La riqueza epigráfica de las ánforas olearias de la provincia Bética es bien conocida gracias a los numerosos sellos de alfarero, rótulos pintados (tituli picti) y grafitos grabados en la arcilla fresca (ante cocturam). Éstos últimos suelen contener signos y simples letras, pero a veces, también nombres de personas y fechas calendariales y consulares. En este trabajo presentamos un grafito de carácter excepcional por su contenido estrictamente literario. En él, proponemos identificar un fragmento de poema de Virgilio. Analizamos y discutimos el contexto en que se realizó, la autoría del mismo y su significación para el conocimiento del grado de alfabetización de la sociedad rural romana en el Valle del Guadalquivir. Constituye el primer caso constatado sobre ánfora romana y es de excepcional interés para arqueólogos, epigrafistas y filólogos del latín vulgar.

In the Roman world, lamps with replicated images of sex were in circulation from the late 1st c. BCE until the end of the 4th c. CE. This paper maps out key regional and chronological trends in the representation and consumption of these objects using data from 11 provincial sites. It demonstrates sustained sensitivity of replicated sexual disc-reliefs to distinctive regional styles of consumption and representation. It also shows that symplegmata disc-reliefs were interacting and changing over time, resulting in innovative imagery that produced new meanings in localized contexts. This is the first comparative systematic study of the styles of consumption and representation of replicated lamp iconography using statistical methods. As such, the paper contributes a novel methodological approach to Roman sexuality research and also advances our understanding of how Roman replicated sexual imagery came about, how it constructed meaning, and how it was consumed by different communities over time.

The excavation of a palaeochannel at the Vistre de la Fontaine 2-2 archaeological site, 3 km downstream from the ancient city of Nîmes (southeastern France), provided an accumulation sequence covering the last 2,500 years. Trace metal analyses of these alluvial sediments disclosed lead (Pb) contamination during the Early Roman Empire, with concentrations close to 1,000 ppm, a factor of 100 above the local geochemical background. This excess of Pb shows a uniform isotopic signature that may reflect unchanged ore sources, perhaps from the Massif Central or from Great Britain. The Pb peak accompanied visible waste that was transported in the sediments of the Vistre de la Fontaine at the time of the development of the Nîmes urban water supply and drainage network during the Early Roman Empire. This research shows the bimillennial persistence of palaeo-contamination in a peri-urban alluvial plain and the relevance of fluvial sedimentary archives in documenting ancient waste.

A group of 24 bronze finger-rings threaded onto a wire bracelet was unearthed in 2018 at the Roman vicus at Wareswald (the “Forbidden Forest”) in Gallia Belgica. The find is analyzed here alongside evidence for the use, sale, and production of Roman rings. The find represents the work of a local craftsman, active in the first quarter of the 4th c. CE. While the rings were made in a small rural town, they closely imitate expensive global ring forms. The function and meaning of the very common class of trinket rings to which the Wareswald rings belong are considered, along with how these rings were used to make statements about identity, including local and regional affiliations, literacy, marital status, or other social connections. It is suggested that the popularity of many trinket rings lay in their ability to provide a sense of participation in upper-class fashion at a very low price.

This article explores ideas about stable-barracks, which have received much attention in recent provincial Roman archaeology. This renewed attention stems from new discoveries in Romania that prompt a re-evaluation of earlier conclusions. Geomagnetic investigations and subsequent excavations of the fort of the ala I Batavorum milliaria in Războieni-Cetate (Alba County) have shown that, contrary to prevailing opinion, stable-barracks could be considerably larger than similar buildings known from Great Britain and Germany. These findings suggest that a significant reconsideration of the concept of stable-barracks is required, along with an updated discussion about the normal troop strength of alae milliariae in the Roman army.

L'insediamento antico di Nuceriola lungo la via Appia (Benevento, Italia) rappresenta un interessante contesto per lo studio delle forme insediative nel territorio del Sannio. Con un arco di vita che va dal IV sec. a.C. al VI sec. d.C., privo di superfetazioni postantiche, esso è diventato un punto di osservazione privilegiato per il progetto Ancient Appia Landscapes (Università di Salerno), in particolare in rapporto ai temi dell'espansionismo romano di età mediorepubblicana, alle forme insediative del mondo rurale, alla viabilità antica. Nel presente contributo sono presentati i risultati dell'analisi fotointerpretativa effettuata su supporti aerofotografici disponibili o creati ex novo: tali dati, coadiuvati dalle informazioni delle attività di scavo, delle prospezioni geofisiche e delle ricognizioni di superficie, delineano un quadro organico della forma dell'insediamento e consentono di proporre un “disegno” suggestivo in grado di arricchire l'ancora poco ampio panorama di conoscenze riferibili allo studio degli abitati minori di questa parte del Sannio.

Reccopolis was a new city built in Visigothic Spain in the late 6th c. CE. Even rarer than this example of an ex novo urban foundation in the post-Roman West is the fact that the city was equipped with a brand-new aqueduct. The aqueduct has, until now, only been partially studied, but in this paper we update and re-assess the original, preliminary results. We consider the city's whole water cycle, including usage and drainage, employing new engineering calculations and GIS analyses. The results show that the aqueduct was an integral part of the city. Finally, we set our conclusions within their wider context, looking not only at the roles of aqueducts in the ideal of a city at this time, but also at urban water culture in the Late Antique West.

During the 2019 archaeological excavation season in Blaundos, a Roman-period bronze medallion was found within a wall of a Byzantine-period structure on the main street. It is a medallion struck by the Lydian city of Silandos, bearing the bust of Faustina II on the obverse and Marcus Aurelius clasping hands with Lucius Verus on the reverse. A literature search revealed that it is a rare and unpublished specimen. Neither RPC, the largest database of Roman Provincial Coinage, nor auction databases record any example of it. The iconography, combining the portrait of the empress with a depiction of the co-emperors of the period, does not point to any specific event or incident. The reverse die was, however, used for another medallion struck later by Silandos. This paper aims to introduce, interpret, and discuss this unique Lydian medallion from the 2nd c. CE.

New research at the site of Philoxenite in northern Egypt has identified six large building complexes, each based on a modular design. Each building is composed of replicated segments and dates to the 6th c. CE. This approach to design, used at Philoxenite, is not seen elsewhere on such a scale at this date. Nevertheless, modular design was deeply rooted in the construction traditions of the Roman and Early Byzantine periods, when it was used primarily for shops, warehouses, and cisterns. In Philoxenite, it was used to erect a town district that catered to the needs of pilgrims heading from Alexandria to Abū Mīnā, the largest Christian sanctuary at the time.