Iconoclasm in Roman Chester: The significance of the mutilated tombstones from the north wall

Journal of the British Archeological Association

Volumn 157, Issue , 2004, Pages 1-16

  Clay, Cheryl ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 60950317094     PISSN: 00681288     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1179/jba.2004.157.1.1     Document Type: Article

References (92)

1. M. I. Jones, 'Official report on the discoveries of Roman remains at Chester, during the first repairs of the north wall', Journal of Chester Archaeological Society, 2 (1888), 1-10.
2. The stones on the western half were found in 'most of the north wall west of Northgate ... to ... about as far as Morgan's Mount', which is a 160 metre stretch about 20 metres short of St Martin's Gate: J. F. Haverfield, Catalogue of the Roman Inscribed and Sculptured Stones at the Grosvenor Museum (Chester 1900), 7.
3. The stones on the east side of Northgate were found in two sections along the wall. One stretch, 16 metres long, lay 48 metres west of King Charles' Tower. Another stretch, 18 metres long, lay 97 metres west of the tower: C. Le Quesne, Excavations at Chester: the Roman and later Defences Part I. Investigations 1978-1990 (Chester 1999), 118.
4. R. P. Wright and I. A. Richmond, The Roman Inscribed and Sculptured Stones in the Grosvenor Museum, Chester (Chester 1955), 44.
5. M. Henig's fascicule of the Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani. Great Britain I. Fasc. 9 Roman Sculpture from the North-West Midlands (British Academy, Oxford 2004) has rectified this problem, since it includes a full discussion of the sculptured stones from Chester, including those which had been mutilated.
6. G. Webster, 'Excavations on the legionary defences at Chester 1949-51', Journal of Chester Archaeological Society, 40 (1953), vol. 2, 1-24;
7. J. M. C. Toynbee, Art in Britain under the Romans (Oxford 1964), 185;
8. F. H. Thompson, Roman Cheshire: History of Cheshire, 2 (Chester 1965), 28-29;
9. V. E. Nash-Williams, The Roman Frontier in Wales, 2nd edn, ed. M. G. Jarrett (Cardiff 1969), 35;
10. D. F. Petch, Deva Victrix (London 1971), 30;
11. T. J. Strickland, 'Third century Chester', in The Roman West in the Third Century, ed. A. King and M. Henig (BAR int. ser. 109, 1981), 159-90;
12. T. J. Strickland, 'The defences of Roman Chester: a note on the discoveries made on the north wall', Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society, 65 (1982), 25-36;
13. P. Carrington, Chester, English Heritage (London 1994), 31.
14. Nash Williams ed. Jarrett, The Roman Frontier, 41;
15. D. J. P. Mason, Roman Chester: City of the Eagles (Stroud 2001), 200.
16. Webster, 'Excavations on the legionary defences', 1-24;
17. S. Johnson, The Roman Forts of the Saxon Shore (Southampton 1976), 132-35;
18. Wright and Richmond, Roman Inscribed and Sculptured stones, 5;
19. Webster, A short guide to the Roman Inscriptions and Sculptured Stones in the Grosvenor Museum, Chester (Chester 1970), 13;
20. D. A. Welsby, The Roman Military Defence of Great Britain in its Late Phases (BAR British ser. 101, 1981), 74-75;
21. Mason, Roman Chester, 204.
22. P. Salway, Roman Britain (Oxford 1981), 404;
23. R. G. Collingwood and R. P. Wright, The Roman Inscriptions of Britain,I [hereafter abbreviated RIB] (Oxford 1965), no. 1956.
24. See E. P. Brock, 'The age of the walls of Chester, with reference to recent discussions', Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society, 2 (1888), 40-97;
25. W. T. Watkin, 'The Roman inscriptions discovered at Chester, during the first repairs of the north wall', Journal of Chester Archaeological Society, 2 (1888), 11-24.
26. RIB, no. 488.
27. For opposing views on the subject, see Le Quesne, Excavations at Chester, 121;
28. Mason, Roman Chester, 204, 211.
29. All the stones uncovered from the north wall are believed to have derived from the tomb structures and sepulchral monuments from the surrounding cemeteries. Exceptions to this are the few stones which may have belonged to the wall's original facing. Examples are a centurial stone (RIB, no. 471),
30. but this could have as equally come from one of the funerary enclosures (see Mason, Roman Chester, 90-92).
31. Wright and Richmond, Roman Inscribed and Sculptured Stones, 8.
32. Henig, Roman Sculpture, cat. no. 33 (RIB, no. 491);
33. Thompson, Roman Cheshire, 28.
34. Haverfield, Catalogue of the Roman Inscribed Stones, 7;
35. Wright and Richmond, Roman Inscribed and Sculptured Stones, 5;
36. Welsby, The Roman Military Defence, 75.
37. E. Sauer, The Archaeology of Religious Hatred in the Roman and Early Medieval World (Stroud 2003), 48.
38. Webster, Guide to the Roman Inscriptions, Chester (Chester 1970), 12.
39. J. D. Bateson, 'Roman material from Ireland: a reconsideration', Proceedings of the Irish Royal Academy, 73 (1973), 21-97;
40. M. Dillon, 'The Irish settlements in Wales', Celtica, 12 (1999), 1-12.
41. R. Newstead, 'The Roman cemetery in the infirmary field, Chester, Part II', Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology, 8 (1914), 49-60;
42. Nash Williams ed. Jarrett, The Roman Frontier, 38;
43. D. F. Petch, 'The Roman period', in A history of the County of Chester: the Victoria History of the Counties of England, ed. C. R. Erlington (Oxford 1978), 115-227.
44. RIB, no. 490.
45. Y. Le Bohec, The Imperial Roman Army (London 1994), 38.
46. RIB, nos 471-72.
47. Henig, Roman Sculpture, cat. no. 68 (RIB, no. 558).
48. J. Davies, Death Burial and Re-birth in the Religions of Antiquity (London 1999), 140.
49. RIB, nos 475-85.
50. M. Henig, 'Chester and the Art of the Twentieth Legion', in Medieval Archaeology, Art and Architecture at Chester, ed. A. Thacker, BAA Trans., XXII (Leeds 2000), 1-15;
51. idem, 'Tales from the tomb - sculpture in Roman Chester', in Deva Victrix - Roman Chester re-assessed, ed. P. Carrington (Chester 2002), 75-77.
52. Henig, Roman Sculpture, cat. no. 25 (RIB, no. 478);
53. and RIB, nos 475-77, 481-82, 484-85.
54. V. M. Hope, 'Words and pictures: the interpretation of Romano-British tombstones', Britannia, 28 (1997), 246-58.
55. RIB, no. 509.
56. Henig, Roman Sculpture, cat. no. 33 (RIB, no. 491).
57. Sub ascia dedications are noted on four other stones at Chester: Henig, Roman Sculpture, cat. no. 39 (RIB, no. 517);
58. Wright and Richmond, Roman Inscribed and Sculptured Stones, 6;
59. Henig, Roman Sculpture, 13.
60. J. P. Earwarker, The Recent Discovery of Roman Remains (Manchester 1888), 124;
61. Carrington, Chester, 41.
62. Earwarker, Discovery of Roman Remains, 124;
63. H. M. D. Parker, The Roman Legions, reprint (Chicago 1980), 110.
64. Representations of masons' tools may also have been shown on stones to infer that a grave remained open to successive family members: F. de Visscher, Le Droit des Tombeaux Romains (Milan 1963), 277-94.
65. On the two gravestones of couples, only one of the partners has been inscribed with an epitaph, which does suggest that such marks were used to infer a grave as still 'open': Henig, Roman Sculpture, cat. no. 33 (RIB, no. 491);
66. Webster, Guide to the Roman Inscriptions, 30.
67. C. W. Hendrick, History and Silence: Purge and Rehabilitation of Memory in Late Antiquity (Austin 2000), xii.
68. P. Stewart, 'The destruction of statues in late antiquity', in Constructing Identities in Late Antiquity, ed. R. Miles (London 1999), 159-90.
69. Pliny, Pan. 52.4,
70. cited in A. P. Gregory, 'Powerful images: responses to portraits and political uses of images in Rome', Journal of Roman Archaeology, 7 (1994), 80-99.
71. Parker, Roman Legions, 114.
72. S. James, 'Britain and the late Roman army', in Military and civilian in Roman Britain, ed. T. F. C. Blagg and A. C. King (BAR British ser. 136, 1984), 161-87;
73. P. Southern and K. R. Dixon, The late Roman army (London 1996) 169.
74. RIB, no. 1956.
75. Strickland, 'Third century Chester', 434.
76. P. J. Casey, Carausius and Allectus: the British Usurpers (London 1994), 93.
77. Southern and Dixon, The late Roman Army, 32.
78. Petch, 'The Roman period', 137.
79. K. J. Matthews, 'Chester's amphitheatre after Rome: a centre of Christian worship?', Cheshire History,43 (2004), 12-27.
80. Pan. Lat. viii (v).12, in R. A. B. Mynors, XII Panegyrici Latini (Oxford 1964).
81. Casey, Carausius and Allectus, 92.
82. Pan. Lat. viii (v).15. The Latin title is vexilliarius: Pan. Lat. viii (v).15. A vexillum could bear the name of a legion, or it could refer to a vexillatio- a detachment made up of a number of units brought together under a single flag: G. Webster, The Roman Imperial Army (London 1985), 138.
83. Pan. Lat. viii (v).16.
84. G. Milne, Roman London, English Heritage (London 1995), 75-76.
85. Matthews, 'Chester's amphitheatre after Rome', 16-17.
86. D. J. P. Mason, Excavations at Chester: a Possible Roman Posting House (Mansio), (Chester 1980), 21.
87. See S. Wood, 'A too successful damnatio memoriae: problems in third century portraiture', American Journal of Archaeology, 87 (1983), 489-96;
88. Stewart, 'The destruction of statues', 166.
89. The stone was recovered from the Kingsholm cemetery and is believed to have been broken in antiquity. M. W. C. Hassall and R. S. O. Tomlin, 'Roman Britain in 1982: II. Inscriptions, monumental', Britannia, 15 (1984), 333-49;
90. M. Henig, Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani. Great Britain I. Fasc. 7 Roman Sculpture from the Cotswold Region (British Academy, Oxford 1993), 49, no. 142.
91. See for example C. Nylander, 'The mutilated image: "we" and "they" in history and prehistory', KVHAA Konferenser, 40 (1998), 235-51.
92. Pan. Lat. viii (v).15-16.