Abstract:In recent decades, archaeologists in regions such as Germany, Italy, and France have developed an increasingly robust approach to the identification of early churches and thus dismissed a number of formerly misidentified examples in the process. In Britain, however, various supposed "churches" discovered in the twentieth century continue to be referred to as such despite a lack of strong evidence to substantiate this. One such example is a structure found at Butt Road, Colchester. In this article, the issues surrounding the interpretation of this building as a church are revisited and enhanced, while it is illustrated why other interpretations, such as a "pagan funerary banqueting hall," are also unlikely. Following this, the possibility that the building served as a mithraeum is put forward, for mithraea offer stronger parallels that account for the building's size and structure, as well as its faunal and small-find assemblages. As such, it will highlight the need to revisit other previously identified "churches" from Roman Britain and to apply a more rigorous analysis, which may yield alternative conclusions.

中文翻译：

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重新考虑巴特路“教堂”，科尔切斯特：另一个密特拉神殿？

摘要：近几十年来，德国、意大利和法国等地区的考古学家已经开发出一种越来越稳健的方法来识别早期教堂，从而在此过程中排除了一些以前被错误识别的例子。然而，在英国，尽管缺乏强有力的证据来证实这一点，但在 20 世纪发现的各种所谓的“教堂”继续被称为“教堂”。一个这样的例子是在科尔切斯特巴特路发现的结构。在本文中，围绕将这座建筑解释为教堂的问题进行了重新审视和加强，同时说明了为什么其他解释，例如“异教丧葬宴会厅”也不太可能发生。在此之后，提出了该建筑物作为密特拉寺的可能性，因为 mithraea 提供了更强的相似之处，以解释建筑物的大小和结构，以及它的动物群和小型发现组合。因此，它将强调需要重新审视以前确定的其他来自罗马不列颠的“教会”，并应用更严格的分析，这可能会产生替代结论。