Martin Henig – författare

Apart from Christianity and the Oriental Cults, religion in Roman Britain is often discussed as though it remained basically Celtic in belief and practice, under a thin veneer of Roman influence. Using a wide range of archaeological evidence, Dr Henig shows that the Roman element in religion was of much greater significance and that the natural Roman veneration for the gods found meaningful expression even in the formal rituals practised in the public temples of Britain.

Apart from Christianity and the Oriental Cults, religion in Roman Britain is often discussed as though it remained basically Celtic in belief and practice, under a thin veneer of Roman influence. Using a wide range of archaeological evidence, Dr Henig shows that the Roman element in religion was of much greater significance and that the natural Roman veneration for the gods found meaningful expression even in the formal rituals practised in the public temples of Britain.

Julian Munby has gained a reputation over half a century in many branches of archaeological and historical knowledge, from his meticulous publication of the medieval timber structure of 126 High Street and his later elucidation of Tackley’s Inn from J. Buckler’s nineteenth century records when he was an undergraduate, to more recent work on the Historic Towns Atlas for Oxford. He has taken in the publication of the medieval castle at Portchester, the roofs of Chichester and many other cathedrals, the landscape history of Levens Park, Westmorland, the Round Table at Windsor Castle and the Field of the Cloth of Gold. He is an enthusiast for the history of Antiquity, topographical art, and for reading historical sources in the original.

His lively and warm character and sense of fun has made him many friends who also in some sense feel they are his pupils, and this collection of papers has been assembled as a tribute. The first part comprises a preface by the editors, his daughter and son share accounts of being brought up in a household where it was normal for parents to be archaeologists, Jane Woodcock remembers ten years when Julian spent his day in an office arranging exams and cooking gourmet meals, and Deirdre Forde and others reveal his pioneering work teaching building archaeology.

The second part consists of papers by friends who share his enthusiasm and in each case write on a facet of his interests, from his brother’s paper on the superbly engineered tunnel at Box, a reminder that railways and railway architecture has always been one of Julian’s loves, to Oxford topography in a number of papers and the later decor of Windsor Castle.