Artefacts in Roman Britain : Their Purpose and Use

Lively introduction to the artefacts from Roman Britain according to the purposes for which they were made. It helps the student and general reader understand how to identify them and how to use them to understand the province of Britannia as an active manufacturing and trading centre.

Roman Britain has given us an enormous number of artefacts. Yet few books available today deal with its whole material culture as represented by these artefacts. This introduction, aimed primarily at students and general readers, begins by explaining the process of identifying objects of any period or material. A series of themed chapters, written by experts in their particular area of interest, then discusses artefacts from the point of view of their use. The contributors' premise is that every object was designed for a particular purpose, which may have been to satisfy a general need or the specific need of an individual. If the latter, the maker, the owner and the end user may have been one and the same person; if the former, the manufacturer had to provide objects that others would wish to purchase or exchange. Understanding this reveals a fascinating picture of life in Roman Britain.