Roman Altar Research Articles

A Roman altar found near Godalming

A Roman altar found near Godalming

Roman Altar at Housesteads, Northumberland

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Roman altar in Scilly

Roman altar in Scilly

Hebrew Ostraca from Samaria

In 1908 Harvard University began the exploration of the large hill in central Palestine which marks the site of the ancient Hebrew capital Samaria. The chief results of the year's work were the discovery of a Roman statue of heroic size (probably representing Augustus), a well-preserved Roman altar, an imposing stairway, about eighty feet broad, and the massive foundation-walls of a large building, the connection of which with the Herodian temple to Augustus was considered possible.

Notes of a Stone on the Moor near Dullatur, called the Carrick Stone, shaped like a Roman Altar, and having Cups on its upper Surface (with a Drawing)

Notes of a Stone on the Moor near Dullatur, called the Carrick Stone, shaped like a Roman Altar, and having Cups on its upper Surface (with a Drawing)

Roman Altars Preserved at Rokeby and the Roman Stations at Greta Bridge and Piersbridge

Roman Altars Preserved at Rokeby and the Roman Stations at Greta Bridge and Piersbridge

Discovery of a Roman altar in Lincoln

Discovery of a Roman altar in Lincoln

The dolphin on a Roman altar

The dolphin on a Roman altar

On a Roman Altar Discovered In Restoring the Parish Church of Gainford In 1864

On a Roman Altar Discovered In Restoring the Parish Church of Gainford In 1864

Notice of the Roman Altars, &c., presented by the Right Hon Sir George Clerk of Penicuik, Bart

Sixteen Roman artefacts were presented to the Society by George Clark in December 1857 along with a list of where they were found. The article contains this list, a page with illustrations of some of the artefacts, and a short biography of the Sir John Clerk, the eighteenth-century antiquarian who collected the objects.

Tailors' Candlesticks

James T. Gibson Craig exhibited two candlesticks from the 17th century, which had been modeled after a Roman altar. The better preserved of the two had the initals I.A. and the year 1634 carved into it. They were found in a house in Dalkeith. Later, the Rev. Alex Mackenzie demonstrated the influence of the Ancient Celts on modern Argyllshire by deriving contemporary proper names from titles for ecclesiastical ofices in the Celtic tradition.

On Certain Mythic Personages, Mentioned on Roman Altars Found in England and on the Rhine

On Certain Mythic Personages, Mentioned on Roman Altars Found in England and on the Rhine

XXVII. Description of a Roman Altar found in the neighbourhood of Aldston Moor, in Cumberland: in a Letter to the Earl of Aberdeen, K.T. President of the Society of Antiquaries, &c. &c. by the Rev. Stephen Weston, B.D. F.R.S. and S.A.

I beg leave to offer to your Lordship and the Society a Description of a Roman Altar lately dug up in the neighbourhood of Aldston Moor, in Cumberland, near a military road, and not far from a great Roman station. The altar is three feet high, sixteen inches wide, and eight thick. It is divided into three compartments, the capital, the square or plane, and the base. On the top is an oval cavity one inch and a half deep, and about nine over by six, in which the wine, the frankincense, and the fire were placed, and was called Thuribulum, the censer, or the focus; but this hole is not on all the Roman altars found in Great Britain. On the sides however of the one I am describing are two bass-reliefs, representing on one part the infant Hercules strangling two serpents (as he is seen on a silver coin of Croton in Italy), and on the other the god in all his strength about to combat the serpent in the garden of the Hesperides (as he appears on a coin of Geta struck at Pergamus).

XXX. Explanation of the Inscriptions on a Roman Altar and Tablet found at Tinmouth Castle in Northumberland, A. D. 1783. By the Rev. Mr. Brand, Secretary.

No 1. Pl. XXI. is an exact representation of the front of a Roman altar found in Tinmouth Castle in Northumberland, by Major Durnford, at the depth of six feet in the earth, where it had been laid as a foundation stone, probably of the antient Christian church which is said to have been erected there soon after the introduction of that faith into Britain. The lower part of it, by whatever accident, is much defaced, and it is at present quite flat at the top, though we may suppose it to have had originally a focus there, which the workmen, in order to make it square and bed properly, may have been obliged to take off. The inscription is plainly to be read : “Jovi optimo maximo “Ælius Rufus Præfectus Cohortis quartæ Lingonum.” The Lingones were a people of Champagne in France, and are well known to have been among the Roman auxiliary troops of infantry, but this is our first information where the fourth Cohort of them was stationed in Britain.

LIV. Explanation of an Inscription on a Roman Altar found at Brough on the Sands, in Cumberland: By the late Bishop Lyttelton

The drawing, or rather sketch, I now lay before you, was made from a Roman altar lately dug up in the vicar's garden at Brough on the Sands in Cumberland, which is supposed to have been the Axelodunum of the Notitia, but certainly was a Roman station, close adjoining on Severus's wall.It is of a course red stone, adorned only with plain mouldings, as represented in the sketch. The inscription is complete, but the letters very rude and meanly cut, though very legible, consisting but of two words, viz.which certainly stands for Belatucadro, and is, I think, the fifth inscription which has been discovered in Great Britain addressed to this Local Deity, for such I am inclined to pronounce it with Camden and Gale; or at least another name for Apollo, with Dr. Ward, and not a cognomen of Mars, or another appellation of him as has been conjectured.

LIII. An Inscription, from a Roman Altar found at Brough on the Sands in Cumberland: By the late Lord Bishop of Carlisle

The drawing, or rather sketch, I now lay before you, was made from a Roman altar lately dug up in the Vicar's Garden at Brough on the Sands in Cumberland, supposed to have been the Axelodunum of the Notitia, but certainly was a Roman station, close adjoining on Severus's wall.

V. An account of a Roman altar, with inscription upon it, found in April last at York, and communicated to the Society of Antiquaries by Mr, Francis Drake, F. R. S. As also a breif explication of the inscription by John Ward, LL. D. Professor of Rhetoric in Gresham College, and V. P. R. S

This altar was found, with other remains of antiquity, by some workmen, in opening a new and deep drain down the centre of a large street, called Micklegate , in the city of York .

VI. Part of a letter from Mr. Thorseby, dated Leeds, July 10. 1697. to Dr. Martin Lister, Fellow of the Colledge of Physicians and Royal Society; concerning two Roman altars lately found in the North of England: with notes on the same, by Tho Gale, D. D. and F. R. S.

I have drawn the figures of two Roman altars, which my correspondent in the North transmitted to me for my thoughts of them; the former was taken out of the <italic>Roman-wall</italic>, not far from <italic>Collerton</italic>, or Chollarton, and may tempt us to believe that the old <italic>Procolitia</italic>,

VI. Part of a letter from Mr. Halley at Chester, October 26th, 1696. giving an account of an animal resembling a whelp voided per anum, by a male greyhound, and of a Roman Altar found there, &c

The Account the Society had from Dr. Wallis about a Year since of a Greyhound Dog, that voided an Animal, resembling a Whelp per anum , as strange and incredible and incredible as it many seem, is yet here stedfastly believed;