-distance journeys.

page 102 note 2 A parallel example of the debris left by this kind of marketing may be found at several places on the coasts of the Mediterranean, where the best hunting ground for coins and small antiquities is at the water's edge in old harbours. Presumably, produce and goods were brought in boats, which were made fast with their sterns to the shore, and the occupants sold articles over the stern in ancient times as they do to-day: and then, as now, the process would result in a coin or article occasionally dropping into the water—the smaller the object, the less likely its recovery.

page 102 note 3 The only object which suggests Saxon influence is a coin, or rather a quarter of a coin, of Constantius II (pl. xiv, no. 22), which has been neatly cut, like the Saxon farthings of later date. When the Romano-Britons clipped coins, they did it very roughly: but the careful quartering of this coin can be paralleled in Germany. A single coin, however, cannot be taken as proving the presence of Saxons on the site.

page 103 note 1 Mr. E. Thurlow Leeds does not think that there is any evidence of pre-Roman occupation at Middle Hill. The British coins found at Woodeaton in the seventeenth century and recorded by Dr. Plot seem to have been from the neighbourhood of the Manor House, at the foot of the hill. Some broken bronze celts have been turned up, but these may have been merely scrap-metal. The stiff clay soil of Middle Hill, in his opinion, would be most unlikely to attract early settlers.

page 104 note 1 See below, p. 108.

page 104 note 2 This hoard has been presented to the Ashmolean Museum by Sir Arthur Evans.

page 104 note 3 The degradation of the obverse type of a radiate head into a few lines representing what was originally the crown is similar to what occurred on Gaulish and British staters some five or six centuries earlier: the stater of Philip, from which these derived their types, had a laureate head on the obverse; but successive copyists left out more and more of the head, till the only thing that remained was the laurel wreath.

page 105 note 1 I have dealt mainly with evidence from the Oxford district, as this is the area from which finds habitually come to the Ashmolean Museum. Other districts may possibly show different results.

page 105 note 2 It is assumed that most of the Roman coins found in Britain in good condition came over by remittance in bulk, at the periods when there was no mint operating in this country: probably these remittances would mainly be official ones. Roman coins found in countries which were not in the Empire—for instance, in the Baltic area—are almost always very worn, as would naturally be the case when they had drifted along in commerce. It may be added that this drift would be a lengthy process, while an official remittance would travel fairly quickly—on the analogy of remittances under similar conditions in the East, perhaps at an average rate of about ten miles a day.

page 105 note 3 It is hardly worth while to give exact figures, for the reason stated in the text. In the Gordon collection there are few barbarous pieces: Canon Gordon, who lived at Elsfield, close to Woodeaton, appears to have got the pick of the coins found during many years, and chosen the most presentable: in the Manning collection, on the other hand, which was formed by an omnivorous student of antiquity, there are 260.

page 106 note 1 A gold solidus of Maurice in the the Ashmolean Museum, found at Dorchester (Oxon), is so worn as to suggest that it may have been brought over in trade: but this is an isolated example.

page 106 note 2 The Wheatley coin (1883/36) is apparently derived from Constantinian types: two coins from Frilford (1912/53) are of the same class: that from Stone had a degraded radiate head and what may be a standing figure. The Stone coin was described in Archaeologia xxxiv, 26, as of Magnentius. The Frilford cemetery, the earlier excavations in which were published in Archaeologia xlii, 417–485, is a transitional one, and shows an apparently continuous use of coins in graves from Romano-British to Saxon times. The Saxons evidently found Roman coins in good condition at times, and kept them probably as curiosities or ornaments: there are instances of this at Frilford, and also in the cemetery at Brighthampton, described in Archaeologia xxxvii and xxxviii, the most notable example being in grave 22 (xxxviii. 86), where a woman had buried with her ten third century silver coins pierced for suspension.

page 107 note 1 See Num. Chron. 1926, 43–92.