Verulamium Museum and Park

On October 27, 2019 By Paul Coby and Sally BlandfordIn Civitas, Museum, Roman BritainLeave a comment

Overall Impact **** 4 stars Museum with excellent artefacts wonderfully displayed with thematic exhibits of Roman civil life

Roman Features ***** 5 stars Mosaics are many of the finest in Britannia, plus a lead coffin, wall paintings, a late antique horde of solidi and much more

Display **** 4 stars Thematic rooms work hard to bring the exhibits to life and explain how the inhabitants of Verulamium lived

Reconstruction **** 4 stars The restored rooms with wall paintings are superb

Access **** 4 stars Modern museum with good access. Car park handy for both Museum and Park.

Atmosphere *** 3 stars The Museum and Park are both branded Verulamium, but it is quite hard to visualise what the Roman city would have looked like: maybe some more illustrative boards around the park would help?

Other ***** 5 stars We reckon this is the second-best Roman museum in Britannia – and the best museum of civil life of the period. (We still have to give Vindolanda Museum the top spot!)

We were inspired by publishing our Brading Villa blog recently and, since the sun was shining, we thought we should have look at another Roman site. (Our first idea was Silchester and the finds in Reading Museum’s Roman galleries but, alas, Reading Museum is not open on Sundays. )

So our choice fell on Verulamium Museum and Park at St Albans. Thirty years ago we used to live in ‘Snorbans’ and a fine and distinctive city it is. Since then the old Museum – already good – has been refurbished, given a circular Roman-inspired entrance and had new galleries added. Thank you National Lottery Fund, once again!

Is this the best dedicated Roman museum in Britannia?

Original wall paintings restored in a reconstructed room

We think so – at least as far as civilian life is concerned (the latest incarnation of Vindolanda is simply stunning, obviously with a more military focus). Verulamium Museum sets out to be the museum of everyday Roman life and with dedicated galleries on trade and industry, life and death, and much else, it succeeds. Verulamium was the 3rd largest Roman city in Britannia (presumably after Londinium and Camulodunum?) and the quality of the finds excavated by Mortimer and Tessa Wheeler in the 30s and by Shepherd Frere in the 70s are tremendous. This thematic approach is quite commonplace these days but it’s carried through here with confidence and illustrated with some remarkable finds. Our favourites include:

1). The lead coffin from around 200AD from King Harry Lane with its scallop shell decoration and a rather witty video by the deceased (here wittily christened Postumus) describing his life and subsequent rediscovery.

2). The display of carpenters’ tools left behind while escaping the great fire of Verulamium in 180AD.

3). A tiny statuette of Mercury with his ram, tortoise and cockerel, and wearing a tiny torc.

4). The remarkable Sandridge Hoard of 156 gold solidi, found by a fortunate metal detectorist testing out his new equipment.

5). The inscription from the new Forum built in the reign of Titus which (most probably) mentions the Governor Julius Agricola, developing the pacified parts of the Province just as Tacitus describes.

This is before we have mentioned the real star exhibits of the Museum – the mosaics and the wall paintings from the fine mansions of the Roman city. There are 3 mosaics in the main museum hall – a shell image in the centre, with a horned figure (possibly identified with Cernunnos, a woodland god) to the right, and a lion and stag to the left.

The wall and ceiling paintings have been imaginatively displayed in reconstructed rooms, with the missing plaster and colours filled in. The overall effect is to give a real feeling of what a grand provincial mansion looked like. What strikes you are both the striking colours and compositions and the relative crudity of the actual workmanship – the representation of marble, for instance, is not at all convincing!

The first galleries cover pre-Roman Verulamion: the area was a centre of the Catuvellauni, who under Cassivellaunus led the resistance to Caesar in 55BC. Later the Catuvellauni were ruled by Tasciovanus and by 10AD Cunobelinus was in charge. He conquered the Trinovantes and moved his capital to the Colchester area, but continued to rule Verulamion. Whilst Cunobelinus successfully avoided Roman intervention, under his sons Caractacus and Togidubnus in 43 AD the kingdom was invaded by Claudius.

After the Roman conquest the Trinovantes were conquered and a Colonia of legionaries planted at Camulodunum. However, the Catuvellauni become a client kingdom, possibly under the leadership of Adminius, another son of Cunobelinus who had fled to Rome before the Conquest. The burial from Folly Lane dated to AD50 appears to be the leader of the Catuvellauni under Roman domination. The rich burial features a chariot, an iron mail coat (above) and quantities of silver, all placed on the funeral pyre.

The Museum sits close to the site of the vast Forum of Verulamium, on which the Church is built. So all round you are the hidden remains of the City. There are three things to see in the Park – the mosaic from one of the town houses, the battered remains of the City Walls and the site of the London Gate.

Reconstruction drawing of the vast Verulamium Forum

Musée Romain de Lausanne – Vidy

On January 19, 2019January 4, 2019 By Paul Coby and Sally BlandfordIn Civitas, Museum, Small Town, SwitzerlandLeave a comment

Overall Impact: **** 4 stars – small Museum but some stunning finds well set out

Access ***** 5 stars – easy access by all modes – it’s Switzerland after all!

Atmosphere **** 4 star – works admirably hard to relate finds to excavations

Other *** 3 stars – great to find so much so well done for what is, when all said and done, a quite minor site!

A reconstruction of the Roman house where the Museum is situated – note its suggested grand entrance pillars

The best finds from Roman Lousonna are displayed in a modern building situated within the surviving foundations of a very grand Roman merchant’s house with warehouses attached (or that is what it appears to have been). You enter pay your CHF8 (concessions CHF5 and children free) then climb upstairs above walls with preserved painted wall plaster.

The quality of the finds from this small Gallo-Roman town of the Helvetii rather put the finds from small Roman towns in Britannia to shame – or at least it felt that way to us. Here are just a few examples:

A bronze votive showing a libation being poured over a bull prior to sacrifice

The standard of carving is very fine – note the reference to *Lousonna*

The extraordinary horned head – maybe the god *Cernunnos* who appears on the Pillar of the Boatmen from Lutetia (Paris) now in Musée de Cluny?

The quality of carving on the various inscriptions is very fine. We thought the finest single artefact was the small but very detailed bronze relief of a priest pouring a libation over the unfortunate bull prior to sacrifice, thought to be a decoration from an altar.

The models of Lousonna are of the highest standard, comparable to the wonderful building models in the Museum of London’s Roman Galleries. There is an English catalogue you can borrow to carry round with you, although sadly not available to purchase.

Finally, the Museum goes to some effort with a re-construction of a sizeable cross-section of the excavation in a mock-up of a site hut, together with finds records etc on the wall to show how the dig had taken place.

So if you are in the area, don’t miss Lousonna!

Imperial Villa of Chiragan – Sculptures at Musée Saint Raymond Toulouse

On January 1, 2018January 1, 2018 By Paul Coby and Sally BlandfordIn France, ImperialLeave a comment

Overall Impact: *** 3 stars – remarkable collection of sculptures BUT little context

Access **** 4 stars – in Musée Saint Raymond MSR with lifts

Atmosphere ** 2 stars – there could be so much more to say…

Other ***** 5 stars – the artistry of the works is top quality!

On the first floor of the Toulouse Archaeological Museum (le Musée Saint Raymond) are the remarkable remains from the Villa of Chiragan at Martres-Tolosane on the River Garonne, some 60kms south-west of Toulouse. The museum claims, with only a little exaggeration, that ‘the sculptures extracted from this site are exceptional. No other villa in Europe has yielded so many works in marble’.

Known of from the 17th Century, portrait busts of remarkable quality have been excavated. In 1826 the excavator wrote ‘every quarter of an hour I see a god, a goddess, an emperor come out of the bosom of the earth’. Many are recognisable imperial portraits while others have been interpreted as the procurators and administrators of the imperial domain of forests and quarries and of the imperial tolls and customs.

Excavations at the end of the 18th Century revealed a massive complex of buildings comprising both agricultural production with barns, stables and granaries, and a residence of over 200 rooms with a portico, baths and gardens. They cover 16 hectares in total!

Three broad phases of occupation have been identified. First, a modest villa from the time of Augustus with baths and a peristyle. Secondly, at the time of Trajan, an atrium and two peristyles are added. Finally, at the end of the Second Century, the villa reaches its largest extent and is occupied through to the reign of Arcadius and Honorius at the start of the Fifth Century.

Marcus Aurelius

Trajan

The villa appears to have had a gallery where the portrait busts of Emperors from the First to Fourth Centuries were displayed. There were also many copies of famous Greek works of antiquity, of gods and goddesses, philosophers and satyrs.

The Labours of Hercules. To our mind the most exciting sculptures from the Villa of Chiragan are the reliefs of Hercules. They have been described as ‘baroque’ in style, which is anachronistic, but they are undeniably different from earlier classical statues. Given their scale and energy, they must have been extraordinarily arresting, especially since they were probably painted. It is thought that they were placed on a wall and separated by pilasters.

So what is this villa? It is clearly ‘Imperial’. The key clue seems to be in the largest central panel of the Labours of Hercules. Here we see Hercules killing Geryon, a giant who lived in Southern Spain, before stealing his cattle. The face of Hercules bears a striking resemblance to the portraits of Maximian, who Diocletian appointed in 286 as his fellow-Augustus of the West to share the burden of empire.

Curiously, the giant which Hercules/Maximian is subduing is depicted wearing a cuirass like a Roman general. Could this possibly allude to Maximian’s victories during his campaign against raiding Moors in 296 in Spain, before he crosses the Straits of Gibraltar and crushes the Berbers in 297-8? But the imagery surely makes better sense if it relates to Maximian and his Caesar Constantius crushing Roman usurpers such as the breakaway state of Carausius and Allectus in Britiannia?

Hercules, who has the face of Maximian, defeating the 3 headed Giant Geryon who is clearly wearing Roman military gear and possibly represents the Usurpers defeated by Maximian and Diocletian as Augusti

Further credence is given to this identification by the strong association which Maximian had with the god Hercules and Diocletian with Jupiter – the premier Legiones Palatinae in the late Roman Army lists are the Ioviani and the Herculiani.

Also, there are portrait busts from Chiragan of Maximian and his wife Galeria Valeria Eutropia, and a youthful portrait of Maximian’s son Maxentius and his wife Valeria Maximilla. (Maxentius, who would have been 18 in 296, went on to be defeated at the Milvian Bridge by Constantine the Great in 312.)

Maximian Hercules

Galeria Valeria Eutropia

Maxentius

Valerian Maximilla

So there must be a strong presumption that Maximian and his family stayed at Chiragan around 295-6 and had the Labours of Hercules carved for them. Maybe they also caused some other wonders to be built here in the foothills of the Pyrenees?

Introducing Caerleon Legionary Fortress

On April 23, 2017 By Paul Coby and Sally BlandfordIn Army, Legionary Fortress, Roman BritainLeave a comment

Overall 4**** A lot to see: for Britannia, these are substantial visible remains

Display 3*** Museum brilliant and Cadw great at Baths (amphitheatre & barracks less so)

Access 4**** You can walk around whole site with Caerleon village; easy parking

Atmosphere 4**** Once you have walked around you can start to imagine the Fortress

Other 5***** Caerleon is very rare in Britannia, since the other Legionary Fortresses (Colchester, Gloucester, Exeter, Lincoln, Chester and York) are under modern cities and there is little of the Fortress to see at Wroxeter (and nothing at Inchtuthil)

Caerleon Legionary Fortress of Legio II Augusta consistes of:

The Natatio and part of Frigidarium and Apodyterium of the internal Fortress Baths
The exposed Ramparts on the South and West sides
The Amphitheatre, just outside the South-West Gate
The ‘only exposed legionary barrack block in the Empire (?)’
The Legion Museum of the National Museum of Wales

Having failed to complete the conquest of the resident Iron Age tribe the Silures in South Wales in the AD50s, in AD75 Legio II Augusta moves from Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum) to Caerleon (Isca) to complete the conquest. Unsurprisingly, the Romans have to quell determined military resistance.

The first fortress is constructed of timber with turf and earth ramparts. At a date quite soon after (probably around AD80) the whole fortress is rebuilt in stone, and a set of impressive fortress Baths are built in stone from the outset. By now, conditions for the occupiers are improving significantly .

In AD90 the Amphitheatre is begun and the fortress Baths receive their first refurbishment. Then, in AD122, most of Legio II Augusta moves north to build Hadrian’s Wall, but Caerleon remains operational.

In AD 130 the Baths receive a total reshape, including new changing rooms, and the pool is shortened.

In AD193 under Septimius Severus, despite an apparent rebuild of the Principia (HQ), Isca is abandoned or at least ‘mothballed’. This presumably reflects Legio II Augusta’s role campaigning in Scotland with the Emperor, with plans for permanent deployment in the North. (Severus had deployed legions in his new Province of Mesopotamia in AD197.)

In AD211 the plan to abandon Isca is dropped and under Emperor Caracalla major repairs are undertaken to the Fortress, Amphitheatre and Baths. Legio II Augusta gains the title Anoniniana – ‘Caracalla’s Own’.

By AD250 major components of the Legion have left as vexillations (detachments) to fight in the Anarchy of the C3rd, leaving large parts of the Fortress unoccupied.

There is some rebuilding of barracks in AD253-258 and around AD274.

Between AD287 and 296 the main buildings of the Fortress are demolished and Legio II Augusta is moved to Richborough, possibly by the military commander – then usurper – Carausius, in order to defend against Channel raiders and, thereafter, against the legitimate Empire.

Caerleon

pf_sf_interpretation — The plan of the Stone Fortress, courtesy of Caerleon Research Committee

Gallo-Roman Museum Saint-Romain-en-Gal, Vienne

On October 11, 2015 By Paul Coby and Sally BlandfordIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Overall *** 3 stars – remarkable mosaics

Display 5 artefacts displayed as works of art, models exceptional

Access 4 large car park with underpass to Museum

Other Museum almost overwhelms the exhibits!

Vienne was originally the capital (oppidum) of the civitas of the Allobroges, which stretched from the Rhone at Vienne to Lake Geneva.

This is a massive modern museum opened in 1996. It displays the finds from ancient Vienne in a spare and light modern manner. We saw it the day after the Museum in Lyon at Fouvière and although the permanent collection here contains some stunning exhibits – the mosaics stand out and are beautifully displayed, it is not quite its equal.

Outside there are the remains of the suburb of Roman Vienne, where the houses of wealthy citizens lined the road next to the palatial baths and exercise ground net to the Rhone. There is a workshop for the mosaic restorers and a space of temporary exhibitions in a second building, which forms the entrance.

Vienna became a Roman colony in 47 BCE under Caesar and was in the old Transapline Gaul – Provincia. Herod Archaelaus was exiled here in 6 CE. In the later Empire it became the place of collection of the annona or tax in kind from the Gauls. As a result there are remains of massive warehouses lining the Rhone where the taxes were assembled before being transported to Rome. These are displayed by a series of model reconstructions.

Perhaps as a result of this role, Vienne (Vienna) became the capital of the late Roman Diocese of Vienensis, at last equalling its rival just up the Rhone at Lyon.

Again as an inhabitant of Britannia you are left wondering at the wealth and display of the Gauls compared to our off-shore island!

When we visited there was a Roman festival of re-enactors in progress, one of several events staged each year at the Museum. French re-enactment groups dressed appropriately lived like free-Gauls and Roman soldiers – sensibly kept well apart here. Also various groups re-constructed ancient wine and beer making, medicinal herb preparation, Celtic and Gallo-Roman cuisine. The tasting measures were alas depressingly small, although the re-enactments were impressive!

Gallo Roman Museum of Lyon

On October 11, 2015October 11, 2015 By Paul Coby and Sally BlandfordIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Overall Rating **** 4 stars – stunning unique exhibits

Display ***** 5 – thematic, amazing building, bilingual

Access *** 3 – easy parking, buses from central Lyon

Other Wow Factor!

This is one of the best Provincial Museums you can find in the Empire. Some of the objects took our breath away.

It brings together Roman finds from the Midi of France on the now familiar thematic basis, but when opened in 1975 ground breaking. The building is brilliantly designed by Bernard Zehrfuss to fit into the hill alongside the Fouvière Theatres, and opened by President Giscard d’Estaing.

Colonia Copia Claudia Augusta Lugdunum was founded in 43 BCE by Lucius Munatius Plancus, it was the capital of Gallia Lugdunensis, the seat of the Sanctuary of the Three Gauls and the second most important city in the West – after Rome, with its own urban cohort and a population estimated at 50-100,000. Both Claudius and Caracalla were born there.

You enter the Museum from the top and walk down a winding path, starting with inscriptions, moving through temples, domestic houses, trade and so forth. There are some of the best exhibits you could find ranging from

a stunning ceremonial bronze age cart from 6th BCE,
fragments of the Altar to Augustus and Rome from the Sanctuary of the Three Gauls
the longest written inscription in Gallic – the Coligny Calendar (!),
Claudius’ speech on a large bronze tablet in AD 48 before the Roman Senate granting Gauls entry to the Senate,
silver statuettes buried during the 2nd CE Germanic invasions and
top rate mosaics like the Bacchus Mosiac from Lugdunum (Lyon) and the surrounding cities.

These are just a few of the treasures. There are numerous excellent models of temple precincts, city insulae, how the scene-lifting gear worked at the theatre and so forth. There is a relief model of the surrounding area at the start, which by use of light projections orientates the visitor on when Lugdunum was founded by and then developed over the next 4 centuries.

There are bilingual French and English labels which is helpful and a well produced souvenir guide.

If we had to find a criticism it would be there is not enough on the later history and decline of Roman Lugdunum. The overall impression is of the immense material wealth and artistic culture of the Capital of the Three Gauls. Not to be missed!

Roman Sites

Tag: Museum