Part one Romanisation and - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Part one

Romanisation and

Aquae

SulisSlide2

What is ‘

Romanisation’?

How did the Romans achieve ‘Romanisation’?How did they make the native Iron Age people want to be like Romans?How did they let the Iron Age people keep some of their own culture and combine it with Roman culture?

How did ‘Romano British’ religion develop as a specific version of Roman religion?What characteristics of Roman and late Iron Age religion made this fusion possible?How did Romanisation enable the Romans to unify multicultural societies throughout their Empire?Slide3

This reconstruction drawing shows what the Roman town looked like, with all the usual features inside a town wall: forum, theatre, temples, baths … instead of the Iron Age roundhouses which the

native people had been used to.Just imagine all the new skills which British workmen would learn from the experts brought in from the Empire:

BathAquae

SulisSlide4

Stone: quarrying, carving. We know the names of two stonemasons in

Aquae Sulis!Bricks and tiles: firing and new building techniques

Concrete: for domes, vaults and arches.Lead: mining, pipe-making, sealing the linings of baths.Metalwork:

for e.g. keys, locks, weights and measures.Pewter, leather, pottery, glassware.Plaster, stucco: for wall decoration.Hypocaust

: underfloor hot-air central heating.Mosaics: making tesserae, artistic designs.

The museum has more evidence of individuals and the way they worked in Roman Bath - examples of makers’ marks,

slots for

lifting blocks of stone, plasterwork roughened to take a top decorative finish, a piece of pottery with a name scratched on it

MARTINI

=

“Belonging to

Martinus

”

Did

Martinus

scratch his name on this dish to show that it belonged to him?

- and even a possible reminder of a guard-dog: paw-prints preserved in clay!Slide5

This assumes that the Iron Age people of Britain had none of these industries of their own, and that there was a desire for town life, with its accompanying social structures and Town Council, replacing old tribal loyalties

.This was not the case. British people had been making pottery and mining and exporting metals for centuries – it was one of the reasons the Romans invaded – and their metalworking was renowned for its finery. Many of the tribal leaders of Britain were given positions of power over their regions and tribes within the new Roman province. However, throughout

their Empire the Romans encouraged Romanisation, so that wherever a traveller went in the Roman world he would find exactly similar cities with the same buildings and an inclusive ‘

Romanised’ culture.Slide6

The special thing about Aquae Sulis

is that three springs of hot water bubbles up near the river. The Iron Age peoples of the area believed it to have healing powers as a gift form the gods. So did the Romans.

BUT Iron Age religion was not the same as Roman religion.How did the Romans build their temple without offending the local Iron Age people who worshipped a goddess called Sulis

? Slide7

The Romans recognised that Sulis

was very similar to their goddess Minerva. They decided to join the two together – Sulis Minerva.The Roman name for the town: ‘Waters of

Sulis’ acknowledges the Iron Age tradition.Roman Bath

Aquae Sulis

Look at the Temple and Baths in the centre of the town.Slide8

The sacred spring is in the corner of the temple

precinct. It is also linked to the baths complex on the right so that the hot water could be used in the Roman

bathing experience.Slide9

A typical Roman temple, raised up on a podium with an imposing flight of steps. The sacrificial altar

was in front of the temple and there was a large statue of the goddess inside the temple, where only priests were permitted to go.

At some temples, including the one at Aquae Sulis, a Haruspex

examined the organs of sacrificed animals and used them to interpret the wishes of the gods and prophesy the future.Slide10

The Iron Age people did not have temples, but they did have sacred places.

They left the sacred spring as it was and just met there to give offerings to its goddess.

Archaeological remains suggest a causeway leading into the spring.A typical Iron Age temple.Slide11

Minerva

: Roman goddess of war, wisdom and the arts. The Romans had already adapted Greek mythology and religion to suit their own gods and goddesses: Minerva was the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Athena. In

Aquae Sulis they joined the Roman goddess Minerva to the Iron Age goddess Sulis – to get Sulis

Minerva.You can see the Gorgon, Medusa’s snaky-haired head on Minerva’s breast-plate on this

stone carving

Notice the owl sitting on Minerva’s shield.

‘Relief’ carving like this is typically Roman: not quite 3-D but raised from a flat background.Slide12

This gilt-bronze head is all that is left of a (slightly larger than) life-sized statue which stood

in the temple.It is very good quality – a statue in the Classical style. Small rivet-holes hidden in the hair show where her helmet would have been attached.Slide13

Several late Iron Age coins have been excavated from the Spring. This would support the ideas that Iron Age people worshipped here.They may have

worshipped a water-god.They sometimes worshipped carved heads and the spirits of animals and places.

Decoration of a water god on a silver dish from

Mildenhall – notice his striking moustache and the four dolphins in his hair

. (British Museum)

Carving of

three mother goddesses is made in a low relief non Classical style.

But what about Iron Age religion?Slide14

The goddess worshipped at Bath was

Sulis Minerva

.Here are some ‘paterae’ –dishes thrown into the spring as offerings

for the goddess.You can see her name in abbreviated form (Dea

Sul Min or DSM) carved on the handles.

In Latin to express ‘for the goddess’ the dative case is used. The spelling of the goddess’s name changes to show this.

deae

Suli

Minervae

=

for

the goddess

Sulis

Minerva. Slide15

Can you read the name on the first three lines of this inscription?Some of the letters are written backwards, ‘I’ is often carved superscript

, and there are many ligatures (joined letters). DEA SULIS MINERVAIn Latin to express ‘To the goddess ‘ the dative case is used. The ending of the words

change to show this. deae Suli

Minervae = ‘To the goddess Sulis Minerva’.

Here is a votive altar dedicated as a gift to

Sulis

Minerva

by

Sulinus

.Slide16

To the goddess Sulis Minerva,Sulinus

, Son of Maturus( FILius

) V S L M is short for:VOTUM SOLVIT LIBENTER MERITO

willingly and deservedly kept the promise he had made (i.e. to give this offering to the goddess)

Sulinus

had

completed a promise he previously made to do something – but we don’t know what it was.Slide17

The second line of this stone gives us the name of a Roman haruspex at the temple – using ligatures! (This is the technical term for joined letters).

The inscription reveals that the stone was set up by L. Marcius Memor, a haruspex, who was a special kind of priest for whom no other parallel is known from Roman Britain.

It was dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva and is likely to have supported a statue of her.

D D is a formulaic inscription: ‘

dono

dedit

’ = gave this as a gift.Slide18

The name of the harupsex:

LUCIUS MARCIUS MEMOR The asymetrical positioning of ‘HARVSP’ suggests that ‘VSP’ was added later, possibly to make it clearer that it referred to a Haruspex.Slide19

It is interesting to see that a senior representative of Roman religion calls the goddess

Sulis

rather than ‘Sulis Minerva’ or even

‘Minerva’: her Roman name. Slide20

Gods were asked to punish their worshippers’ enemies.

This lead alloy curse tablet is requesting Sulis to ‘make as liquid as

water’ whoever has stolen ‘my vilbia’. This curse tablet was thrown into the Sacred Spring.‘

vilbia’ is an unusual word and no-one is quite sure what it means!Each word is written in reverse order:[I]UQ IHIM MAIBLIV TIVALO[

V]NIQUI MIHI VILBIAM INVOLAVIT

whoever has stolen my

vilbia

One of the other curses from the Sacred Spring is written in the Celtic language and it is the only surviving example yet known to us of Celtic in written form.Slide21

Just like today – people threw coins into the Spring!Other objects are more puzzling, such as the tin

mask. Does it have some significance in Iron Age or Roman religion or is it just a precious gift?

Objects thrown into the Sacred Spring as offerings.Slide22

This

pedimental sculpture on the front of the Temple would have been painted in bright colours.

We should expect all the features to be very symbolic. What

does the central roundel show? Slide23

Male

or female?Snakes?Wings

?Water god?Gorgon?Slide24
Slide25

Temple Pediment at Aquae Sulis

- Which features are Roman and which are Iron Age? Try this without looking

back at references, discuss your ideas and then look back for more clues. Explain carefully what the different features represent and if you think that some are ambiguous or a mixture, explain why. Even archaeologists do not know all the answers!