Thesis Chapters by Edwin Wood
Unpublished PhD Thesis King's College London, 2024
This thesis discusses the artefactual evidence for the Roman military from the southeast of Engla... more This thesis discusses the artefactual evidence for the Roman military from the southeast of England that has been found in non-military contexts. It will argue that the Roman military was far more active in the so-called ‘civil zone’ of Roman Britain than is usually assumed and that its presence within that area was more than the provision of civil engineering, policing or simple transience. The Romans did not regard Britain or its populace very highly and the evidence of militaria from the civil areas of the province can be interpreted as what might now be regarded as exploitative if not actively oppressive. It is possible that in certain areas, Rome fostered the continuation of some pre-conquest martial ideologies and practices that it found beneficial for the raising of troops. However, this work will also challenge the assignation of object types, particularly horse harness, to the military and instead suggest that there was widespread use of the horse beyond the military.
I will conclude that the Roman army did not confine itself to the military zone, sending troops to secure supplies, enforce Imperial control, and keep watch on the native population that it regarded with disdain and suspicion. The use of archaeological finds and the challenging of assumed artefact relationships is a valuable tool in deepening our understanding of how different communities within Roman Britain and indeed, the wider Empire, interacted.
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Articles / Papers by Edwin Wood
Supplying the Roman Empire (LIMES XXV volume 4) Proceedings of the 25th International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies 4 , 2024
An Article in an edited volume of conference proceedings about the use of military small finds in... more An Article in an edited volume of conference proceedings about the use of military small finds in suggesting the presence of Roman troops in civil areas of Britain and their possible role in Roman supply networks. The paper focuses on the distribution of an Antonine military belt mount type, Trompetenmuster style, across south-eastern England and discusses how they might relate to military supply and control in the province of Britannia.
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Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 111, 2022
Two copper-alloy objects from Cambridgeshire, a spear head and a fitting, carrying inscriptions d... more Two copper-alloy objects from Cambridgeshire, a spear head and a fitting, carrying inscriptions dedicated respectively to Silvanus and (probably) to Mars, were reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme in 2017 and 2018. Found. c. ten km west of Cambridge, both represent the use of objects hitherto unattested as media for Roman religious writing. This paper discusses the texts and media of the inscriptions, identifying them as dedications which extend our understanding of votive practice in rural Britannia. Found with abundant associated metal-detected objects of Roman date, including further likely votives, their discovery enables the identification of a previously undocumented Roman religious site in the Cambridgeshire claylands, likely connected to the many farmsteads identified by intensive archaeological fieldwork in its environs.
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by Isabelle Bertrand, Rafael Sabio González, José María Murciano Calles, Yves Manniez, Marie Gagnol, Yahya Zaaraoui, Laure DE CHAVAGNAC, John Pearce, Edwin Wood, Sally Worrell, and Sabrina Zago
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Acta Militaria Mediaevalia, 2013
Edwin Wood, David Edge, Alan Williams 2013, A note on the construction and metallurgy of mail arm... more Edwin Wood, David Edge, Alan Williams 2013, A note on the construction and metallurgy of mail armour exhibited in The Wallace Collection, AMM IX: 203-229 An exhibition was mounted in 2009 at the Wallace Collection, London, displaying a number of mail shirts and other garments. The number of rings used in several of these mail shirts has been accurately determined for the first time. Mail can be "tailored" that is, its shape can be altered, by varying the number of links attached to each one from 4 to 3 or 5, thus contracting or expanding the weave. The "tailoring" of several shirts has been mapped, and the thickness of the links in different parts of the garments compared. Selected links have been studied by metallography, and deductions made about the heat-treatment of the completed shirt.
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Verižni oklep, izdelan iz med seboj povezanih obročkov, je bil osnovno kovinsko zaščitno sredstvo... more Verižni oklep, izdelan iz med seboj povezanih obročkov, je bil osnovno kovinsko zaščitno sredstvo v Evropi od pozne železne dobe do 15. stoletja. Najstarejši pri-merek, ki so ga do sedaj odkrili arheologi, so našli v grobu iz 3. stoletja pr. n. št. v Romuniji. 1 Rimski pisec Varon je iznajdbo verižnine pripisal Keltom in domneval, da se je razvila iz oklepov, izdelanih iz jermenov surove živalske kože. Delce takšnih oblačil, datiranih v 8. stoletje pr. n. št., so našli na Češkem. 2 Proizvodnja verižnine je dosegla vrhunec v 12. in 13. stoletju, z vitezi v popolnem verižnem oklepu od oglav-nice do hlač in srajce z dolgimi rokavi. Gibkost verižnine, ki po eni strani uporabniku omogoča prosto, neomejeno gibanje, je bila po drugi strani ena njenih slabosti. Z vse večjo močjo samostrelov in vse pomembnejšo vlogo lokostrelcev na bojišču se je pokazalo, da verižnina ni zmo-gla ustaviti močnega vboda oziroma preboja izstrelka. V 14. stoletju so verižnino okrepili s togimi zaščitnimi sredstvi iz pločevine, denimo z oklepnimi jopiči. 3 Na ta način se je razvil popoln ploščni oklep, ki je v sredini 15. stoletja nadomestil veri-žnino. Ne smemo pozabiti, da verižnine niso nikoli nosili brez primerne podloge. Pod njo so vedno imeli podloženo oblačilo, imenovano gambezon, ki je uporabnika nekoliko zaščitilo pred silo udarca. Drugi dejavnik pri zatonu verižnine je bila izjemno zamudna izdelava. Avtor-jeva raziskava v muzeju Wallace Collection je pokazala, da so verižne srajce v pov-prečju sestavljene iz okoli 28.500 obročkov. 4 Za izdelavo takšnega oblačila bi ena sama oseba potrebovala več mesecev, če pa bi jo izdelovalo več oseb, bi lahko delo opravili bistveno hitreje. Posameznik bi prsno ploščo zlahka izdelal v enem tednu, za izdelavo verižne srajce v enakem času pa bi bilo potrebnih petnajst izkušenih delavcev, ki bi delali po 10 ur na dan. Ko se je ploščni oklep pocenil in so osvojili tehnologijo njegove izdelave, je postala proizvodnja verižnine vse dražja in zamu-dnejša. 1 Rusu 1969. 2 Hruby 1959. 3 Npr. primerki iz Visbyja, Thordeman 1939. 4 E. Wood, delo v nastajanju (2010). Med verižnimi srajcami iz zbirke Wallace Collection tista z inv. št. A.1 vsebuje 25.419 obročkov, inv. št. A.2 26.941 obročkov, inv. št. A.3 29.653 obročkov, inv. št. A.7 pa 147.706 obročkov.
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Edwin Wood, David Edge, Alan Williams 2013, A note on the construction and metallurgy of mail arm... more Edwin Wood, David Edge, Alan Williams 2013, A note on the construction and metallurgy of mail armour exhibited in The Wallace Collection, AMM IX: 203-229 An exhibition was mounted in 2009 at the Wallace Collection, London, displaying a number of mail shirts and other garments. The number of rings used in several of these mail shirts has been accurately determined for the first time. Mail can be "tailored" that is, its shape can be altered, by varying the number of links attached to each one from 4 to 3 or 5, thus contracting or expanding the weave. The "tailoring" of several shirts has been mapped, and the thickness of the links in different parts of the garments compared. Selected links have been studied by metallography, and deductions made about the heat-treatment of the completed shirt.
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Acta Militaria Medievalia, 2013
An exhibition was mounted in 2009 at the Wallace Collection, London, displaying a number of mail ... more An exhibition was mounted in 2009 at the Wallace Collection, London, displaying a number of mail shirts and other garments. The number of rings used in several of these mail shirts has been accurately determined for the first time. Mail can be "tailored" that is, its shape can be altered, by varying the number of links attached to each one from 4 to 3 or 5, thus contracting or expanding the weave. The "tailoring" of several shirts has been mapped, and the thickness of the links in different parts of the garments compared. Selected links have been studied by metallography, and deductions made about the heat-treatment of the completed shirt.
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Thesis Chapters by Edwin Wood
I will conclude that the Roman army did not confine itself to the military zone, sending troops to secure supplies, enforce Imperial control, and keep watch on the native population that it regarded with disdain and suspicion. The use of archaeological finds and the challenging of assumed artefact relationships is a valuable tool in deepening our understanding of how different communities within Roman Britain and indeed, the wider Empire, interacted.
Articles / Papers by Edwin Wood
Contact : Isabelle Bertrand : [email protected]
I will conclude that the Roman army did not confine itself to the military zone, sending troops to secure supplies, enforce Imperial control, and keep watch on the native population that it regarded with disdain and suspicion. The use of archaeological finds and the challenging of assumed artefact relationships is a valuable tool in deepening our understanding of how different communities within Roman Britain and indeed, the wider Empire, interacted.
Contact : Isabelle Bertrand : [email protected]