During the 1968-78 excavations of the Roman vicus (a civilian settlement) next to the fort here at Malton, some ghostly figures appeared in the trenches beneath the settlement. Unexpectedly, these figures were frozen warriors reaching for a sword, caught mid-action, ready to spring into a fight.
Figure 1. A chalk warrior figurine from the Iron Age period. If you look closely, you can see hints of a belt, sword hilt and cut sleeves.
Who Are They?
This dashing figure belongs to a mysterious local tradition of fashioning warrior figures from the chalk of East Yorkshire. Around 40–50 of these figurines survive today. For instance other warriors have been found haunting the soils at the Iron-Age farmstead sites at Garton/Wetwang Slack and Withernsea (Figure 2).
Figure 2. The Witnernsea Chalk Figurine on display in the Hull and East Riding Museum. This little fella is fashioned wearing a hooded cloak, belt and a sword on his back (Izi Travel nd).
Who Made Them?
Our chalk warrior was created during a turbulent century at roughly 100 BC to AD 100, just before the Romans entered the stage with their roads, baths, and bureaucracy.
It is likely that they belong to the Parisi tribe. These guys came from Gaul originally and settled in East Yorkshire (Figure 3).
Figure 3. A map of England highlighting the location of the Parisi Tribe in East Yorkshire (JPB1301 Wiki Commons CC BY-SA 3.0).
This tribe brought with them their stunning metalwork and high status burials (Figure 3). They are said to have had been culturally advanced and helped civilise the Brigantes tribes to their north and west.
Archaeologist Paul Treherne wrote a study called The Warrior’s Beauty – essentially an “Iron Age GQ.” He gives us a tantalising glimpse into the mindset behind the Iron Age ‘craze’ for beauty. He thinks warriors were built physically, mentally, and aesthetically. Muscles? Essential. Posture? Perfected. Groomed? Absolutely. If you wanted to fight well, you had to look like a hero first.
Figure 3. The Parisi were responsible for high status chariot burials like this intact one found in an Iron Age barrow in Pocklington, East Yorkshire (printed with permission from Peter Halkon).
Purpose?
We don’t know for sure what they were actually made for. What do we know? These guys were broken deliberately, others buried or discarded nearby water sources like the Lady Spring.
In the comment section, we would love to know what you all think.
October is Black History month, and ahead of his forthcoming talk at Malton Museum, Dr Simon Elliott FSA has written a guest blog exploring what it meant to be a Roman of African heritage, Race in the Roman Empire, and Septimius Severus’ fascinating life and achievements.
Septimius Severus was the Roman Empire’s African emperor. Born in the blazing heat of a Libyan spring in Leptis Magna in AD 145, his story arc is truly astonishing, ending with his death in the freezing cold of a northern British winter in York in February AD 211. His career is one of superlatives. Ruling at the height of Roman military power, he commanded more legions than any other emperor. Further, under his rule permanent Roman territory was expanded to its greatest extent. Given this martial prowess, I argue in my new full biography that he was the most powerful person ever born in Africa, based purely on military and political agency.
The legions certainly played a key role in his story. Across its vast territory the Roman empire was always at war.
Dr Simon Elliott with a statue of Septimius Severus
Even in times of relative peace, which were few in Severus’ reign, conflict could always be found. He understood this better than most, in his case from the very beginning of his reign when he rose to power at the point of a sword in AD 193, the last man standing in the ‘Year of the Five Emperors’. Severus never forgot his military roots, famously telling his squabbling sons Caracalla and Geta on his deathbed to ‘…be of one mind, enrich the soldiers, and despise the rest.’
African Heritage and Race in the Roman world
Throughout his life Severus stayed true to his African heritage. Dark skinned, he ensured he was portrayed this way in contemporary portraiture. While in his time this was unimportant in what was a largely Mediterranean empire, in our world today it can be.
I address this directly in my new book with the opening chapter, Identity and Race in the Roman World. The facts here are simple. Severus’ father’s line was Punic, so originally Phoenician colonists in North Africa from the Levant. His mother’s line was Italian. Severus seems to have favoured his Punic lineage. For example, even in politest Roman society amid the patricians in the imperial capital, he chose to maintain his strong North African accent. Then, once in power, he swiftly promoted North Africans at every opportunity to key positions of authority.
This is not surprising given, as I have seen in my own frequent research trips across the region, this was the richest part of the empire, with a proud cultural heritage to match anything in Rome, Athens or Alexandria. Severus used his North African upbringing as the template for what I style the Severan reset, this the first major post-Augustan reformation of the Roman world. It established the Severan dynasty which lasted over 40 years. Such was the scale of this reorganization, which some go further and call a hostile takeover, that it was not repeated again until the accession of Diocletian over 90 years after Severus became emperor (see below).
“Not a shy man”
Meanwhile, Severus was not a shy man, monumentalising his rule across the empire at every opportunity. He visited, and fought in, every region.
Arch of Septimius Severus in the forum Romanum, one of several ways Septimius Severus ensured his name was remembered.
When he did, he left a mighty legacy in the built environment. Many of these sites I have visited personally, following in the footsteps of his travels. Intriguingly, given the popular focus on the likes of Julius Caesar, Trajan and Hadrian, this urban Severan legacy often hides in plain sight, with few aware of it. Yet the high-profile examples are many in number.
Think of forum Romanum in Rome where much is Severan, as are many surviving areas of the imperial palace on the Palatine Hill, the monumental Baths of Caracalla (which would have been called the Baths of Severus had he lived to see the enormous bathing complex completed) and the lovely Temple of the Vesta. Elsewhere in Europe, the presence of Severus is writ large from east to west.
Even in far off London, provincial capital of troublesome Britannia, the land wall that still defines the City today is Severan, while in York one can actually stand close to where he perished in the legionary fortress praetorium, now the undercroft of today’s York Minster. Meanwhile, in his native North Africa, every city and town I have visited has a highly visible Severan phase, whether in the soaring snow-capped Atlas Mountains or along the arid Saharan fringe.
Family ties
The story of Severus also features a dramatis personae fit to dazzle any historical epic. Think of Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher emperor, and Commodus, his mad and bad son. Then Publius Helvius Pertinax, the son of a manumitted slave who became Roman emperor and was Severus’ friend and mentor. Next Decimus Clodius Albinus and Pescennius Niger, British and Syrian governors respectively, and Severus’ former brothers in arms in the Marcomannic Wars. Both were destined to fight him tooth and nail for the throne in epic confrontations across the empire. Also Didius Julianus and Flavius Sulpicianus, scandalous bidders for the imperial throne when auctioned by the Praetorian Guard, truly one of the lowest points in imperial Roman history.
Then, last but not least, his own family. Foremost was Julia Domna, his second wife and love of his life. She was a leading figure across the Roman world in her own right, and together they were the power couple of their age. Finally, their two sons, the psychotic Caracalla and unfortunate Geta, destined to live a spiral of bitter rivalry ending in the most sanguineous way within a year of Severus’ death. Here, the former had the latter murdered, he bleeding to death in Julia Domna’s arms.
Sadly that set the tone for the rest of the Severan dynasty. Caracalla himself was assassinated while relieving himself against a tree in AD 217. Macrinus (not a blood relative but a short-term usurper when Praetorian prefect) was then executed, Heliogabalus assassinated with his mother, and finally Severus Alexander also assassinated with his mother. Such was the grim end for the dynasty of which Septimius Severus was very much the high point.
What followed was the ‘Crisis of the 3rd Century’ when the empire almost imploded under the weight of numerous civil wars, usurpations, foreign invasion and plague. It then took another strong man emperor to drag the Roman world kicking and screaming back from the brink, this Diocletian who acceded to the throne (again at the point of a sword) in AD 284. I feel sure Severus himself would have greatly approved.
August’s Object of the Month was chosen by Norton College student Alfie Cottrell, who recently did work experience at Malton Museum.
Flint Jack- The Greatest Impostor of the Era
Flint Jack was an alias for an infamous forger named Edward Simpson born in 1815. He was renowned for his forgery of Roman artefacts along with other relics and fossils due to how difficult it was to tell the difference between the real objects and his forgeries, beginning this work around 1843. He collected several aliases in his time such as ‘Bones’ in Whitby, ‘Shirtless’ in the Eastern counties, ‘Fossil Willy’ on the Yorkshire Coast, and finally’ the Old Antiquarian’ in Wiltshire and Dorset but universally was named Flint Jack.
Malton Museum displays several of his forgeries alongside genuine flints – you can see how similar his forgeries were to the real artefacts. Some artefacts were more believable than others, such as the arrow heads he forged which were wildly popular at the time with them being one of his first successful forgeries. Flint Jack forged a wide variety of artefacts including a Roman chest plate, pottery, tools and arrow heads with success.
Flint Jack is a fascinating figure as his main motivation was found when he successfully recreated a barbed arrowhead he had been shown. He took joy in working his forgeries and earned a pretty penny whilst doing it. His success is evident from the wide range of customers he had, including various prominent museums in England who believed that they were real artefacts.
Flint Jack eventually found a vice, drinking. There are several accounts of people seeing Jack drunk around town. In 1864, Jack is quoted as saying “In this year, I took to drinking; the worst job yet. Till then, I was always possessed of five pounds. I have since been in utter poverty, and frequently in great misery and want.”
A 1935 newspaper article mentioning the fake flints.
Flint Jack regularly travelled from place to place where he often changed his forgeries in each area picking up the forging of fossils in Newark which he sold to the only geologist in the area. Jack often read about local history to help make his lies more believable. He did still find and sell genuine artefacts and fossils with a period of just selling genuine fossils until he came across more flint and couldn’t resist the temptation and began making forgeries.
In 1859 Jack was invited by Mr Tennant to address a meeting. Tennant knew Flint Jack was making forgeries and persuaded him to share his techniques. This knowledge quickly spread through England causing many to become suspicious of their collections and by 1861 his occupation as a deceiver was practically over. Few were willing to buy from him as many had heard of his exploits and his duplicates. He then began a second career advising people on whether their collections contained fakes.
Flint Jack was an interesting figure who always strived to learn and still had a passion for finding artefacts and fossils but fell to his vices of forgery and drink ending up in prison on several occasions for forgery and later on theft last being seen after an appearance before the Malton Magistrates in February 1874. He is believed to have died not long after this court appearance.
I personally find Flint Jack interesting due to his exploits and the similarity I have with him, we both share an interest archaeology, fossils and the past and we both strive to learn as much as we can, and he’s more interesting as he revealed his lies surrounding his forgeries making him a very popular figure in the era.
Many people owned or suspected that they owned forgeries and some didn’t even know they had a forgery because he was that skilled, not even museums could tell the difference between real and fake artefacts.
Flint Jack’s displays of forgeries were displayed when Malton Museum first opened in 1935. The flints are on display once more alongside genuine artefacts as part of Malton Museum’s 90th anniversary celebrations. For information about visiting Malton Museum, including our opening times, please click our Visit Us section.
Malton Museum has been open for 90 years and we are fundraising for a new home. If you have enjoyed this article and want to help us, please donate to our new museum kickstarter.
Malton Museum celebrates its 90th birthday this year. Much of our archaeological collection comes from excavations undertaken at the site of Malton Roman Fort, Langton Villa and Crambeck in the 1920s and early 1930s, but local people had been interested in the history of the area long before that.
It is known that an inscribed Roman stone from Malton was shown at the Royal Society in London in 1755, and by the 1880s, Malton Field Naturalists and Scientific Society was established. They collected fossils, geological and natural history specimens, along with some archaeological items. A small selection of these were displayed in cases in part of the Subscription Rooms. Much of their collection was given to Hull Museum in 1932; but the archaeological objects they had acquired became part of the new ‘Roman Malton Museum’, opened in 1935.
One such artefact is this patera found in Malton. Trajan’s column in Rome depicts soldiers carrying these objects, thought to be their mess tins or saucepans. Made in Italy, of copper alloy, it has its maker’s name – Alpicus – punched into it. What makes it even more special is that it also has a second name – Lucius Servenius Super- believed to have been its owner, punched into the handle.
A rare survival
It’s quite rare to know the name of an individual Roman soldier.
The paterna bears the name of its maker but also its owner
Where did Lucius come from? How long was he stationed in Malton and how did his pan come to be left here? Did most soldiers put their name on their kit in the way that we might label our belongings today?
There’s lots we don’t know about the patera, but we recently discovered more about how it came to be part of our collection.
Records show that it was donated to Malton Naturalists Society by William I’Anson, a racehorse trainer who lived at Highfield in Norton. From newspaper reports we know that he purchased it at an auction of local antiquarian George Edson’s private collection in May 1891.
George Edson came by the patera in an interesting manner. It was uncovered in 1877/8 by workmen at Malton Gas Works. Knowing that he was a collector of such items, the workmen visited Edson’s home one Sunday evening, agreeing to sell it to him for the price of half a gallon (4 pints) of ale, a cost of around one Bidding at the auction was competitive and so William I’Anson paid substantially more for Mr Edson’s one shilling purchase; a hammer price of £5 15 shillings! We are very grateful for his foresight and generosity which means we still have this important and fascinating object in our collection today.
Face pots are among the most intriguing, yet least understood, forms of Roman pottery. Prior to Gillian Braithwaite’s 1984 and 2007 research, they had received little attention. Face pot sherds are not in themselves uncommon, but there are relatively few surviving complete pots. As with most surviving Roman pottery, they are usually discovered at burial sites. Not all cultures produced them, and even then not throughout all periods; although the idea of anthropomorphic pottery is thought to be as old as pottery itself. Roman face pots are usually categorised as belonging to one of three groups: head pots, face pots or face flagons.
Mediterranean origins
A replica face pot from Malton Museum’s handling collection
Roman face pots originated in the Mediterranean area as face beakers. These were the size of drinking vessels with the face ‘mask’ itself covering much of the pot surface. As the empire expanded, face beakers travelled north with the armies, eventually merging with the larger iron-age face-urn and face-jar traditions of the Rhineland where the face is situated on the upper shoulder area of the pot just below the rim.
The facial features were applied to a traditional cooking pot or storage vessel. Faces were rarely painted directly onto the pot itself; although Malton Museum does have a face pot sherd where this is the case. Gillian Braithwaite suggests a painted face on a vessel of this size is unique.
The Roman face pot arrived in Britain with the legions during the first half of the 1st century and continued into the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Face pots maintained a strong military connection throughout their usage. Consequently, Roman face pots are generally found in the footsteps of the army and are associated with the eastern and northern regions of Britain. If found elsewhere they can usually be traced to an original army presence.
Roman Head Pots
A painted face pot
Like the face pot, the head pot is generally found in eastern and northern locations where the Roman military were present. Arriving in Roman Britain around the 3rd century, head pots share some clear similarities with the face pot, it also exhibits a number of differences.
Whereas the face pot is generally a domestic vessel with facial features applied to, or carved into it, the head pot took the deliberate form of a human head with the features formed from the pot fabric itself; often pushed through from inside the pot using exterior moulds. These facial features tend to be more realistic and classical, closer to the style of earlier Greek pottery. As the head pot evolved in Roman Britain its features took on the less classical appearance of the face pot. In fact Braithwaite refers to what might be called hybrid pots where the face ‘mask’ itself is formed in the manner of a head pot, but using vessels that are closer to those of face jars.
In the Yorkshire area Braithwaite suggests this hybrid form, with its almond-shaped eyes, became halfway between a face pot and a degenerate copy of a head pot and subsequently could be described as either.
Roman face flagons
Roman face flagon
The face flagon emerged at around the same time as the head pot but, like the face pot, was a conventional vessel (in this case a flagon, with or without handles)
with a complete face ‘mask’ added. The face mask itself is usually taken from a mould and applied to the upper neck, often raised above the rim of the vessel itself. The face is almost always female. Perhaps, in the view of some researchers, connected to female divinities such as Venus and emphasising the aspects of fertility and birth.
Whose faces are they and what were the face pots used for?
It is unusual for Roman pottery to be modelled by hand, as is the case with face pots, although the potter seems not to have been free to randomly create an image of their own choosing, but rather to have followed a stylised and schematic tradition. Pottery-kiln researcher Vivien Swan suggests some form of pattern book might even have been used.
It is generally accepted that Face Pots and Face Beakers, with their strong military connections, have a religious significance and are references to Bacchus; although the sheer variety of faces seems to rule out an attempt to portray any one particular deity. The fact that as many as 50% of finds in some areas are related to burials reinforces the religious connection, but even where domestic finds outnumber those in religious buildings it should be remembered that in Roman society houses, and even some individual rooms, had their own shrines.
Braithwaite suggests that as the head pot and face pot developed separately, with the head pot found less frequently in domestic contexts, the two probably had different uses and served different purposes. The face flagon may have a different use yet again. It may be too simplistic to assume that because pots share the portrayal of facial features they must have a similar use or meaning.
Connections to smith gods – deities of metal-working
The face pots’ religious connection is supported by discoveries of face pots bearing symbolism linking them to smith gods. In common with most ancient cultures the Romans honoured a deity of metal-working – a smith god. Some Roman pottery carried representations of metal-working tools (such as hammers, anvils or tongs). The Romans were usually quite prepared for their gods to be assimilated with local deities, in this case the Celtic smith god with the Roman god Vulcan. In the Malton area particularly, pottery was made with both face ‘masks’ and representations of smiths tools applied to them. The practice of votive presentations to gods in this way, especially when appearing on the same pot, re-enforces the religious significance of face pots.
Any attempted explanation of the identity of the face pot faces, or their intended purpose, remains an educated conjecture. Unless there is a discovery of further evidence we may never know for certain; but, in the words of Gillian Braithwaite, ‘maybe one day’.
If you have enjoyed reading this blog, why not support the museum by making a donation? Donating allows us to care for our collections, find new ways to share them with the public and to keep opening Malton Museum.
As we work towards funding and developing this site, we are keen to hear your thoughts on what a new museum should include. We have put together an online consultation with questions about the facilities, content and spaces a museum should have.
You can also drop into the museum and fill out a paper version in normal opening hours (Thursday – Saturday, 10:30 – 3:30) or come and talk to us at a number of events.
Malton Open Stables, Sunday 8 September
Malton Food Run, Sunday 15 September
Malton Library October half term dates TBC
St Clement’s Festival, Malton, Saturday 23 November
The consultation will remain open until the end of December 2024 and we are keen to hear from as many people as possible.
The Roman Theatre of Petuaria has so far been difficult to find, however according to The Petuaria Inscription it did exsist, and this stone was found on Burrs Playing Field in Brough, East Yorkshire.
Ptolemy, the 2nd century Roman geographer was the first writer to mention the town of Petuaria. He located it within the territory of the Parisi tribe – modern East Yorkshire.
The subsequent association of Petuaria with Brough-on Humber rests largely on an inscription unearthed in 1937 on the Burrs Playing Field. According to the excavator it was found ‘lying on end, as if it had fallen from a building when it collapsed, and showed no signs of having been re-used‘. This carved stone – that can be viewed in the Hull Museum – is illustrated in Figures 1 below and 2 above.
Figure 1: The Petuaria Theatre Inscription
Parts of the inscription are damaged but, it is suggested that the full Latin text (with the addition of missing elements in square brackets) was as follows.
OB.HONOR[EM]
DOMVS DIVI[NAE]
IMP.CAES.T.AEL.H[ADRI]
ANI.ANT[O]NINI A[VG]
P. P. COS [ ? II or III]
ET.NVMINIB.A[VG]
M.VLP.IANVAR[I]V[S]
AEDILIS.VICI.PETV[AR]
PROSCAEN [ ̣ ̣ ̣]
DE.[S]VO [DEDIT]
The Translation is:
For the honour of the divine house of the Emperor Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus, father of his country, consul for the ?2nd/3rd time, and to the Divinities of the Emperors, Marcus Ulpius Januarius, aedile of the village of Petuaria, presented this stage at his own expense
Roman inscriptions have many characteristics in common. A typical form commences with the name of the person or persons to whom the dedication is made in addition to relevant details about them. Following this information is often provided explaining why the inscription was set up and by whom.
The Brough stone indicates that the inscription was dedicated to the Emperor Antonius Pius (138-161) providing his full name – IMP. CAES. T. AEL HADRI-ANI. ANTONINI. The letters AVG (Augustus), P.P (Patris Patriae – Father of his Country) and COS (Consul) furnish further details about the Emperor`s titles and honours acquired over the years and are very helpful in dating such inscriptions (in this case to between AD 140 and AD 144). The dedication was also made `ET NVMINIB AVG` – to the sprits of such former emperors as have been judged worthy of deification and memory.
The inscription then goes on to explain that a stage (proscaenium) was given by Marcus Ulpius Januarius at his own expense (de suo). There seems to be a missing word after PROSCAEN, and it is suggested that this could have been NOVUM (new) – in other words a new stage implying a replacement for something earlier.
Marcus Ulpius Januarius was a Roman citizen as indicated by the three elements of his name – a praenomen (Marcus), a nomen (Ulpius) and a cognomen (Januarius). He would have been given the name Marcus at nine days old and this, together with the `clan name` or nomen, Ulpius, shows that his family had first been granted citizenship under the Emperor Trajan (AD 98- 117; full name Emperor Marcus Ulpius Trajanus). Cognomens -such as Januarius – were originally a sort of family `nickname` passing down from father to son but, over time, they were used to augment the nomen, to identify a particular branch within a family or a clan.
On the inscription Marcus Ulpius Januarius is described as an aedile – or magistrate – for the vici (village) of Petuaria. In this position he would have been concerned with the maintenance of public buildings and amenities such as roads, drains and baths in addition to public order. It was a significant role that seems more important than would be expected for an official in a mere `village`. With this in mind it is suggested that the `C` in the left hand pelta of the inscription is not simply decorative but stands for `Civitas` with a missing `P` on the right side for `Parisiorum`. Marcus`s responsibilities might have extended beyond Petuaria covering the rest of the territory of the Romanised Parisi tribe too and even as far as Malton.
Figure 3: 2018 GPR survey of Burrs Playing Field, Brough
Today the key challenge remains finding any archaeological evidence for the theatre that Marcus supported back in the second century. Considerable excitement was generated by a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey undertaken in 2018 showing a D-shaped feature (marked G on Figure 3) within the same field that had produced the inscription. But, after two summers of excavations over the `D`, the theatre remains elusive albeit with some intriguing finds including an oyster shell adorned a chequer board and diamond pattern (Figure 4). Perhaps further work over the next few years – in Brough and the surrounding area – might finally solve the mystery of the missing theatre.
Between 1949 and 1952 a series of excavations were undertaken in the southern area of Orchard Field. A key discovery by the archaeologists was a substantial building termed – at the time – the Malton ‘Town House’.
This structure stood at the edge of a cobbled area 7.5 metres from the road leading out from the main south-east gate of Malton fort (Porta Praetoria) down towards the river. The imposing façade of the building facing the road was constructed from large, shaped blocks of locally quarried stone.
A 1.8-metre-wide doorway – most likely with a porch – led into an enormous hall (15 metres by 7 metres) with a mortar floor. At the northeast end of this hall were three heated rooms with hypocausts. The largest of these contained a beautiful mosaic and the entrance was probably adorned with carved lintels in the form of winged victories. An archway would have connected the mosaic room to a very fine end-apsidal room furnished with an opus signinum floor.
Figure 1 – Opus signinum flooring
The word `opus` (Latin for `work`) is attached to various types of floor or wall coverings. Opus signinum is made of tiles broken up into very small pieces, mixed with mortar, and then beaten down with a rammer (Figure 1). Opus tessellatum refers to the normal technique of mosaicing, using pieces of stone or tile (tesserae) around 5mm to 10mm across.
Figure 2 – Town House Mosaic
The overall mosaic design within the Town House comprised three fields: a central square flanked by rectangles. Originally the two oblongs would have illustrated the four seasons with an animal between each pair of figures. But only the panel of winter, a running hunting dog and a partially destroyed image of a leaping deer remain. A twisting pattern of multicoloured strands (guilloche) also surrounds the central square, the rectangles and the end panel illustrations (Figure 2).
The Town House mosaic has been described as well executed with artistic merit. Illustrating animals or faces were particular challenges requiring smaller tesserae (typically cubes of 4mm or less) and much greater technical skill to place or to shape pieces. Opus vermiculatum (meaning `worm-like work`) is a method of laying mosaic tesserae to emphasise an outline around a natural subject. Often it was produced in workshops in relatively small panels that were transported to the site glued to some temporary support.
Figure 3 – Beadlam Villa Mosaic
An intriguing feature about the Town House mosaic are the similarities of design between this mosaic and other nearby examples found within the villas unearthed at Beadlam and Brantingham (Figures 3 and 4). Every Roman mosaic is unique but, in common with Malton, the two villa mosaics utilise the same overall geometric design with end rectangular panels and a central square. They make liberal use of a multicoloured guilloche pattern too.
Figure 4 – Brantingham Villa mosaic
It has been suggested that mosaicists – musivarii – worked at various locations within specific geographical areas perhaps associated with mosaic schools (officina). A musivarus supervising the laying of the laying of a mosaic may have been executing schemes adapted by a designer from a pattern book. The stylistic similarities of the mosaics from Malton, Beadlam and Brantingham have been linked to an officina based in the Brough/Aldborough region (the Isurian- Petuarian Officina).
Figure 5 – Portrait of a female figure
The walls of the mosaic room in the Town House at Malton had also been re-plastered and re-painted at least three times. The surviving impressionistic portrait of a female figure with brown hair, dark eyes looking to the left and a distinct white nimbus surrounding the head is stunning (Figure 5). An image of a bearded male with a stave, possibly Jupiter, is surrounded by a rich red border (Figure 6).
Figure 6 – Portrait of Jupiter
According to Diocletian’s price edict of AD 302 a wall painter was paid three times more than a mosaic worker. Also, the costly cinnabar used for the red pigment in the Malton paintings would have been brought in especially by the owner of the Town House for the artist – probably from Spain.
Thirty miles west of Malton is the small village of Aldborough. Nowadays few people will stop off as they race north along the A1 but, eighteen hundred years ago, this was the site of the important Roman town of Isurium Brigantum.
Isurium Brigantum was located at a key intersection between the Roman road of Dere street with the River Ure and was probably founded at the time of the Roman campaigns into Brigantia by Petillius Cerialis (see our Petillius Cerialis post). The Roman road leading out from the South-West gate of Malton fort (Porta Principalis Dextra) would have afforded direct connections to both York and Aldborough.
Figure 1 The town wall
Traditionally it had been thought that Isurium was first constructed as a fort before becoming the administrative centre for the Romanised Brigantes. However recent work by Martin Millett and Rose Ferraby (University of Cambridge) is challenging this view.
Figure 2 Interval tower
It now seems more likely that the Isurium started life as a smaller civilian settlement that initially prospered through supporting the early military campaigns across Yorkshire. Undoubtedly there would have been a close relationship with the nearby Roman fort at Roecliffe, but Isurium also served as an important location for those seeking accommodation, provisions or repairs as they headed further north.
Figure 3: Corner tower
The Roman fort at Vindolanda (just south of Hadrian`s Wall) is renowned for the discovery of hundreds of postcard-sized wooden-leaf tablets covered in cursive Latin ink writing. They are a rich source of information about life on the northern frontier of Roman Britain during the late 1st century and one of them specifically mentions Isurium. This tablet itemises expenses for food, wine, grain, clothing, accommodation and carriage parts (axes carrarios).
Figure 5 Column bases
Subsequently, as Hadrian`s Wall was being built, Isurium developed into a planned civilian town with a street grid, becoming the official centre of the Brigantes tribe (termed a civitates). In common with other civitates – such as Wroxeter, Leicester, Silchester, Cirencester and Caerwent – several public buildings were constructed including a forum, basilica and bathhouse in addition to some grand private houses and possible temples. Like Silchester and Cirencester, Aldborough boasted sewers and an amphitheatre too. By the late second century the town was also surrounded by stone walls incorporating four principal gateways.
Today there is still much to see of Roman Aldborough including walls, mosaics and numerous finds. It is best to start a tour at the newly refurbished museum before exploring the southern stretch of defences, incorporating an interval tower and a corner tower (Figures 1, 2 and 3). The walls were constructed using sandstone blocks taken from the neighbouring quarries that can still be seen – probably the best-preserved Roman quarries within Great Britain (Figure 4).
Mosaic in situ
Beyond the quarries a short walking route turns north following a Victorian promenade along the line of the Roman wall and beside a developing Roman garden feature. One of the particular delights of exploring Aldborough is coming across various architectural remenants lying around such as column bases and altars, presumably from grand public or private buildings (Figure 5). Evidence for the splendour of the Roman town houses is also provided by the mosaics housed in two small buildings in a nearby field (Figure 6). Another mosaic from Aldborough representing the wolf and twins can be viewed in Leeds City Museum.
The Roman god Mercury
Before leaving Aldborough it is worth popping into the Church of St Andrew to examine the statue of the Roman god Mercury on the north-west wall that probably came from a nearby temple (Figure 7). The earth banks of the amphitheatre – one of the largest in Britain – can also be seen across the fields to the left as you head out of the village along the York Road.
Three hundred years ago it was suggested that a Roman road – Wade’s Causeway – ran from Amotherby over the Vale of Pickering and the North Yorkshire Moors towards the coast. There is also a long-held view that this military way traversed Fort D at Cawthorn and then descended from the escarpment, on which the Roman earthworks sit, to the valley of the Sutherland beck
In 1817 Rev. George Young, a local pastor wrote a ten-page description of Wade’s Causeway in his ‘History of Whitby‘ clearly describing the onward route between Cawthorn and the Roman Fort at Lease Rigg. But he also commented how ‘it is almost enough to break the heart of an antiquary, to see a monument that has withstood the ravages of time for sixteen centuries wantonly destroyed‘ to build banks or to repair ‘contemptible by-roads‘.
Figure 1 – view of the possible Roman road crossing Wheeldale Moor
Nowadays a surviving one-mile stretch of this structure can easily be followed across Wheeldale Moor. It consists of flagstones seated on a cambered base of soil, clay, peat, gravel and loose pebbles forming a raised embankment varying between 5.4 and 6.7 metres wide. It is also crossed by a dozen small culverts and, in some parts, edged with kerbstones of upright slabs (Figure 1).
But is it really Roman? Some archaeologists have suggested that it could be a medieval road or a more ancient boundary feature. Aside from some pottery no Roman objects have been found on or near the structure across Wheeldale Moor. Also, a stone burial cist set into one side of the monument most likely pre-dates the Roman occupation (Figure 2).
Figure 2 – stone burial cist alongside Wade’s Causeway
Others have expressed concerns that it might have been ‘Romanised’ and ‘re-constructed’ by a local gamekeeper, James Patterson, who removed the peat thereby revealing the stones at the beginning of the last century. However, a careful assessment of Wade’s Causeway by Hayes and Rutter in 1964 concluded that it was a Roman road based on the following key findings:
Figure 3 – sandstone slabs forming part of Wade’s Causeway
The raised and cambered embankment (agger), providing a well-drained road foundation
The substantial layer of rough sandstone slabs (Figure 3)
The kerbstones (Figure 4)
The evidence of a surface layer of gravel
Figure 4 – The kerbstones edging Wade’s Causeway
Also, a century before James Patterson’s work, Rev. George Young wrote that ‘the foundation is usually a stratum of gravel or rubbish, over which is a strong pavement of stones, placed with their flattest side uppermost, and above these another stratum of gravel or earth to fill up the interstices, and smooth the surface. To keep the road dry, the middle part has been made higher than the sides; and, to prevent the sides from giving way, they are secured by a border of flat stones placed edgewise’.
Admittedly some of the culverts crossing the road appear modern as do the ditches running alongside (Figure 5). There are also occasional ‘gaps’ where the structure crosses several streams but, perhaps, the gently rising banks at such locations originally bore wooden bridges (Figure 6).
Figure 5 – Culvert on Wade’s Causeway
Finally, if the monument on Wheeldale Moor is, indeed, Roman then was it constructed as a component of the early military campaigns across the North and/or to facilitate troop movements between Malton Fort and the coastal fortlets in the fourth century? There is no clear answer to this, and it has even been suggested that it was used by jet traders too.
Figure 6 – Suggested location for a wooden bridge on Wade’s Causeway
Wade’s Causeway is an intriguing monument and considerable controversy still shrouds its origin and purpose. Local legend also tells of a giant named Wade who once lived in the area. He is said to have built the road for his wife, Bell, to herd her sheep along en route to the moorland pastures or to market.
She was a leading figure across the Roman world in her own right, and together they were the power couple of their age. Finally, their two sons, the psychotic Caracalla and unfortunate Geta, destined to live a spiral of bitter rivalry ending in the most sanguineous way within a year of Severus’ death. Here, the former had the latter murdered, he bleeding to death in Julia Domna’s arms. 
