Letters to the Editor, Winter 2007/08
Dear Editor,
There are obviously more sides to the debate over the future format and presentation of the Archaeologia Cantiana. The hardback edition, although expensive, maintains the standard by which the society is judged. If the presentation migrated solely towards DVD then who can say that in 100 years time the format will still be playable? Remember the 12 inch optical discs that were buried in a time capsule for posterity by ‘Blue Peter’ in the 70’s? This format is no longer readable except in a museum. The humble CD is already going the same way; it is lucky that DVD players can still read the same format.
No, paper is the guaranteed storage medium for the future! By all means publish by download also, but do not neglect the future!
Alan Buckman
Dear Editor,
I read Angela Muthana’s letter in the Autumn 2007 Newsletter with interest but disagree with her views. In my opinion our Journal is first class, not only as regards its content but also its presentation and our editor is to be congratulated on a first class job. Angela queried as to whether any other ‘journal of equivalent standing continues to be published in hard back’ – I am also a member of the Sussex Archaeological Society and am pleased to confirm that their Journal is also published in the same manner.
In my opinion AC is worthy of a society operating in the 21st century and long may it continue. In case any of our readers think I am a member of the ‘Save the dinosaur brigade’, I didn’t write this letter with a quill pen but on my computer.
Tom Holbrooke
Dear Editor,
I was pleased to read the letter about our work at Bax Farm from my ex-student Diarmaid Walshe. It is of particular joy that he is now engaged in important work in Israel. However, Israel is a long way from Kent and the Christian tradition of baptism is somewhat different in the Western Roman Empire than the East. Diarmaid explains in his letter that a defined entrance and exit for one person is the norm in the East, but if we look to Rome and indeed the Baptistery of Constantine built by Sixtus III in AD440, (probably the first baptistery built) we see a ground plan exactly the same as the Roman building investigated at Bax Farm. Indeed the octagonal building at Bax Farm has all of the architectural details found in the Constantine Baptistery in Rome. Both are octagonal, both have a roof supported by a ring of eight columns, and both have a large octagonal terraced central plunge pool, in the case of Rome 12 metres across compared with the 5 metres at Bax Farm. Patently, both are of a completely different design from those generally found in the east. The building at Bax Farm is of such an unusual and complex design that questions have to be asked of its function. To say it is just another Roman bath-house is not a valid interpretation of the evidence. Of course, other examples of octagonal baptisteries abound in the west; the Baptistery at Nocera is one, Ravenna is another, in fact over forty of the same design as Rome and Bax Farm exist – most with attested Christian baptisms having taken place.
On the question of the seal found at Bax Farm, it is in fact a five-branched menorah, not the more normal seven-branched as discussed by Diarmaid. Both have a completely different function. The type found at Bax Farm is called a ‘redemption of the first born’ medal. These were used by Jewish parents symbolically to pay priests upon the birth of their first born son. The priests, it is believed, could be either Christian or Jewish. Five such seals would be given to the priest to ‘buy back’ the first born from God. The ceremony would generally take place when the baby was 31 days old (Exodus 13:1-3).
In summing up, we have a unique late Roman building which deserves further investigation and may help in our understanding of late Roman Kent.
Paul Wilkinson
Dear Editor,
I sometimes wish there could be a little less crowing when present-day researchers discover a mistake or an omission in Edward Hasted’s magnum opus, his 12-volume (or 4-volume folio) History of Kent. Of course there are omissions in it – Hasted was working nearly 250 years ago, without the benefit of today’s catalogues, calendars and indexes, and the mountain of research, historical and archaeological, which has accumulated in the intervening years. He had to journey on horseback to look at a family’s archive, to look at it by candlelight if it happened to be mouldering away in some dark place. And he was covering the whole county, not just a single parish or town. A review of his first folio volume reproached him on this basis, contrasting his work unfavourably with that of Edward Rowe Mores on Iustal. Hasted was comforted by his great friend John Thorpe, who wisely pointed out that an undertaking on such a scale was quite unrealistic for one man: ‘Notwithstanding More’s Hist. has such merit…yet to pursue his plan in a large County must Good Lord! how voluminous would it be, and what few could purchase it, or indeed, what man’s life or pocket is adequate to it?’
Hasted, with his life devoted to his project, is certainly the father of Kentish local history, whom we should be proud to own. There are very few counties which possess a complete 18th-century history of this magnitude, although a large number were proposed or begun. It is fitting that the KAS should have now given him what one may hope will be a lasting memorial in the shape of the biannual Hasted Prize, for which students at any university may submit their final dissertation for an MA or PhD. Awarded for the first time this year, it was won by Celia Carden, a mature student, for her thesis on the hop industry, ‘Hop Cultivation and Marketing: Wealden Kent and Southwark, 1744-2000’ (see page 5). Celia was encouraged to return to education herself in 1993 when her son began university, and since then has achieved a BA at Kingston, followed by an MA and then a PhD at Leicester University, all of which she was able to work for on a part-time basis. She chose her thesis subject for her thesis as her family has Kentish links, and her parents lived at Sandhurst. I am sure we should all congratulate her on her persistence and hard work, and the successful outcome of this.
Dr Shirley B Black