This shows engineering because each tool was made for a purpose e.g. to help the process of making something. To make the tools they would also have needed a high level of engineering.
At Verulamium there were many grand mosaics on show and these mosaics took great skill to make. The time and effort needed to produce a large mosaic would have been immense. We know that this needed a very high skill level because the engineers who made them had to copy the picture from their minds. From the mosaics on show at Verulamium we found out that even the greatest engineers made mistakes, because on one of the mosaics the tail was missing on the lion. We know that the engineers that made the mosaics were skilled because there was evidence at Verulamium that they were highly paid.
An example of skilled engineering that is still in use today is the roads that the Romans built. The roads were long and straight and had many layers of sand, cement, and stone before that top layer. Like the mosaics there were an immense time and effort needed to make these roads. The roads were an essential part of Roman life because they enabled their armies to march from city to city quickly and easily. Examples of these roads are Watling Street, Ermine Street and Fosse Way.
QUESTION 2b: “Law and Religion were important part of Roman Life” Does the evidence found by the archaeologists support this view?
The evidence at Verulamium and my own background knowledge shows that both religion and law were important features of Roman life. There was much more evidence, at Verulamium, of examples of religious practices than law, which leads me to believe that religion was more important than law in Verulamium.
In Verulamium there was examples that Roman people worshiped Gods. They had more than one God. People would have shrines in their houses, which they would give gifts of wine and food. In return the Gods protect the family and the household. The Romans built temples. At Verulamium there were two temples, one was an unusual triangular shape due to the roads crossing. This temple was built for the Goddess Cybele, goddess of human progress and cities. This shows that the Romans worshiped not only in the home in groups, but alone in the home.
Archaeologists found people buried with their belongings e.g. coins, toys and hobnails form their shoes. From these discoveries we know that the Romans believed in an “after-life”. Once you had died you were believed to have a long journey to this “after-life” and so, would need your shoes and you would need some money to pay the “ferryman” to reach the “after-life”
There is also evidence of cremation pots, at Verulamium. Which shows that they did not just bury the dead. These cremation pots were often chipped, we think there are two reasons for this; one being that no one would want to steal a chipped pot and the second being that they believed that the pots life had been ended as well as the persons inside.
When people were buried the rich and poor were treated very differently. The poor would probably be wrapped in cloth and put in a hole in the ground, where as the rich would be put in lead coffins and then wrapped in cloth. In these lead coffins would be the things they need to reach the “after-life”.
All these examples shows that religion was important because it shows that people went out of their way to do religious practices. It also shows that religion had a say in how different classes were treated.
Examples of law at Verulamium were limited, but we know that law was in existence because part of an inscription from the basilica was found. The basilica was where all the legal decisions would be made. The inscription read;
“To the emperor Titus Caesar Vespasian, son of the deified Vespasian, Chief – Priest, holding the power of a tribune for the eight time, declared commander – in – chief for the fifteenth time, holding the office the consul for the seventh time and already chosen for the eighth time, with the title of ‘censor’ and ‘father of his country’ and to Caesar Domitrian, son of Vespasian, holding the office of the consul for the sixth time and already chosen for the seventh time, leader of the youth and priest of all the priestly orders. During the governorship of Gnaius Julius Agricola, representative of the emperor and with the rank of praetor. The town of Verulamium pays homage by erecting this ornate civic centre.”
This translation shows that there were people in position to exercise legal powers. Which shows that law was present in Roman times. The Basilica sign indicates the existence of the Basilica the law making centre, so we can assume that law was important.
The only other example of law found at Verulamium was that babies that died who were under forty days old could be buried inside the walls of the city, where as any body older than 40 days be buried outside the walls of the city. This shows that there were laws in circulation at Verulamium.
QUESTION 2c: “The Romans liked beautiful things and adored entertaining and being entertained.”
What evidence is there to suggests that this is true?
At Verulamium there is a lot of evidence for all three parts of this question. There is also a lot of need for general knowledge and background reading revision to show how the evidence at Verulamium was used.
Evidence of “Beautiful Things” at Verulamium was endless. Jewellery made of gold, bronze, jet and precious stones and glass beads were found. Cosmetics such as eyeliner were found this; evidence shows that Roman people like to look good and were quite vain.
Evidence of mosaics and wall decoration showed that the Romans wanted their houses to look beautiful, this also shows skilled engineering.
My background revision shows that the Romans gave a lot value to professions like painters and potters. Painting was one the highest paid professions. All this evidence suggests that the Roman people like to own beautiful things have beautiful things and to look beautiful.
We know that the Roman people adored to entertain because there was evidence of Semian pottery which would only be used on special occasions when entertaining. Semian pottery was very sought after, beautiful pottery and was decorated with pictures of animals. Evidence of kitchen equipment and cutlery shows that Romans liked to entertain.
Evidence of the Romans being “entertained” at Verulamium was quite easy to find. There was a theatre built at Verulamium that we were unable to see, but this shows that Romans liked to watch shows and plays enough to build a theatre. The public baths would have been a major part of Roman life. They would have been the “gossip houses” the where Romans would meet up with friends and chat whilst in the baths.
Roman people would have played instruments as entertainment we know this because a mouthpiece from a trumpet was found. On show at Verulamium was an example of a board game that would be played by the Roman people; the game was very similar to noughts and crosses. This shows that the Romans had entertainment in the home.
We also saw evidence that hare coursing was a popular sport at Verulamium. The Romans had other sports that were not played at Verulamium or any other Roman – British towns. These sports were chariot racing and gladiator fighting. These were very popular in other parts of the Roman Empire.
All this evidence shows that Romans liked beautiful things and adored to entertain and to be entertained. I think that the rich Roman peoples life revolved around having beautiful things and entertaining and being entertained.
QUESTION 3: From looking at the site was Verulamium a typical Roman town? Refer in detail to the features you saw.
At Verulamium there was evidence to show that it was similar to the other Roman towns in Britain. The evidence I found also showed that Verulamium was different to Roman towns in Italy or Gaul because it had adapted to the different climate and the different resources.
All Roman towns in Britain would look like a grid. This enabled people to access almost everywhere in the town. From birds-eye-view the town would look like a neat grid of crossing roads. The towns would have looked similar to this:
Built into the grid would have been the Theatre, Basilica, Baths, Forum and Temples. Verulamium wouldn’t have been any different, the same layout and all the building would be built in. The only difference was the triangular temple.
The materials used to build these buildings would have been the same throughout all the Roman towns in Britain. The materials are the same because these are the only the materials available at the time. The materials used would have been wood, stone and a mixture of sand and water to make cement.
There are no differences between Verulamium and the other Roman towns in Britain, but there were a number of differences between Verulamium and other Roman towns in other parts of the Roman Empire e.g. Gaul. The materials used to build houses and important building such as temples would have been different because of the different materials available in Gaul compared to Britain. In Gaul and many other parts of the Roman Empire water was need to be carried in to the major cities by aquaducts because the climate dry. In Verulamium aquaducts were not need because of the wet climate. There was enough rain to give Roman people living in Verulamium sufficient water.
QUESTION 4: The area which became Verulamium went through a number of changes following the roman invasion in AD43. In your own words describe how Verulamium changed as a result of Boudicca’s actions.
Boudicca was the Queen of the Iceni tribe in East Anglia. Boudicca was a very strong character with a lot of charisma. She was very broad, and had striking red hair. The Iceni tribe had a simple way of life and many were farmers.
After the Romans had invaded Britain and invaded the Iceni tribe they and other tribes agreed the peace agreement with the Romans. But as soon as Boudiccas husband, Presutagus died in AD59 the Romans invaded the Iceni tribe again and captured Boudicca and her daughters. Boudicca was humiliated and flogged in front of her own people and her daughters were brutally raped by a Legion of Romans.
This made Boudicca was furious and she wanted revenge other tribes joined forces with her as she rallied together people to revolt against the Romans. The entire south – east tribes joined forces with Boudicca. Eventually Boudicca had an army of over 100,000 people. Their first target was Callunomdium, where they butchered everyone. When Boudicca and her army reached Verulamium, Seautonius, the Roman army leader, had put together a small army to defend Verulamium, but they were outnumbered ten to one. Boudicca’s army had no strategy and just ran at the Roman army who had a plan. 80,000 Britain’s were slaughtered and Boudicca was defeated. But in her time she managed to burn down Verulamium twice.
We found out that Verulamium was burnt down twice by Boudicca. We know this because evidence of charcoal and ash was found when Verulamium was dug up. Each time Verulamium was burnt down Verulamium was built again bigger and with more defences.
The building was slow, Boudicca rebelled in 61AD and we know that the Basilica sign was made in 79AD. That’s roughly eighteen years it took to rebuild Verulamium. The Roman people who lived Verulamium learnt from Boudicca’s attack and built better defences. They built higher walls made of stone and less wood was used, so then less things would go on fire if it happened again.
So, although at the time Verulamium being burnt down was the worst possible outcome, in the long run it helped the future of Verulamium. Verulamium became a bigger and better town after Boudicca’s attacks.
QUESTION 5: How valuable is Verulamium to the modern historian? Use a range of evidence (including written sources and site evidence, primary and secondary sources) to support your answer.
I think that Verulamium is valuable to the modern historian because of range evidence and primary and secondary sources available at Verulamium. Many of the sources have limitations, which hold back its value to modern historians.
The mosaics at Verulamium show the Romans love of beautiful thing. The mosaics can tell the modern historians that there was a divide at Verulamium. The mosaics would only be found rich households, as the poor could not afford the artists/engineers to make them. It would take a very high level of skill and patience to make the mosaics, which means that skilled engineers would have been limited and so expensive. The tools found at Verulamium show that there was use for the blacksmiths trade and that each tool was made for a purpose or had its own job. The tools can tell the modern historian that the blacksmiths trade was important to Roman daily life. The blacksmiths would have been highly skilled engineers to develop sophisticated tools like the plumb line that is still used today. The only limitation would have been that there is no evidence of how the tools were made.
The Basilica sign found at Verulamium shows there was a Basilica at Verulamium and that law was present. The Basilica sign shows that law was important to the people of Verulamium and that law was being practised. It has its limitation because this along with the law on the babies are the only examples of law available at Verulamium. The law on babies shows that were specific laws in practise at Verulamium.
The Semian pottery shows that the people of Verulamium had good trade routes and good craftsmen. The pottery shows the modern historian that there was trade for craftsmen of this sort and that they would have been very skilled because the Semian pottery was very sort after. The limitations would have been that we do not know how the pots were made.
The reconstruction of the shrines will show the modern historian that religion was an important to the daily life of a Roman person living in Verulamium. It has its limitations though as we do not know how accurate they are.
The artist’s impressions at Verulamium give a good impression of daily life in Verulamium. But again we do not know how accurately these paintings portrayed daily life in Verulamium.
Modern historians would find Verulamium, as a whole, very valuable as there is a lot of evidence found. All the information and examples I have stated above and probably more would be very valuable to the modern historian because they all show different parts of daily life and the differences between the daily life of the rich and poor.
QUESTION 6: How would you improve the site so that young historians could learn more about Verulamium?
The Verulamium museum had loads of information in it that has been obtained from the artefacts that have been found and you can easily learn plenty of information from what is currently there. So to find things to make it better is very difficult.
Although there was lots evidence that has already been dug up if they chose to dig up the rest of the local park that the town of Verulamium was situated on they find a lot more about how the Verulamium has changed over years.
The information boards were very factual and there was almost too much too take in and they looked like huge boards of writing. If they made these information boards more interesting and accessible more people would learn more things. Also if they had leaflets to summaries the key points so you could take the information away with when you left would be helpful.
The videos on show in the museum were a bit dated and need to be updated. They were also too long no one will want to stand around watching a dated video for ten minutes.
We know that they did scans of the fields to obtain more information. If they were to display these scans it would help people to find out how they knew what artefacts were there without digging it up.
Also if they did a small interactive presentation where people can get involved on how daily life might work instead of large information boards and picture boards people would take more away.
All the improvements I could think of all could be changed if they considered different learning styles. Not everyone learns their best when reading large pieces of writing. If they tried to accommodate most styles of learning then everyone would take all they could from Verulamium. I think if they considered my improvements, the Verulamium museum would be much better and people will be able to take more form it.