Building Roman Britons The Use of Novel Construction Materials in the Development of Roman Bath.

Abstract

This study investigates the ceramic building materials (CBM) from the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Roman Baths at Bath, UK. Ceramic building materials from much of Roman Britain are understudied, yet our knowledge of the brick and tile from Bath is not limited solely by a paucity of research, rather than by a lack of synthesis between academic, commercial work, and the study of the Roman Baths itself. This project therefore aimed to create a unified understanding of Roman CBM in the Bath area, bringing together research in Bath and Gloucestershire with novel analyses of the Roman Baths assemblages to develop new understandings of production, procurement and use at the site, local and regional levels. This has been achieved through two strands of research. A range of previous studies in Bath, Gloucestershire and northwest Wiltshire were collated to investigate diachronic supply of CBM to Roman Bath, particularly through the novel integration of finds of stamped and relief-patterned tiles. A survey of the assemblages at the Roman Baths was conducted, and this material subjected to fabric and chemical analyses with portable energy-dispersive X-Ray fluorescence (pXRF) in order to suggest provenance. These analyses yielded significant results when integrated with regional research. At the site level, two major phases of construction at the Roman Baths have been found to be supplied by the Minety kiln site. This has enabled the redating of the construction of the Spring Reservoir Enclosure to the first century, substantially altering the developmental history of the Roman Baths. At the local and regional levels, it is clear that Minety supplied much of Bath and Cirencester, and was important to distant settlements too. This unified picture therefore indicates that centralised production and routine long- distance transport was key to the supply and procurement of these novel building materials in the area of Bath.