Grains
The Kornen (Latin: Cornovii ) were a Celtic tribe who had their ancestral seat in what is now the county of Shropshire in England. The beads are mainly known from Roman times. They hardly appeared before the Roman conquest of Britain . There is no coinage from their area (which is known from other Celtic tribes in Britain) and the material culture of this area also shows hardly any peculiarities that can be ascribed to a particular tribe.
The first ancient source that mentions the Kornen as Civitas is the Geographike Hyphegesis (II, 3, 19) by Ptolemy . He explicitly mentions two cities, namely Viroconium and Castra Devana ( Chester ), the latter as the location of the Legio XX Victrix . In the period that followed, the civitas was mentioned several times by ancient authors, mostly in geographical works. Their main place was Viroconium. An inscription found there confirms this identification. It is an inscription from the Civitas Cornoviorum to Emperor Hadrian . The name of the tribe also appears on a tombstone from Ilkley , where the one depicted is referred to as C (ivis) Cornovia , i.e. the citizen of the grains .
The Celtic Tribe
Some hill forts in particular can be seen as remains of the crowns. The three largest are Titterstone Clee , Chesterton Walls, and Bury Ditches . Only the former has been archaeologically examined so far. It is approximately 28 hectares and is located in the Clee Hills that it dominates. Mainly important wall structures could be found here. Strikingly, no ceramics were found. Three phases could be distinguished, which started around 300 to 200 BC. To be dated. A smaller hill fort was excavated on the Wrekin . There were fortifications, but also traces of settlement that show that the place was inhabited. The place was destroyed by fire, which for chronological reasons probably dates back to the Roman conquest. In addition to the Hillforts there are also remains of settlements on the flat land. One of these settlements was partially excavated at Weeping Cross . The people there lived in round, and sometimes rectangular, huts that were surrounded by fences and ditches. The finds are poor and even metal is hardly documented. All in all, the material remains of the grains make a rather poor impression during the Celtic period and can hardly be compared with the Celtic tribes in the south-east of England.
The Civitas Cornoviorum
In 43 AD, parts of Britain were conquered by the Romans. The Kornen area was not one of the regions that immediately came under Roman control. The exact circumstances of the seizure of power in the following years are not known. However, already under Publius Ostorius Scapula , who was governor in Britain from 47 to 52 AD, the border was at Wales, so that shortly beforehand the grains were also subjected. 300 meters south of the later Viroconium was a military camp in which a cohort of Thracians may have been quartered. Other camps were found in the area, suggesting that this region was a staging area for the conquest of Wales. The grains were probably not involved in the Boudicca revolt around AD 60. Around this time the Legio XIIII Gemina was quartered in Viroconium , which was replaced in 67 by the Legio XX Valeria Victrix, which in turn withdrew around 90 AD. The area previously under military administration was thus placed under civil administration. In the period that followed, the actual city of Viroconium was founded and the Civitas was also founded. In 197 the province of Britain was divided into two smaller provinces. The Civitas of the Kornen probably now belonged to the province of Britannia inferior with the capital Eboracum ( York ), although the exact provincial boundaries are still being discussed in research. At the end of the third century there was another division of the British provinces. The grains now probably belonged to the province of Britannia prima .
The area
It is difficult to pinpoint the area of the civitas. The Roman civitas may not necessarily have coincided with the territory of the Celtic tribe, as the Romans made simplifications for practical reasons and also incorporated smaller tribes into larger ones. In the north the area bordered on the Briganten , in the east on the Coritani and in the south on the Dobunni . Overall, the boundaries to the east and south may roughly coincide with those of Shropshire. In the west and north, however, they almost certainly went beyond that. Overall, the area is very large and there are considerations as to whether there was another civitas in this area that has not yet been discovered.
The places of the civitas were connected by several important roads. The most important of these ran south to north and is now known as Watling Street . It came from Portus Dubris ( Dover ), led via London and Verulamium to Viroconium and beyond perhaps even to Castra Devana. It was one of the most important traffic routes in Roman Britain. Another important road came from the east and connected Letoceum, Pennocucium, Uxacona with Viroconium and went on to Wales .
The cities
There were several places in the territory of the civitas, some of which can be called cities. Viroconium was the main town and had various public buildings, typical of the main town of a civitas. Above all, the forum should be mentioned here. The city had ramparts and a map of streets intersecting at right angles. An important city developed next to the legionary camp of Castra Devana, although administratively it probably belonged to the civitas only after the legionaries had left.
The second important city was Mediolanum . The city was halfway between Viroconium and Castra Devana. The place had a city wall and stone buildings could be found. Letocetum was another small town. It was on Watling Street . A mansio could be excavated here. There was also a public bath. Two other places are named in the Antonini Itinerary . They are Pennocrucium and Uxacona . The latter site also had a small military camp and was expanded into a burgus in the fourth century .
The country
Agriculture certainly played an important role in the civitas, but comparatively few Roman villas are known from the area. In a study of the Roman villas in Britain, just nine villas could be counted. In contrast, 65 villas are known from the Dobunni Civitas. This has led to the assumption that agriculture was not very developed here. But there is also the thesis that many rich landowners lived in the capital Viroconium and not in the country. Furthermore, many villas may simply not have been found yet.
- The following villas are known so far:
- Lea Cross (partially excavated in 1793, discovery of a mosaic)
- Cruckton (small building with four rooms)
- Yarchester (partially excavated)
- Acton Scott (excavated in 1844)
- Rushbury (only known from surface finds)
- Stanton Lacy (partially excavated in 1924)
- Hales (1928, 1966–1967 partially excavated)
- Engleton (largely excavated, mosaic)
- Stanchester (villa is suspected)
- Upton Cressett (only pottery collected from the surface of the earth)
The Yarchester mansion is about 10 km south-east of Viroconium. The construction may date back to the fourth century. Acton Scott's mansion is a large, rectangular building with a bathroom and a wealth of murals. Substantial excavations also took place at the Villa von Engleton, which is a building with rounded corner risers . The villa had a bathroom and several rooms with hypocausts .
There were also smaller farms, most of which can be recognized by the surrounding fencing. The rural population lived here, often in ways that were little influenced by the Roman way of life. Most of these farms are only known from aerial photographs and are therefore difficult to date. An excavated example is a farm (or part of a village) found on Sharpstones Hill . Within a rectangle that was surrounded by a ditch, there was a round hut, which was later replaced by a square hut. Many of these farms were probably settled in pre-Roman times.
economy
Agriculture was certainly the economic basis of the civitas. There is also evidence of the pottery trade. Much of the pottery found in Viroconium appears to be locally produced. Three metals, lead, silver and copper, were mined in the civitas. The hills in the south-west of Shropshire were already exploited in Roman times because of the galena from which lead and silver were then extracted. Since this was done in open-cast mining and these mines were in operation until the 19th century, today almost all Roman traces have been destroyed. After all, five lead ingots were found in this area , with the inscription IMP HADRIANI AUG , next to each other stamp, the short inscriptions of which are difficult to interpret. Despite these lead ingots, the main interest must have been the silver mining, while the lead was more of a by-product. At Linley Hill facilities have been excavated that may have been used for silver processing. Bronze was processed in Viroconium.
literature
- Graham Webster: The Cornovii . London 1991. ISBN 0-86299-877-8
Individual evidence
- ↑ Webster: The Cornovii , pp. 18-21; Image of the tombstone
- ^ Webster: The Cornovii , p. 9
- ^ Webster: The Cornovii , pp. 11-12
- ^ Webster: The Cornovii , pp. 14-15
- ^ John Wacher: The Towns of Roman Britain , London / New York 1995, pp. 362–363 ISBN 0-415-17041-9
- ^ Webster: The Cornovii , pp. 21-22
- ^ ALF Rivet: Social and Economic Aspects , In: ALF Rivet (ed.): The Roman Villa in Britain , London 1969, p. 210 ISBN 0-7100-1657-3 ; Webster: The Cornovii , pp. 97-103, lists only eight villas
- ^ Webster: The Cornovii , p. 93
- ^ Webster: The Cornovii , p. 98
- ^ Webster: The Cornovii , pp. 101-102
- ^ Webster: The Cornovii , pp. 103-107
- ^ Webster: The Cornovii , pp. 113-117.