This volume reports on excavations at Regis House and adjacent sites, incorporating Gerald Dunning’s 1929–31 excavations for the Guildhall Museum and the MOLA (MoLAS) 1994–6 excavations. While aspects of the site have been previously published, it is most noted for the massive ad 63/4 timber quay. Located on the northern bank of the Thames, west of and adjacent to the main road and bridge, the sites yielded important evidence for the first- and second-century waterfronts and roadside activity.
In keeping with the best of the MOLA monographs, the book presents a rigorously detailed structural report (pp 1–188), including plans, profiles, reconstruction illustrations and colour photographs. Material culture, human remains and faunal and archaeobotanical remains are integrated into the discussions of each phase. Chapter 1 outlines both campaigns of excavation, while Chapters 2–10 present the phased evidence, with one period per chapter: natural topography (Period 1), the pre-Boudican Waterfront 1 (Period 2); Waterfront 2, the massive Neronian quay and ‘warehouse’ (Period 3); Flavian construction associated with Waterfront 2 (Period 4); the Trajanic Waterfront 3 and new buildings (Period 5); the Hadrianic construction up to the destruction in the Hadrianic fire (Periods 6 and 7), when Waterfront 4 would have been positioned south of the Regis House site, under the modern dual carriageway of Lower Thames Street; the rebuilding following the fire and reorientation of the site to become a roadside settlement along the bridge-approach road (Period 8); and the late second- through to the late fourth-century evidence (Period 9), confined to the south-western part of the site owing to truncation.
Specialist contributions, largely completed by 2016, include catalogues, analysis and illustrations. Waterlogging at this site preserved wood, leather and botanical remains, while the extensive make-up and infill dumping provided for large finds assemblages. Building on the remarkable preservation of wood at this site, Damian Goodburn’s in-depth study of wood and woodworking in Chapter 12 provides a detailed analysis of timber sourcing, transportation and construction, while the remaining specialist reports are found in the impressive compilation of data and analysis in Chapter 13 (pp 243–538). Space here precludes a description of the specialist material included in this book-length chapter, but it is worth noting that the pottery was quantified by sherds (26,219) and rows (9,801), and would benefit from future work based on quantification also by weights and estimated vessel equivalents, to facilitate detailed comparisons with other sites. Although the authors do not suggest a connection, it is noteworthy that a large, roughly shaped block of oolitic limestone (p 40, fig 14; p 245; p 248, fig 108) – interpreted as possibly part of an engaged pilaster, intended for finishing upon arrival – was lost in the water at the pre-Boudican Waterfront 1. Its dimensions are consistent with the bases for decorative pilasters on the façade of the early masonry aisled building at 5–12 Fenchurch Street, constructed in the later pre-Boudican period (Wallace Reference Wallace2014, 91, fig 52, fig 62).
Chapter 11 provides the contextualised discussion, including an updated synthesis of the port and bridge evidence, revisiting the authors’ earlier synthesis and interpretations (Watson et al Reference Watson, Brigham and Dyson2001). The focus here on the evidence around the northern bridgehead complements the earlier work, which focused on evidence in Southwark. The authors raise fundamental questions, such as the significant discrepancy between recorded higher mean high-water level on the northern shore and the lower level on the eyots south of the Thames. This key issue, which impacts the function of the Cornhill port structures and their utility for mooring, loading/unloading and the relationship to sea-going vessels and Continental trade, warrants further research.
Chapter 11 also discusses the nature of authority and control in the ad 60s, attributing the post-Boudican rebuilding and construction of the Neronian quay unequivocally to the procurator Classicianus and the Roman army. The logistical demands of felling, transporting, manoeuvring and installing massive timbers suggest to the authors the work of the imperial administration and military specialists. The brand (‘[…]ỊRA[…]/[…]ỊRAECAVG[…]’, which Hassall and Tomlin (Reference Hassall and Tomlin1996, 449) expand and translate as ‘The [numeral] Augustan Cohort (or Ala) of Thracians’) on the hewn end of an oak baulk supports the involvement of a previously unattested Thracian unit, while the contemporaneous military enclosure at Plantation Place (Dunwoodie et al Reference Dunwoodie, Harward and Pitt2015) suggests troops at least temporarily housed nearby. I would treat this interpretation with caution, however. The brand is evidence for military participation in timber felling, but planning and construction could have been coordinated locally. Large-scale and complicated construction projects were not the sole preserve of the Roman army. Civilians clearly returned quickly to resume commercial and domestic life (eg Bloomberg Tablet WT45), as the authors acknowledge, and impressive engineering continued after the dismantling of the Plantation Place enclosure c ad 70.
As a major contribution to the waterfront infrastructure, this volume is essential reading alongside Gustav Milne’s Reference Milne1985 The Port of Roman London and Watson, Brigham and Dyson’s Reference Watson, Brigham and Dyson2001 MOLA monograph London Bridge: 2000 years of a river crossing. The digital format broadens accessibility, although at the expense of the tactile navigation afforded by a print version. Nonetheless, the ample illustration, data catalogues and interpretative commentary benefit from the freedom of digital publication. The authors are to be commended for bringing this impressive body of work to publication.
