Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (146 page)

Latin term for a kind of oval race-track used in the classical world for chariot racing. There were several examples in Rome itself, the best known and earliest of which is the Circus Maximus (600 m by 150 m). The race-track itself comprised a central wall (
spina
) with a turning point marked by a column at each end (
metae
). Seating for spectators was provided on banks along either side. Known in the Greek world as a
hippodrome
.

 
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Roman and medieval town in the heart of the Cotswolds in central southern England, 5km northeast of the head of the Thames. Excavations since the late 1950s by Graham Webster , John Watcher , Alan McWhirr , Timothy Darvill , and Neil Holbrook among others have revealed something of the size and complexity of the town. Founded as a Roman military settlement in the later 1st century
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its initial role was probably in relation to the nearby tribal centre of the Dobunni at Bagendon and as a station on the first major frontier created across southeastern England after the conquest—the Fosse Way frontier. By the 2nd century, however, a civilian settlement had been established which was to become the
civitas
capital of this agriculturally rich region: Corinium Dobunnorum. By the 4th century the town was the second largest in the province of Britannia, next to London, and perhaps the seat of a regional governor. Walls were added to the town's defences in the 3rd century
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. There were temples, a fine forum and basilica, and a theatre inside the town, with extensive cemeteries and a large amphitheatre immediately outside the walls. Occupation continued through Anglo-Saxon times, Cirencester becoming one of the main market towns of the Cotswolds in the medieval period.
[Sum.: T. Darvill and C. Gerrard , 1994,
Cirencester: town and landscape
. Cirencester: Cotswold Archaeological Trust]

 
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See
LOST-WAX CASTING TECHNIQUE
.

 
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Stone-lined burial pit, sometimes sealed below a barrow mound, within which cremation or inhumation burials were placed. The stone walls frequently supported a flat cover-slab.

 
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Monastic order of monks founded at Citeaux in Burgundy in ad 1098, although later found in other parts of Europe. The order came to Britain in ad 1128. The monks wore white habits and renounced wealth and grandeur, colonizing isolated areas and gaining a living from land previously uncultivated. They made extensive use of lay brethren to help run their establishments, especially dependent granges, many of which were devoted to sheep farming.

 
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A type of brown coloured pottery made in the north midlands of England in the late 15th and 16th centuries
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.

 
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