Glannoventa

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Ravenglass Castle
Alternative name a) Glannoventa
b) Clanoventa
c) Glannibanta
d) Cantiventi
limes Britain
section Hadrian's Wall ( Cumbrian Coast Defense )
Dating (occupancy) agricolanic / hadrianic ,
1st to 5th century AD?
Type a) Cohort fort
b) Fleet station
unit a) Cohors I Aelia Classica ,
b) Cohors I Morinorum ,
c) Classis Britannica ?
size Stone fort approx. 1.4 ha
Construction a) wood and earth fort,
b) stone fort
State of preservation rectangular complex with rounded corners, not visible above ground, well-preserved bathhouse outside the NE corner of the fort
place Muncester / Ravenglass
Geographical location 54 ° 20 '34.8 "  N , 3 ° 24' 7.2"  W Coordinates: 54 ° 20 '34.8 "  N , 3 ° 24' 7.2"  W.
hf
Previous Tunnocelum (north)
Upstream Mediobogtum (east)
Roman castles in Cumbria.png
Coin portrait of Hadrian
Attempt to reconstruct the Roman Glannoventa at the end of the 2nd century
Site sketch and findings
The fort area in its current state (view from NE)
The confluence of the Irt and Mite

Glannoventa was a Roman auxiliary fort in Parish Muncaster, Ravenglass , Copeland District, Cumbria , England.

The fort served as a naval base, which was located at the confluence of three rivers and formed a natural harbor. The port played an important logistical role in supplying the Roman fortresses in the northern region, particularly those on the Cumbrian coast and in the western part of Hadrian's Wall. The fortress was also part of a coastal defense system, consisting of a chain of forts and watchtowers, along the west coast of Cumbria, which was intended to prevent the western flank of Hadrian's Wall from being bypassed . The army and the fleet used the fort for about 300 years. The ground monument includes the fortress, a bath house, a vicus and the traces of a road that leads from the east gate into the interior. The only remains from Roman times still visible today belong to the ruins of the bathhouse . The area is under the care of English Heritage and is part of the Limes UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Roman Empire.

Surname

This military station appears in the three most important written sources for Roman antiquity;

The geographical allocation of this place name is unclear and is still the subject of controversial scientific debates. The military stations in the Notitia are not listed in their geographical order, so it is less useful for identifying Roman sites. Some researchers believe that at the time of Roman rule over Britain, the fort and port were known as Tunnocellum . This place name is rather equated with a fort near Calder Bridge, northeast of Ravenglass.

Glannoventa is probably derived from the Welsh Gaelic words glan / glenn (= bank, shore or landing place) and venta (= market, trading center or trading port). According to Rivet / Smith the name could also mean "field / place near the coast" or "market on the coast".

location

Ravenglass is located on the Cumbrian west coast, 30 km northwest of Barrow-in-Furness and 20 km southeast of Whitehaven . The village lies between two rivers, at the point where they break a strip of sand dunes before they finally reach the Irish Sea . The Roman fortress is located about 500 meters south of the village, on a low cliff in a loop of the Esk that extends southwards. It stood on an estuary formed by the Esk , Mite and Irt , which is also particularly suitable as a port. Today the Hallway Walls Plantation. In the east, the fort area falls gently to the slightly lower hill country under the Muncaster Fell. The fort could only be attacked from the land, in the northeast. In the north and south, its area meets relatively flat ravines. According to the Itinerarium , the port was the starting point of Route X. The road connected the coastal fort with the Mediobogtum in the east , which secured the Hardknott Pass , and then continued inland to the camp of Galava , about 50 kilometers to the west , near today's Ambleside , and still further on to its terminus at Whitchurch in Shropshire . Another road connection could have existed in the north to Tunnocelum Fort , near Braystones, Beckermet / Calder Bridge. In Ravenna cosmology, Cantiventi is entered between Mediobogtum and a not yet localized station called Iuliocenon . In the late 2nd century this coastal region belonged to the province of Britannia inferior , from the 4th century to the province of Britannia secunda and, after a further administrative reform, probably to the province of Valentia .

Research history

The ruins of the bath house stood in the park of Muncaster Castle in the 17th century and was described by John Denton in 1610 as "the old home and castle of the Pennington family". The bathhouse was almost completely excavated in 1881. The remains of the Roman fort were discovered in the 1850s during the construction of the Barrow to Carlisle railroad . Its walls were first recognized as Roman in 1876. During the 1880s, local nobles, including the Lord of Muncaster, began to systematically excavate the fortress. The Roman origin of the remains of the wall was finally confirmed by the excavations in 1881. At that time, however, they were still believed to be the remains of a villa. Roman stray finds were made north of the fortress by locals at the beginning of the 20th century. The building was recognized as a bathhouse in 1919. Surveying work in the 1980s then clearly identified it as a bathroom. Smaller finds, recovered from exploratory excavations with a limited area within the camp, point to an early Hadrianic fort from around AD 122. In 1925 MC Fair examined the vicus area north of the fort. The results of the previous archaeological investigations at the fort and bath house were summarized by Collingwood in 1928 and again in 1958 by Birley. A major excavation campaign (the only archaeological investigation of the fort using modern excavation and recording techniques) was carried out by Tim Potter between 1976 and 1978 on the west side of the camp along the esk bank, at the highest point in the fort area. A section of the north wall and the foundations of multi-phase barracks blocks were discovered. The fort was also measured in 1998 by employees (Blood and Pearson) of the Royal Commission of Heritage Monuments in England (RCHME). It has not yet been fully excavated.

Find spectrum

The most important find was a collection of bony game pieces that obviously belonged to a board game. One of these games could have been the latrunculi , also known as "soldier" or "mercenary". A type of combat and skill game that was particularly popular in the army. Or the Duodecim Scripta , which was similar to backgammon . During exploratory trenches and geophysical investigations by the York Archaeological Trust between 2013 and 2014, remnants of walls, numerous Roman pottery shards, pearls, shoe nails, coins and jewelry pearls, but also cinder waste from metal workshops were found there in large quantities on the area of ​​the civil settlement. Only one Roman inscription was found at Ravenglass, but the text was not documented and the stone (or altar) - it was thrown back into the river before the inscription was copied - has since been lost. Two other epigraphic evidence from Roman times is a fragment of a military diploma found on the beach below the camp and a lead seal from the Cohors I Aelia Classica recovered near the fort. The former was accidentally dug up by a dog. The coins, including a piece of copper from the time of Magnentius or Decentius (350–353) and ceramic shards from the bathhouse, date from the 2nd to 4th centuries.

development

Since the name is of Celtic origin, this indicates that there was a Celto-British settlement there before the arrival of the Romans. Stone foundations of cottages were found several times in the hills around Muncaster and Eskdale. Glannoventa connected the northern frontier fortresses to the transcontinental shipping routes that were essential to supply the garrisons in Cumbria with food, supplies and reinforcements. These fortresses protected the northern border of Britain from the erection of Hadrian's Wall. Mining was also carried out there by the Romans, e.g. B. in the silver and lead mines of today's Lake District . The port was therefore also of great importance for the transport of these precious metals to the European mainland, which were then negotiated from there to the Roman Empire.

The early Roman fortress of Glannoventa was probably built in the 1st century - as one of Agricola's starting points for an invasion of Ireland ( Hibernia ). The following stone fort was probably not founded until the 2nd century AD, at the time of Hadrian (117 to 138) (albeit with a different axis alignment) and served as a base for auxiliary soldiers and the British fleet ( Classis Britannica ). The archaeological evidence of such a port is still pending. The fort itself resembled the rest of the auxiliary camps of the Cumbrian coastal defense, a separate fortification that stood at an estuary. Even before that, in 122, the Romans had started building Hadrian's Wall, which stretched from Bowness on Solway ( Maia ) to Wallsend ( Segedunum ) on the Tyne. After that, the Romans also built a security chain of cohort forts, small forts and watchtowers on the west coast of Cumbria. Their crews were supposed to fend off attacks by the Scots from Ireland and the Caledonii and Picts , the most powerful tribes in Scotland. Subsequently, it was also intended to prevent the wall from being bypassed by landing on the west coast or by foraging through the two relatively flat Solway fjords. The fortress of Glannoventa was - presumably - the southern cornerstone of Cumbria's coastal defense. The southernmost fortification that can be linked archaeologically to these defenses was the small fort 25 , which was located near Risehow, a little north of Ravenglass. If the camp in Ravenglass was indeed part of the same fortress chain, it would mean that it extended much further south than previously thought. However, it is much more likely that the fort was only intended to protect the harbor. It is further assumed that it was perhaps also of importance for trade with Ireland. The location was nevertheless strategically important because it was probably also used as a base by the Classis Britannica units . It may also have been used to supply the Mediobogtum camp , as it was much easier to reach this base from the west on the well-developed road over the Hartknott Pass. The road then led further east to Galeva Castle (Ambleside). Glannoventa must have been a very busy place as a result.

Hadrian's Wall was temporarily abandoned around 138, and the border was brought forward to the Antonine Wall between the Clyth and the Firth-of-Forth-Isthmus in Scotland. The Antonine Wall was soon abandoned, however, and from 160 onwards the border troops were again fully stationed on Hadrian's Wall. Most of the defenses on the west coast were no longer renewed or occupied, presumably due to the changed military situation. However, the Ravenglass warehouse remained in use. It was obviously burned down several times, namely in 197 and 296. During these years heavy fighting broke out repeatedly with the Maetern and Caledonii in northern England. In the 4th century, the inhabitants of the west coast of Cumbria suffered from raids by Irish pirates. The fort in Ravenglass probably also played an important role in defending against these attacks. The fort was probably destroyed again in 367 - in the course of the so-called barbarian conspiracy ( barbarico conspiratio ) - but was rebuilt around 369. It is believed to have remained occupied until the end of Roman rule over Britain in the early 5th century.

The only fort building that has been uncovered to this day (part of a barracks block) seems to have been in use until the late 4th century. Then it was destroyed by fire. Another building was later erected in the same place. This suggests that during this period - and beyond - the camp may have served as a residence for a local ruler and his entourage. About one kilometer from the bathhouse is the 800 year old Muncaster Castle, which is believed to have been built with the stones of the Roman fort. In 1850 the railway line from Carlisle to Barrow-in-Furness was moved through the middle of the fort area.

Fort

The Hadrianic camp replaced the earlier wooden and earth fort around 130. It was a standard cohort fort for about 500 soldiers. Today there is very little left to see of the Hadrianic fort. Distinctive elevations can only be seen at the edges of the 0.6 meter high fort platform. It is generally in poor condition, as it was severely damaged in the center by the construction of a railway line running from north to south at a depth of 6.8 meters. Since then, most of its area has been located east of the tracks in dense forest and scrub. The exact ground plan of the fort remains unclear due to the partial destruction of the site by coastal erosion and the construction of the railway. However, it seems to have been typical of the castles of that time, rectangular with rounded corners.

Enclosure

The camp occupied a flat plain about ten meters above the high water mark and bordered directly on the river bank. The excavations showed that the Hadrianic camp was also initially built using the wood-earth technique and that this was considerably reinforced by a stone wall on the front side by 200. The camp could be entered through four gates. The camp wall was presumably also reinforced by internal square towers and four corner towers. The east wall is still up to 1.5 meters high and measures 128 meters in length. The south wall of the fortress still reaches a height of one meter. An earth ramp that was raised at the back served as a battlement. The western edge of the camp area was heavily exposed to coastal erosion in the last few centuries, so the wall and the ditch along this line were completely destroyed there. There are no traces of the fortress to the west of the railway line. All that can still be seen there is a flat ridge, no more than 17 meters long, that runs along the cliff. The continued erosion of this cliff was responsible for the destruction of the western defensive wall and also part of the north and south walls of the camp.

dig

A double trench was created on the east side to prevent the approach. The interior was 5 meters wide, 0.3 meters deep and merged with the outer ditch at the northeast corner. On the north side there was only a short ditch that led into a 6 meter deep gorge. A stream in the south offered additional protection and was probably also the source of fresh water for the fort crew.

Interior development

The fort probably also had the standard interior buildings for auxiliary troop camps in the Middle Imperial period: in the center the headquarters ( principia ), the commandant's house ( praetorium ), one or two granaries ( horrea ) and team barracks ( contubernia ), including functional buildings such as workshops ( fabricae ), Bakeries and a latrine. So far, however, only a few rooms of wooden barracks in the west of the area have been excavated within the fort. The investigation results of these barracks buildings in the northern part of the fort area from the 1970s indicate a total of four construction phases.

garrison

Glannoventa must have been occupied by regular Roman soldiers from the middle of the 2nd century at the earliest. Legionnaires may also have stayed in the camp temporarily. They were usually not assigned to garrison service at the border, but instead sent special forces for the more demanding construction projects at the border fortifications.

The following units are known for this camp or could have stayed there for a certain time:

Time position Troop name description
2nd century AD Cohors great Aelia Classica

("The first cohort of the Aelian fleet")

According to the name, the force could have been a unit of around five hundred marines, who may have originally been used in the construction of Hadrian's Wall. "Aelius" was the gentile name of the emperor Hadrian (Publius Aelius), while "Classica" is derived from the Latin classis (fleet). Their soldiers could have been transferred from the navy to the land troops during his rule and provided the first garrison troop from Glannoventa . Evidence of its existence is a military diploma from Caedicius Severus dated February 27, 158 and a lead seal, both found in Ravenglass. The text of this diploma indicates that Caedicius last served as a rider ( ex equite ). Presumably she was a cohors equitata , a partially mounted cohort that had around 120 cavalrymen in their ranks. The unit should have been relocated to Tunnocelum / Tunnocelo (Calder Bridge) at the latest in the 4th century , as evidenced by a military diploma from Cilurnum (Chesters) and an entry in the Notitia Dignitatum .
4th to 5th centuries AD? Cohors Primae Morinorum

("The first cohort of the Morinians")

According to the entry in the Notitia Dignitatum , this unit was stationed in Ravenglass in the 4th century. It consisted nominally of five hundred soldiers who were originally recruited from the Celtic tribe of the Morinians . The Morinians settled in the coastal region of the province of Belgica , to which u. a. also the important sea and war port of Gesoriacum (Boulogne) belonged. In the troop list of the Dux Britanniarum is for the Glannibanta of the 4th century a. a. the rank of camp commandant, a tribune , has also been handed down. Since the Moriners still appear in this late antique document, they could have stood there until the dissolution of the provincial army in the early 5th century.
2nd to 4th century AD Classis Britannica ?

(the British fleet)

Whether naval units or ships of the British fleet were stationed in the port of the fort has not yet been proven due to the lack of relevant finds, but it is probable due to the location and function of the fort.

Thermal bath

Ruins of the Roman Bath House (Walls Castle)
Findings sketch of the thermal bath
Marking of the hypocausts and loading opening of the prefecture (1882)
Arched wall niche in the apodyterium

The only visible Roman wall structures are those of the row-type bathhouse, built around 130 AD, known as "Walls Castle". The thermal bath is located between the northeast corner of the fortress and the Roman civil settlement, originally it probably covered an area of ​​27 × 12 meters and resembled the bath of the fort in Chesters . Buried under the ground are the foundations of the east wing, which are only visible today as a rise in the ground, but which make the former size of the building evident. Until the remains of the hypocaust heater were found, it was considered a villa rustica . The ruin is one of the best preserved ancient building structures in England.

The bathroom consisted of several rooms that were arranged in a double row from east to west. In the entrance and changing areas ( apodyterium / gymnasium ), several niches ( cubiles ) were set into the walls , perhaps to store the clothes of the bathers. The function of the rest of the rooms is not exactly known, they almost certainly served as a sweat bath ( sudatorium ), warm or hot bath ( caldarium ) and cold bath ( frigidarium ). On the north and south walls there were supporting pillars that were supposed to carry the weight of a stone or brick vault. It was supposed to shield the wooden roof structure from the hot, humid air. The walls of the west wing have been partially preserved up to a height of 3.7 meters. The walls and door arches are made of hewn sandstones connected with mortar. At least two of the rooms could be heated by hypocausts. At one of the door openings, a heavily worn threshold and a wide groove in the wall can still be seen, in which the wooden door frame was once attached. Some window openings can still be seen. The interior walls were originally plastered with pink plaster. After the last excavations were completed, the eastern foundations were filled in again. In 1881 u. a. the remains of the hypocaust heater were exposed, after which they were also filled in again. During the excavations, shards of window glass, bones, tiles and bricks and ceramic fragments were found. There is evidence that the bath was supplied with fresh water from a slightly higher spring in the east of the fort.

The building was probably used by the residents of Muncaster Castle as a residence or similar until the Middle Ages. used, probably one of the reasons why it is still so well preserved. According to eyewitness reports, the roof was still there until around 200 years ago, before much of the building was destroyed by stone robbery. Since it is located outside the walls of the Roman fortress ( extra muros ), some researchers assume that it was visited not only by the soldiers but also by the civilian population. A detailed survey and find analysis was carried out in May 1983 on behalf of the British Environment Ministry. The walls were then preserved and placed under protection. The ruin is now under the care of the English Heritage.

Vicus and port

Little information was available about the Roman vicus of Ravenglass prior to the 2013-2014 excavation . As is so often the case with regional trading centers protected by a permanent garrison, their civil settlements in particular expanded in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. The primary function of the vicus was to supply the fort crew with daily necessities, such as: B. various materials, goods and services. The geophysical investigations made the scope of the vicus clear. It probably covered a large area and was probably inhabited from the 120th to the 4th century. To the northeast of the fortress, traces of at least two streets were found. Most of the buildings were concentrated along the road that led to Hardknott Pass. The finds of grain and fragments of glass indicate that food was processed and glass products made in the settlement. However, the focus of the craft activities was probably on metal processing, as the finds of iron slag deposits and charcoal residues suggest.

Most of the houses were of the so-called strip houses , which are typical of a Roman vicus of the 2nd century. Such buildings usually consisted of a workshop and living area and a courtyard at the rear of the building. From the area north of the fort (possibly originally an annex of the fort ), numerous fragments of slate slabs, bricks, roof tiles and wide floor tiles were found in 1925, suggesting a multi-storey building that could probably also be heated by a hypocaust, perhaps the remains of one Hostel ( Mansio ). During the construction of exploratory trenches in 2014, a furnace full of charcoal residues and a rammed earth floor were observed inside a building. There was a stone-paved courtyard in front of the house. The remains of a workshop were found in trench 2. There was evidence that a road ran between a large number of buildings with a long rectangular floor plan. Furthermore, traces of a canal lined with wood were found, probably the remains of a water pipe. A thick layer of fire indicated that the buildings were destroyed by a fire.

The exact location of the port is still unknown. For the vicus and fort residents it was both a trading place and a market place and perhaps also served as a naval base for the Classis Britannica .

See also

literature

  • Knowles, Jackson: Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, No. 3, 1878.
  • Jackson: Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, W 6, 1883.
  • CRB Mc Gilchrist: Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, No. 19, 1919.
  • MC Fair: Trans. Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiq. And Archaeol. Soc. 2, 25, 1925.
  • Eric Birley: The Roman fort at Ravenglass. Trans. Cumberland and Westmorland Archaeological Society, No. 58, 1958, pp. 14-30.
  • Albert Rivet, Colin Smith: The place-names of Roman Britain. BT Batsford, London 1979.
  • J. Collingwood Bruce, Charles Daniels: Handbook to the Roman Wall, with the Cumbrian coast and outpost forts. 13th Edition, H. Hill, Newcastle upon Tyne 1978.
  • RG Collingwood, RP Wright: The Roman Inscriptions of Britain, Oxford 1965.
  • RG Collingwood: Trans. Cumberland and Westmorland Archaeological Society, No. 28, 1928.
  • Keith Blood / RCHME: Ravenglass Roman Fort Survey, July 7, 1998.
  • Timothy Potter: Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiq. And Archaeol. Soc., Research Service Vol. 1, 1979.
  • The English Heritage visitors handbook 1998–1999.
  • English Heritage Unlocked. Guide to free sites in the North West, 2002.
  • ML Brann: A survey of Walls Castle, Ravenglass, Cumbria ', Transaction of the Cumberland and Westmoreland Archaeological and Antiquarian Society, No. 85, 1985.
  • PA Holder: A Roman Military Diploma from Ravenglass, Cumbria, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, No. 79, 1997.
  • David Shotter: Three Roman Forts in the Lake District, Archaeological Journal, No. 155, 1998.
  • David Shotter: Roman Names for Roman Sites in North West England. Lancaster Archaeological and Historical Society, XXIII, Lancaster 1998.
  • M. Hyde, N. Pevsner: Cumbria. The Buildings of England, Yale University Press. 2010.
  • Ian Alexander Richmond: The Roman road from Ambleside to Ravenglass. Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmoreland Archeology Society 49, 1949.
  • Keith Blood: Ravenglass Roman Fort, Cumbria. English Heritiage, London 1998.
  • Kurt Hunter-Mann, Laura Strafford: Romans in Ravenglass. Community Archeology Project. Excavation Report 2013–2015, ArcHeritage Project No. 4066141, Lake District National Park Authority, Anna Badcock & Rowan May 2015.

Remarks

  • RIB = Roman inscriptions in Britain
  1. ↑ Itinerarium 481.1 ( Iter X ): Notitia Xl, 52, Ravenna 107, 2, Rivet / Smith 1979, p. 367, Holder 1997-1998, pp. 254-255.
  2. ↑ Itinerarium Antonini: Iter X : ENE (7.5), Britannia 26, 1995, pp. 389–390 (footnote)
  3. ↑ RIB 795 , RIB 2411.94, Collingwood 1928, pp. 353-366, Birley 1958, pp. 14-30, Potter 1979, pp. 1-138, Allason-Jones 2011, pp. 234-235.
  4. ↑ Ravenglass final report, 2013–2015
  5. ↑ Potter 1979, pp. 1-138, Ravenglass final Report 2013-2015.
  6. ↑ Military diploma: AE 1997, 01001 , lead seal: C (ohortis) I Ae (liae) / cl (assicae) // FLOR / TD, Chesters: CIL 16, 93 , RIB 2401.10, Holder 1997, pp. 3–41.
  7. ↑ Notitia Dignitatum XL, 52, David Shotter 1998, pp. 9-10.
  8. ↑ Knowles / Jackson, 1878, pp. 23-26 and 1883, pp. 216-224, Mc Gilchrist 1919, pp. 17-29, Collingwood 1928, pp. 353-366, Birley 1958, pp. 14-30, Brann 1985, pp. 81-85, English Heritage visitors handbook 1998-1999, p. 173, Holder 1997, pp. 3-41.
  9. ↑ Fair 1925, pp. 374-375, Collingwood 1928, pp. 353-366, Birley 1958, pp. 14-30, Ravenglass final report 2013-2015.

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