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The Rituals and rites of Roman bathing are usually associated, as they are today, with luxury, but the recent discovery of a bath house in Carlisle, at the western end of Hadrian's Wall and so at the very edge of the Empire, is the catalyst for New Generation Thinker and Historian Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough to explore the domestic realities of Roman Bathing. Along with Archaeologist Frank Geicco and Professor Elizabeth Archibald, Eleanor discusses bathing rituals and how much difference there was between the luxuries available in Rome and the substantial building being rediscovered at the edge of Carlisle Cricket club. And if baths were of such singular importance to the occupiers, what happened when they left? Eleanor and her guests discuss the myth that baths and bathing simply vanished throughout the so-called Dark ages, and they wonder whether the treatment of the human body doesn't link us to our ancient ancestors just as readily as the food they ate and the literature and music they enjoyed.

Producer: Tom Alban