Michael Marshall | Museum of London Archaeology (original) (raw)
Journal articles by Michael Marshall
Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia 33, 2021
This study defines and characterises the ‘Baldock’ group of copper-alloy penannular torcs, which ... more This study defines and characterises the ‘Baldock’ group of copper-alloy penannular torcs, which were worn in south-eastern Britain during the 1st century AD. Torcs had an important local pre-Roman pedigree, but this new regional style of dress seems to have emerged around the time of the Claudian invasion and was worn in the heart of the new Roman province of Britannia. The significance of these torcs is explored, focusing on the new social contexts in which they circulated, their connections to new kinds of provincial identities, and the ways in which torcs were reimagined and transformed within Romano-British society.
Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society 72, 2021
More than 4000 fragments of bone and ivory working waste were recovered during the archaeological... more More than 4000 fragments of bone and ivory working waste were recovered during the archaeological excavation of the New Churchyard burial ground for Crossrail in advance of the construction of the new Broadgate ticket hall, next to Liverpool Street Station. The waste probably derives from a workshop owned by successive generations of the Clitherow family who also served as keepers of the burial ground between 1636 and1740 and who appear to have disposed of much of their waste within its limits.
Britannia , 2021
In 2015, an unusual burial was uncovered during construction works at Great Casterton, Rutland. A... more In 2015, an unusual burial was uncovered during construction works at Great Casterton, Rutland. A male adult human skeleton, secured at the ankles with a pair of iron fetters and a padlock, was buried in a probable ditch. Iron hobnails were present around the feet of the individual. A radiocarbon date (AMS) from the burial produced a date of a.d. 226–427 with 95.4 per cent probability. This example appears to be the first definitive archaeologically excavated instance of an individual buried in this manner in Roman Britain. The character of the burial may imply that this was a slave, although other possibilities are also considered, as are the wider social and symbolic implications of the inclusion of shackles in a burial.
Post Medieval Archaeology, 2019
Excavation at Liverpool Street, London, for Crossrail Limited, uncovered two large drains and a p... more Excavation at Liverpool Street, London, for Crossrail Limited, uncovered two large drains and a pit in an area of the city known since the medieval period as Moorfields. Their fills can be closely dated to the mid 16th century and included artefacts such as personal possessions, domestic utensils and refuse, and material likely to be waste from leather and textile processing. The combination of excellent preservation, tight dating and an assemblage encompassing all facets of everyday life is seldom encountered for this period, making this a nationally significant assemblage, which is outlined here by broad functional category.
Internet Archaeology , 2018
The Museum of London selected four individuals (two females, two males) for multi-disciplinary sc... more The Museum of London selected four individuals (two females, two males) for multi-disciplinary scientific analyses in order to establish their ancestry, aspects of their personal appearance and health. We also re-interpreted their burial context in order to better understand how identity was constructed and expressed in this unique Roman settlement. Our study discovered the presence of people with Black and White European ancestry, some of whom had migrated from the southern Mediterranean. The re-analysis of their funerary context allowed us to explore the extent to which we can assert African identities in Roman Britain using material culture. The most surprising result was that Harper Road woman’s chromosomes were male, and by comparing her grave-goods with recent finds, we were able to show how they were likely part of a wider southeast British indigenous response to the Claudian conquest. Overall, our experience of undertaking a multidisciplinary study served to further underline the need for these different techniques to be used in combination when investigating past identities. The mtDNA results were very broad and required the mobility isotopes to better understand their significance. The aDNA evidence for disease was disappointing but did confirm the osteological analysis, but the most successful aspect of the project in terms of public engagement and the creation of content was the determination of hair and eye colour.
Specialist contribution on small finds and Roman glass based on a report written in 2012 that has... more Specialist contribution on small finds and Roman glass based on a report written in 2012 that has been integrated into an article dealing with parts of a possible Roman settlement boundary ditch and the Medieval city ditch found during excavations at St Bartholomew's Hospital. The most interesting aspects of the finds assemblage are some Saxo-Norman weapons and a large and interesting group of 12 bone ice skates. Of these the most unusual is a child's skate made from a dog radius although the image of this has unfortunately been excluded from the final integrated publication
Brief finds contribution to a report on extramural activity in the upper Walbrook valley around M... more Brief finds contribution to a report on extramural activity in the upper Walbrook valley around Moorgate and Finsbury Circus. Finds are mostly 2nd century and include pins, needles and a nail cleaner, with the possibility that some are disturbed grave goods.
London Archaeologist, 2016
Report on excavations within a Roman roadside settlement at Syon Park, Brentford
Short paper dealing with three exceptional glass and pottery vessels from a 1st-century assemblag... more Short paper dealing with three exceptional glass and pottery vessels from a 1st-century assemblage found in the middle Walbrook valley
Contributions to books by Michael Marshall
Archive report on the Roman small finds, glass and leather from excavations for Crossrail at Live... more Archive report on the Roman small finds, glass and leather from excavations for Crossrail at Liverpool Street, London. This supplements the full excavation report. The finds come from the extramural area to the north of Roman London and are associated with a road, the adjacent cemetery and dumping around the upper Walbrook valley and the late Roman marsh. Amongst the notable features of the finds assemblage are: a large iron ring on the wrist of a decapitated male inhumation burial, a large group of hipposandals from the road surface and the adjacent ditches, some middle-late Roman militaria and several votive objects.
The final published excavation report is 'Ranieri, S, and Telfer, A, 2017 Outside Roman London: roadside burials by the Walbrook stream, Crossrail Archaeol Ser 9, London' and more synthetic/integrated discussion of the finds can be found there. This report has been lodged with the ADS as part of the project archive at https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/xsm10_crossrail_2019/downloads.cfm
Thematic contributions dealing with small finds for the site monograph for the Roman sequence fro... more Thematic contributions dealing with small finds for the site monograph for the Roman sequence from the Crossrail Broadgate / Liverpool Street excavations, the main focus of which is the Walbrook stream, an extramural road and adjacent funerary activity.
The full submitted finds report was too large for inclusion in the book but ise hosted as an online resource here on academia.edu and on the ADS as Marshall, M. 2018 Roman small finds, glass and leather from excavations at the Broadgate ticket hall site, Liverpool Street (XSM10). Preservation of finds was good and the assemblage is mostly of 2nd/3rd century date. Notable features of the finds assemblage include important groups of militaria and transport equipment, iron rings from burials, a high number of discs/counters in the cemetery area and some evidence for votive deposition into the late Roman marsh.
Short thematic contributions dealing with small finds found in the post-medieval deposits during ... more Short thematic contributions dealing with small finds found in the post-medieval deposits during the Crossrail Broadgate / Liverpool street excavations. The main focus of the monograph is the New Churchyard burial ground and an osteological analysis of the buried population. NB: Three additional journal articles have been prepared dealing with aspects of the finds in more detail and will be submitted before the end of 2017. These will cover: 1) The well-preserved Tudor finds from the 'Deep Ditch' at Moorfields; 2) The bone and ivory working waste dumped in the New Churchyard during the 17th and 18th century and 3) A series of 18th century cess pits from a property on Brokers Row
Notes by Michael Marshall
Note on a Roman bone clasp knife handle from London depicting a nude male figure
Lucerna, 2017
Discussion of bone pins with evidence of deliberate dying/staining in a variety of colours. These... more Discussion of bone pins with evidence of deliberate dying/staining in a variety of colours. These include early Roman types and also late Roman forms, some of which may by imitating jet-headed pins found in northern England. Various hypotheses to explain the use of this technique are considered, which include an attempt to imitate more expensive materials, the use of colour symbolism and personal aesthetic preferences, perhaps related to the colour of the user's own hair.
Note on a perforated Late Iron Age coin and a reworked stone axe from Roman contexts at Bloomberg... more Note on a perforated Late Iron Age coin and a reworked stone axe from Roman contexts at Bloomberg London
Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia 33, 2021
This study defines and characterises the ‘Baldock’ group of copper-alloy penannular torcs, which ... more This study defines and characterises the ‘Baldock’ group of copper-alloy penannular torcs, which were worn in south-eastern Britain during the 1st century AD. Torcs had an important local pre-Roman pedigree, but this new regional style of dress seems to have emerged around the time of the Claudian invasion and was worn in the heart of the new Roman province of Britannia. The significance of these torcs is explored, focusing on the new social contexts in which they circulated, their connections to new kinds of provincial identities, and the ways in which torcs were reimagined and transformed within Romano-British society.
Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society 72, 2021
More than 4000 fragments of bone and ivory working waste were recovered during the archaeological... more More than 4000 fragments of bone and ivory working waste were recovered during the archaeological excavation of the New Churchyard burial ground for Crossrail in advance of the construction of the new Broadgate ticket hall, next to Liverpool Street Station. The waste probably derives from a workshop owned by successive generations of the Clitherow family who also served as keepers of the burial ground between 1636 and1740 and who appear to have disposed of much of their waste within its limits.
Britannia , 2021
In 2015, an unusual burial was uncovered during construction works at Great Casterton, Rutland. A... more In 2015, an unusual burial was uncovered during construction works at Great Casterton, Rutland. A male adult human skeleton, secured at the ankles with a pair of iron fetters and a padlock, was buried in a probable ditch. Iron hobnails were present around the feet of the individual. A radiocarbon date (AMS) from the burial produced a date of a.d. 226–427 with 95.4 per cent probability. This example appears to be the first definitive archaeologically excavated instance of an individual buried in this manner in Roman Britain. The character of the burial may imply that this was a slave, although other possibilities are also considered, as are the wider social and symbolic implications of the inclusion of shackles in a burial.
Post Medieval Archaeology, 2019
Excavation at Liverpool Street, London, for Crossrail Limited, uncovered two large drains and a p... more Excavation at Liverpool Street, London, for Crossrail Limited, uncovered two large drains and a pit in an area of the city known since the medieval period as Moorfields. Their fills can be closely dated to the mid 16th century and included artefacts such as personal possessions, domestic utensils and refuse, and material likely to be waste from leather and textile processing. The combination of excellent preservation, tight dating and an assemblage encompassing all facets of everyday life is seldom encountered for this period, making this a nationally significant assemblage, which is outlined here by broad functional category.
Internet Archaeology , 2018
The Museum of London selected four individuals (two females, two males) for multi-disciplinary sc... more The Museum of London selected four individuals (two females, two males) for multi-disciplinary scientific analyses in order to establish their ancestry, aspects of their personal appearance and health. We also re-interpreted their burial context in order to better understand how identity was constructed and expressed in this unique Roman settlement. Our study discovered the presence of people with Black and White European ancestry, some of whom had migrated from the southern Mediterranean. The re-analysis of their funerary context allowed us to explore the extent to which we can assert African identities in Roman Britain using material culture. The most surprising result was that Harper Road woman’s chromosomes were male, and by comparing her grave-goods with recent finds, we were able to show how they were likely part of a wider southeast British indigenous response to the Claudian conquest. Overall, our experience of undertaking a multidisciplinary study served to further underline the need for these different techniques to be used in combination when investigating past identities. The mtDNA results were very broad and required the mobility isotopes to better understand their significance. The aDNA evidence for disease was disappointing but did confirm the osteological analysis, but the most successful aspect of the project in terms of public engagement and the creation of content was the determination of hair and eye colour.
Specialist contribution on small finds and Roman glass based on a report written in 2012 that has... more Specialist contribution on small finds and Roman glass based on a report written in 2012 that has been integrated into an article dealing with parts of a possible Roman settlement boundary ditch and the Medieval city ditch found during excavations at St Bartholomew's Hospital. The most interesting aspects of the finds assemblage are some Saxo-Norman weapons and a large and interesting group of 12 bone ice skates. Of these the most unusual is a child's skate made from a dog radius although the image of this has unfortunately been excluded from the final integrated publication
Brief finds contribution to a report on extramural activity in the upper Walbrook valley around M... more Brief finds contribution to a report on extramural activity in the upper Walbrook valley around Moorgate and Finsbury Circus. Finds are mostly 2nd century and include pins, needles and a nail cleaner, with the possibility that some are disturbed grave goods.
London Archaeologist, 2016
Report on excavations within a Roman roadside settlement at Syon Park, Brentford
Short paper dealing with three exceptional glass and pottery vessels from a 1st-century assemblag... more Short paper dealing with three exceptional glass and pottery vessels from a 1st-century assemblage found in the middle Walbrook valley
Archive report on the Roman small finds, glass and leather from excavations for Crossrail at Live... more Archive report on the Roman small finds, glass and leather from excavations for Crossrail at Liverpool Street, London. This supplements the full excavation report. The finds come from the extramural area to the north of Roman London and are associated with a road, the adjacent cemetery and dumping around the upper Walbrook valley and the late Roman marsh. Amongst the notable features of the finds assemblage are: a large iron ring on the wrist of a decapitated male inhumation burial, a large group of hipposandals from the road surface and the adjacent ditches, some middle-late Roman militaria and several votive objects.
The final published excavation report is 'Ranieri, S, and Telfer, A, 2017 Outside Roman London: roadside burials by the Walbrook stream, Crossrail Archaeol Ser 9, London' and more synthetic/integrated discussion of the finds can be found there. This report has been lodged with the ADS as part of the project archive at https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/xsm10_crossrail_2019/downloads.cfm
Thematic contributions dealing with small finds for the site monograph for the Roman sequence fro... more Thematic contributions dealing with small finds for the site monograph for the Roman sequence from the Crossrail Broadgate / Liverpool Street excavations, the main focus of which is the Walbrook stream, an extramural road and adjacent funerary activity.
The full submitted finds report was too large for inclusion in the book but ise hosted as an online resource here on academia.edu and on the ADS as Marshall, M. 2018 Roman small finds, glass and leather from excavations at the Broadgate ticket hall site, Liverpool Street (XSM10). Preservation of finds was good and the assemblage is mostly of 2nd/3rd century date. Notable features of the finds assemblage include important groups of militaria and transport equipment, iron rings from burials, a high number of discs/counters in the cemetery area and some evidence for votive deposition into the late Roman marsh.
Short thematic contributions dealing with small finds found in the post-medieval deposits during ... more Short thematic contributions dealing with small finds found in the post-medieval deposits during the Crossrail Broadgate / Liverpool street excavations. The main focus of the monograph is the New Churchyard burial ground and an osteological analysis of the buried population. NB: Three additional journal articles have been prepared dealing with aspects of the finds in more detail and will be submitted before the end of 2017. These will cover: 1) The well-preserved Tudor finds from the 'Deep Ditch' at Moorfields; 2) The bone and ivory working waste dumped in the New Churchyard during the 17th and 18th century and 3) A series of 18th century cess pits from a property on Brokers Row
Note on a Roman bone clasp knife handle from London depicting a nude male figure
Lucerna, 2017
Discussion of bone pins with evidence of deliberate dying/staining in a variety of colours. These... more Discussion of bone pins with evidence of deliberate dying/staining in a variety of colours. These include early Roman types and also late Roman forms, some of which may by imitating jet-headed pins found in northern England. Various hypotheses to explain the use of this technique are considered, which include an attempt to imitate more expensive materials, the use of colour symbolism and personal aesthetic preferences, perhaps related to the colour of the user's own hair.
Note on a perforated Late Iron Age coin and a reworked stone axe from Roman contexts at Bloomberg... more Note on a perforated Late Iron Age coin and a reworked stone axe from Roman contexts at Bloomberg London
Later Prehistoric Finds Group Newsletter 3, 2014
Recently two finds of Late Iron Age -Early Roman looped ring fittings, sometimes called 'ovoid mo... more Recently two finds of Late Iron Age -Early Roman looped ring fittings, sometimes called 'ovoid mounts' or 'suspension rings' , have come to light. The common elements of these fittings are: 1) a ring, flat or hollow backed and ovoid or circular in plan; 2) a projecting panel or knob at one edge with openwork decoration in the adjacent section of the interior and 3) a rectangular loop projecting from the reverse to hold a strap. These fittings have a distinctive Humber -Forth distribution which, along with the style of their decoration, suggests that they are products of the central British native metalworking tradition of the 1st -2nd century AD (see Hunter 2007; Hunter 2008 for recent discussions). This opportunity is taken to publish these two recent finds and, ahead of a re-evaluation of the type as a whole, to make an appeal for any additional examples known to members of the LPFG (see ).
Short note on the surprising discovery of 'two perforated bone spoons' from Londinium. This is a ... more Short note on the surprising discovery of 'two perforated bone spoons' from Londinium. This is a distinctive class of object which otherwise has a strong regional distribution focused on the north of England, particularly Yorkshire
Londinium was the largest city in Britannia and is one of the most intensively excavated urban ce... more Londinium was the largest city in Britannia and is one of the most intensively excavated urban centres in the Empire. However, surprisingly little synthetic analysis of its material culture has taken place and, while the identity and makeup of the early Roman population has been a perennial focus of debate, it is only in recent years that the massive research potential of dress has begun to be exploited. The recovery of large well stratified assemblages of early Roman small finds from the city has provided us with an opportunity to characterise dress and personal adornment in the city and to examine the ways in which they were actively used and transformed over the course of several generations. Some key results of this new work will be surveyed and then a case study will focus in on evidence for the wearing of torcs and neckrings within a colonial urban environment and on the emergence and significance of new Romano-British styles of dress
Talk to the Finds Research Group on an important new assemblage of bone and ivory working waste, ... more Talk to the Finds Research Group on an important new assemblage of bone and ivory working waste, found during excavations of the new Churchyard for the Crossrail Broadgate / Liverpool Street Tickethall. Part of a day seminar on Crossrail finds held to coincide with Museum of London Docklands exhibition Tunnel: The archaeology of Crossrail
Paper on a substantial group of cavalry equipment, part of a very large assemblage of militaria ... more Paper on a substantial group of cavalry equipment, part of a very large assemblage of militaria from the middle Walbrook valley area of Roman London. Amongst the important finds were several articulated groups of harness components. The chronology of the assemblage, its mode of deposition and its significance to our understanding of the military presence in London is considered.
In recent years the role of the Roman army in Londinium has been hotly debated with new perspecti... more In recent years the role of the Roman army in Londinium has been hotly debated with new perspectives provided by a string of important discoveries including traces of a supposed Claudian encampment, part of a Neronian fort and most recently the discovery of in excess of 300 pieces of militaria discovered during excavations in the Walbrook valley including weapons, armour, elements of military dress and cavalry equipment. This paper places these new discoveries in their stratigraphic and historical context, considering their chronology and taphonomy, before surveying their character and considering whether it is possible to recognise distinctly military styles of consumption in the other material from the site with a focus on the dress accessories.
Paper given on 26th September 2015 at AHRC workshop 'Big Data on the Roman Table' at the Universi... more Paper given on 26th September 2015 at AHRC workshop 'Big Data on the Roman Table' at the University of Leicester.
Roman London has seen some of the most intensive excavation in the Roman Empire. Huge quantities of pottery, glass, small finds and environmental evidence have been recovered with much of the material being well stratified and centrally curated in the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre. All this ought to make Londinium an ideal place for studying Roman foodways but much still needs to be done. We begin with a case study of the recent analysis of the finds from Bloomberg London and highlight some of the challenges and opportunities that developer funded archaeology creates for understanding eating and drinking in Roman London. We go on to consider structural problems in London archaeology including: variable approaches to quantification, analysis, publication and curation of data; the availability and value of expertise and the lack of recent synthesis.
Upcoming conference paper exploring identity in early Roman London through detailed consideratio... more Upcoming conference paper exploring identity in early Roman London through detailed consideration of small finds relating to personal appearance / styles of grooming and dress
Discovery Blog, 2021
This blog post shares new ancient DNA evidence about the person buried at Harper Road - the new a... more This blog post shares new ancient DNA evidence about the person buried at Harper Road - the new analysis using aDNA extracted from the petrous bone found that they had female chromosomes.
The piece also provides new insights into the decoration on the torc.