Concepedia

Abstract

THE purpose of this paper is to bring together, describe and assess the significance of the 40 or so miniature items occurring, for the most part, in or near military installations in Roman Britain and other sites in the North. The compilation of this material was undertaken with the aid of a grant from the British Academy in 1977–1978; the work has entailed visits to about 15 museums mainly in the Hadrian's Wall region, whence the bulk of the evidence has come. I have elsewhere discussed the model items occurring in what may loosely be described as the civilian areas of south-east Britain, where I have attempted to demonstrate their essentially ritual significance (I use the term ‘civilian’ purely in a geographical sense). That study covered an area bounded in the north and west by the Fosse Way, but excluded Richborough as an essentially non-civilian installation. The present survey involves the remainder of the British Isles and includes Richborough.