The Movement of Ideas in Late Iron Age and Early Roman Britain: An Imported Rotary Quern Design in South-Western England. (November 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Shaffrey, Ruth
• Is Part Of: Britannia. Volume 50(2019)
• Page Start: 393
• Page End: 402
• Publication Date: 2019-11
• Subjects: rotary quern, -- movement of ideas, -- late Iron Age, -- early Roman, -- South-West England; Great Britain -- History -- Roman period, 55 B.C.-449 A.D -- Periodicals; Great Britain -- Antiquities, Roman -- Periodicals; Romans -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; 936.10305
• DOI: 10.1017/S0068113X19000114
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0068-113X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In 2012, a complete upper stone of a rotary quern with a projecting lug for a vertical handle was found at Hinkley Point in Somerset, south-western England. It is the first late Iron Age to early Roman period quern of this form to be found in England. This note describes its form in detail and discusses its closest parallels in north-eastern Ireland, south-western Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man and Spain. It shows how thin-section analysis demonstrates the quern to have been locally made in Somerset and discusses the movement of ideas about quern design during the late Iron Age to early Roman period.