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Colchester Archaeological Report 4

During the 1970s Colchester saw town-centre redevelopment on an unprecedented scale, involving the destruction of substantial parts of the buried remains of the Roman and medieval town. Excavations took place continuously throughout the decade in an effort to record as much as possible of the threatened archaeology. In all some hundred buildings ranging in date from those of the early Roman fortress to the post-medieval period were excavated, as well as many other significant features, including over seven hundred Roman graves and the defences of the Roman fortress and colony, and of the medieval town.

Colchester Archaeological Report 4, edited by Nina Crummy, presents the coins as dating evidence to back up the site structural reports, and goes beyond this primary view to examine groups of coins within the collection in search of information about the coins themselves. Increased awareness in recent years of the large number of irregular coins in Romano-British assemblages has produced a drift to specialisation, and in consequence this report concentrates on studying three major groups of Roman irregular coinage, with important results. In particular, specialist examination of the imitations of the aes of Claudius 1 from Colchester indicates that the Roman military fortress and the new colony which succeeded it were minting centres in the early years of the Roman occupation of Britain, as the Sheepen area of Camulodunum had been under Cunobelin.

The volume is in two parts: a book and microfiche. The book contains the site background to the coins, the specialist contributions, and two catalogues, the first listing the coins directly associated with excavated buildings and other significant structures or features, the second listing by site all the coins by their brief numismatic identification. On microfiche is a similar catalogue of the Roman coins in the Colchester and Essex Museum, and a full catalogue of the excavated coins, giving the maximum site and numismatic evidence for each.

Contributors to the volume include Marion Archibald (medieval coins), Justine Bayley (analysis of the Claudian copies), Philip Crummy (the coins as dating evidence), John A Davies (barbarous radiates), Roger Goodburn (Celtic coins), Michael Hammerson (Constantinian copies), Robert Kenyon (Claudian copies), Richard Reece (Roman coins in general), and Martin Winter (the coins in the Colchester and Essex Museum).

Publication of the report was made possible by a generous grant from English Heritage.

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