Schools & Beyond: Roman & Anglo-Saxon Canterbury Reconstructed

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Ways to use the Reconstruction Images

The following are suggestions of how to look at the Roman and Anglo-Saxon coloured reconstructions, to find out about aspects of the past. How much you choose to do will depend on your objectives and the abilities of the pupils or students. Some answers will be found by investigating the images, others by doing a little research. Take the opportunity to discuss different possible interpretations.

Page references (in brackets) guide you to relevant information in the Notes.

Investigating an individual reconstruction image

1. How has the artist been able to create this picture of the past? What particular source of evidence has he used? (pp.7-10)

2. Do we see buildings like these in our towns today?

3. What has happened to these ancient buildings over the centuries? (pp.7-10)

4. Can you identify any of the buildings? (pp.12-24, 40-45)

5. What building materials did people use and where did they come from? What materials do builders use today? (pp.12-24, 40-43)

6. Use the picture to think of some jobs that people would have had in the past.

7. What does the town centre look like today? Think about leisure facilities, shopping, businesses, housing, town boundary.

Comparing the 2 images. Looking at continuity and change.

8. What are your first impressions?

9. Compare building styles, arrangement, street layout, building materials. What do you notice?

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10. Can you find any Roman buildings which were still standing in Anglo-Saxon times?
The theatre stood in ruins up to the Norman period and may well have been a landmark (p.12)

11. Which period of time would you have preferred to live in?
These images suggest strikingly different cultures and the tendency is to see the Roman lifestyle as being more sophisticated. We need to look at other aspects of each culture before making judgements eg. fine jewellery made by the Anglo-Saxons, 'barbaric' Roman entertainment… (pp.40-45)

12. Do you think more people lived in the Roman town or the Anglo-Saxon town? What is your answer based on?

13. Why do archaeologists find more building remains on Roman sites than Anglo-Saxon sites?
(pp.9-10, 41-42)

Using the Reconstructions with Other Resources

Pupils could investigate other sources of evidence (eg. artefacts, maps and plans) and see what else they can discover about Roman and Anglo-Saxon times. They could then present their findings citing the sources they were able to draw upon.

The Value of Using Artefacts

1. Pupils and students of differing abilities can benefit from the hands-on, tactile experience of working with artefacts. For the less able, the experience is likely to leave a longer-lasting impression than reading material in a book.

2. Artefacts are primary sources of evidence and provide much information about the past (everyday life, materials, technology, trade and communication, how things changed or stayed the same over time).

3. They provide opportunities to develop investigative skills (observation, identification, classification, interpretation, recording and communicating results).

4. Cross-curricula value

English
Descriptive work in written and verbal form. Developing vocabulary, expressing ideas and theories, reporting to others. Creating stories around the 'life' of an object.

Maths
Estimating size and shape from fragments. Identifying symmetry. Measuring. Drawing artefacts using scale. Recording data (physical features of colour, material, size etc.) . Using appropriate mathematical language.

Science and Technology
Types of materials. Decay and survival of different materials. How things were made. Suitability of material and design to function. Comparing technologies with the present day. How things have changed or stayed the same.

Artefact Activities and Loan Box Services

The Teachers' Guide, Discovering Archaeology in National Curriculum History has a section on using artefacts and lists Kent agencies operating a loan box service.

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Using Maps and Plans

An archaeological plan is a record of structural evidence on a site, measured and drawn to scale. A reconstruction image is an extension of the plan. Reconstructions bring a plan to life and present evidence in a form which has more impact for those of us trying to recreate a lifestyle of the past.

But we should remember that while reconstructions are based on primary, physical evidence, in order to make the images meaningful partial remains are interpreted as complete and a degree of speculation is necessarily involved.

Using the Roman town plan (Fig. 4)

1. On the Roman town plan, locate the area shown in the reconstruction. You will see that the temple is not plotted on the plan. This is because archaeologists do not know its exact location.

2. The Roman plan shows us some features of the town which are not visible in the reconstruction. What are they? (pp.21-26)

3. Find some evidence for Roman industry on the Roman plan. (p.17)

4. Work out which Roman gate is just visible in the top left corner of the reconstruction. (pp.22-23)

5. Find out what these words mean: kiln, cremation, inhumation, perimeter.

6. There are lots of buildings shown in the reconstruction image, suggesting a large population in Roman Canterbury. There is another clue on the Roman plan. What is it? (pp. 25-26)

7. Find out why Roman kilns and cemeteries were located outside the town.
The cremation cemetery around Worthgate appears to lie partly inside the wall. However it probably originally lay outside like the others, at a time when the southern boundary of the Roman town lay in a different position.

Using the modern town plan (Fig. 3):

8. Compare the line of the town wall circuit on the Roman plan with the ring road on the modern plan. What do you notice?

9. Compare the roads entering the town on both of the plans. Try to find modern roads which have Roman origins. (pp.21-24)

10. Compare the course of the River Stour on both plans. What do you notice? (p.48)

11. On the modern plan, locate the few examples of Roman building work which are still standing today. If you can go and see them, try and work out how they have managed to survive since Roman times. (pp.21-23)

Using Museums and Sites

You can visit local museums and sites to see Roman and Anglo-Saxon discoveries on display and excavated remains in situ. The vast quantities of Canterbury finds from sites discussed in this pack are housed with the Canterbury Museums. To see specifically Roman finds, in attractive displays and reconstructed scenes of everyday life, visit the Roman Museum in Butchery Lane. You will be able to handle some of the objects. The Heritage Museum in Stour Street deals with the Roman period through to the 20th century. Here the Roman section is more limited but this is the place to see Anglo-Saxon discoveries from the town in displays which illustrate the crafts and technological skills of that period. Both museums are located on Fig. 3 of this pack.

Teacher's Resource Pack
Roman and Anglo-Saxon Canterbury Reconstructed

How can this pack help you?

How do we find out about the past? The role of Archaeology

The Reconstruction Images

How we have gathered the evidence

The Centre of Roman Canterbury

Setting the scene
Main features of the Roman town: Public buildings
Other features: Houses, streets, walls, gates and cemeteries

Transition from Roman Town to Anglo-Saxon Settlement

The end of Roman Britain
What happened at Canterbury?
Canterbury in the 5th and 6th centuries

Change and New Growth in Anglo-Saxon Canterbury

Sources of evidence for the Anglo-Saxons
Augustine and the revival of Christianity
Origins of St Martin's Church: Different types of evidence
Expansion of the Church: A building programme begins

Everyday Life in Anglo-Saxon Canterbury