What has Piltdown Man got to do with tiles? Well, Charles Dawson concocted the Piltdown hoax, and he is also connected with a Roman tile stamp fraud! He presented a tile stamped with HON AVG ANDRIA, and said he had found it a Pevensey Saxon Shore fort, otherwise known as Anderida. Was this actual evidence for the 5th century occupation of the fort? The full story of the tile stamp can be found in:
Piltdown Man: the secret life of Charles Dawson & the world's greatest archaeological hoax
Miles Russell
Tempus, 2003, pp97-107
My copy cost £3.99 from Spelman's in York, but the normal price is £14.99 (or £5.00 on the web, direct from Tempus)
Meanwhile, an outline of the reasons why the tile is a hoax can be found at this website, showing DPS Peacock's piece in Antiquity 1973:
Forged Brick-Stamps from Pevensey
The picture of the tile doesn't show as the link hasn't been done properly, but click here and you'll see it.
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