To commemorate the 1600th anniversary of the End of Roman Britain (AD 410), Cardiff University and the Monmouthshire Antiquarian Association are hosting a two-day conference to explore the evidence for Roman continuity in western Britain in the 5th century.
Themes and topics include the survival of town life, the Roman army, Roman and 'post'-Roman material culture and the transition to Christianity, as well as coinage, pottery and inscriptions. Members of the audience will be able to put questions to the experts during a 'Question Time' panel discussion on the second day.
The conference will include a wide range of papers on the history and archaeology of 5th century Wales and Western Britain, delivered by experts at the forefront of current research.
2010 marks the 1600th anniversary of the end of Roman Britain in AD 410, one of the greatest turning points in British history. To celebrate (or commemorate) a large number of organisations and museums work together to offer you a year filled with Roman-Britain events.
The programme of 410-2010 events centres around a comprehensive range of conferences across England and Wales. In addition there will be re-enactment festivals and a series of other events and projects all designed to spread public understanding of 410 and push the debate on the period forward: What was life on the island like at this critical moment? Was it fire and sword, with barbarian raids, peasant risings, tribal warfare? How much survived, and how much changed? What did the conquerors leave behind? Did the new Britain forged in the period after the departure of Rome bear the hallmarks of Roman civilisation, or was it a revolutionary new order of Britons and Germans?
The so-called Red Lady of Paviland is an Upper Paleolithic-period human male skeleton, discovered in 1823 in one of the Paviland caves in the Gower Peninsula of South Wales by Dr William Buckland. It's relatively intact, and gets its name from the fact that it was initially misjudged as being female by Dr Buckland, combined with the fact that it was discovered dyed in red ochre.
The Red Lady has since been identified as a man, of around 21 years old at time of death. The remains date to around 29,000 BP (Buckland, a creationist, believed no human could be older than the Biblical Great Flood, and therefore wildly underestimated the skeleton's age). They are the oldest anatomically modern human remains ever found in the UK, and the oldest example of a ceremonial burial in Western Europe. The man may have been the chief of a semi-nomadic tribe that scouted the area living off mammoth, wooly rhinoceros and reindeer.
Gaius Suetonius Paulinus was a Roman general, receiving command of the army in 59 AD. Also in 59 AD, he was appointed governor of Britain, continuing Quintus Veranius's policy of aggressively defeating the tribes of modern Wales and was successful for his first two years in this position.
He was best known as the commander who defeated the Iceni, the native Britons, and defeated their Queen Boudicca, in 61 AD. According to records about 20,000 Roman troops faced around 100,000 Britons. The defeat turned into slaughter as possibly 80,000 Britons died, while Roman casualties remained under 1,000.
Filmed in association with University of Wales’ Institute of Digital Learning (IDL), it examined the Gwent roots of the legendary British monarch of round table fame – both the real figure, who may have been a 5th or 6th century local warlord, and the mythical Arthur championed in countless folk tales.
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"The Stonehenge bluestones clearly came from west Wales – I don’t hear any question about that. At the very least there’s that Welsh connection, and there could be more."
Dolaucothi gold mines date back to the 70s AD, when the Romans first arrived in west Wales. Roman industry was active there for some 60 years, until about 130 AD.
The mines are in rural Carmarthenshire, near the village of Pumsaint.
The mines include pits, galleries, spoil heaps and other mine features, covering about two square kilometres.
During excavations in the 1930s, wooden tools were discovered at Dolaucothi – this was the first time it was realised that the mines were of Roman origin. Part of a water-lifting wheel was found there in the 1960s and this was securely dated to the Roman occupation of the mine.
Today owned by the National Trust, the site can be visited, with guided tours of the underground workings of the mine and an exhibition on gold as well as the history of mining. The Cothi Valley also offers a network of country walks for visitors.
As many as 21 Roman villas are known in south Wales, but until now archaeologists didn't believe that the Romans had built villa-sized dwellings as far north as Aberystwyth, in Ceredigion.
One of the most well-excavated Roman villas in Wales is Caermead villa north of Llantwit Major, on the south coast in South Glamorgan.
The villa is built around an 'L' shaped courtyard and there are several buildings of different sizes for various domestic and agricultural purposes. The villa was discovered in 1888 but it wasn't excavated fully until 1938-48.
There is evidence of neolithic or Iron Age humans at Llantwit Major, but archaeologists believe that the Roman villa dates from the first century AD, while the foundations of the stone structures were put down during the second century. The villa is notable for its mosaic floors. The villa was abandoned during the fourth century. It is not thought that the villa was connected with Saint Illtud, who founded an abbey at Llantwit Major in the fifth century AD, in anyway.
The National Museum Wales is the name given to a group of museums, including the National Museum Cardiff.
The National Museum Cardiff is a museum and art gallery at Cathays Park holding the biggest and most important art collection in Wales. This includes Renaissance masters, French impressionists such as Cezanne and Van Gogh, extensive Welsh art (for example Kyffin Williams), as well as 20th century artists such as Lucien Freud and Francis Bacon.
Other museums in the National Museum Wales group include St Fagan's Natural History Museum and the National Roman Legion Museum, as well as the National Coal Museum and the National Slate Museum.
Newport Castle is a ruined 14th century castle in the centre of the the city of Newport, south Wales. It is this castle that - in the Welsh language - gives Newport its name, Castell Newydd, shortened to Casnewydd ('New Castle'). However, the castle was never a particularly important centre of government (it was only active for 200 years) and it exists today in a state of severe disrepair, with large parts demolished to make way for roads and railways. In 2003, it was sealed off from the public altogether because it is too hazardous to enter.
Only the castle's east side remains, squeezed between a busy modern road and roundabout and neglected for centuries. The high tidal range of the River Usk has caused considerable damage to the castle's remains over the years. The best hope visitors have of seeing its existing remains are from the nearby Newport Bridge or Riverfront Theatre. A footpath once ran nearby, but it too was closed in 2006.
While no plans for a physical restoration of Newport Castle are in any advanced stage, a virtual reconstruction of the building has been created by the University of Wales Newport's Institute of Digital Learning (IDL) and will go online on the IDL's Second Life island soon, alongside other virtual Welsh heritage sites and artefacts, including the Newport Ship.
Historians and archaeologists are having to rethink the 
