A Note on Roman Architectural Fragments from Tannery Cottages, Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire

Abstract

The recovery from the Irthlingborough site of moulded architectural stone fragments from a plinth or cornice can be added to the earlier find of a sculptured slab in relief showing part of the marine thiasos , the retinue of followers of Oceanus, representing the realm of the sea. What structure this stonework was associated with is uncertain, but it may be paralleled by a similar but more extensive collection of sculptured and moulded stonework from the nearby villa site at Stanwick, where a funerary monument of some significance has been suggested. It may be that the Roman Nene valley landscape was punctuated by several structural markers reflecting the ‘ monumentum ’ of associated villa populations.