The University of Reading is proud to host the Biennial International Roman Archaeology Conference in collaboration with the Roman Society The conference will take place on Friday 28 to Sunday 30 March 2014, returning to where it began 20 years ago in 1994. It will bring together sessions from the Roman Society, from the Study Group for Roman Pottery, from the Roman Finds Group and from the Theoretical Roman Archeology Conference.

Alongside the material and theoretical sessions there will be particular emphases on Italy, the value of developer-funded archaeology in understanding the Romano-British countryside and on Zooarchaeology.

Read more here.

Session: ‘Deposits full of character’

Provisional outline

This session proposes to look at deposits containing ceramics and/or other specific small finds or coins from the viewpoint of pre-consumption and consumption. Papers will focus on the nature of the deposits, for example, waste, ritual, burial, putting them into a wider social, economic and chronological context. In particular the finds will be considered for the interpretation of the organization of trade, merchants and supply, whilst also offering a glimpse into the potentially more personal world of consumer habits and assemblages for the gods, the deceased and the afterlife.

Provisional papers

Meike Weber: Pre-consumption deposits and their enormous importance for trade and interpretations of the economy.

Jane Timby: Pottery consumption at pre- and early Roman Silchester. Pots for foreigners or immigrants