Bibra Castle

Beckfoot Fort
Alternative name	a) Bibra ; b) Bribra
limes	Britain
section	Hadrian's Wall ( Cumbrian Coast Defense )
Dating (occupancy)	Hadrianic , ; 2nd to 4th century AD?
Type	a) Cohort fort ; b) Fleet station?
unit	a) Cohors II Pannoniorum; b) Classis Britannica ?
size	1.1 ha
Construction	Stone fort
State of preservation	rectangular complex with rounded corners, not visible above ground
place	Holme St. Cuthbert
Geographical location	54 ° 49 '30 " N , 3 ° 25' 12" W Coordinates: 54 ° 49 '30 " N , 3 ° 25' 12" W.
Previous	Maia Fort (northeast)
Subsequently	Alauna Fort (southeast)
Upstream	Fort Portus Trucculensis (northeast)

Coin portrait of Hadrian

The Solway at Beckfoot

Findings sketch of the fort (as of 2006)

Sketch of the building inscription of the Pannonian cohort

Denarius depicting Diana Lucifera, minted on the occasion of the wedding of Gordian III. , 241 AD

Bibra was a Roman auxiliary fort in the hamlet of Beckfoot, Holme St. Cuthbert Parish, Borough Allerdale, County Cumbria , England .

The camp was part of a fortress chain consisting of forts, small forts and watch towers along the west coast ( Solway Firth ) of Cumbria. Its crew should u. a. also secure the western flank of Hadrian's Wall . It was partially excavated at the end of the 19th century. Extensive and well-preserved remains of the fortifications and its interior buildings are likely to have been preserved in the ground of the fort. Numerous Roman pottery shards were found outside its area, which indicates the existence of a civil settlement. The fort and settlement were probably used until the late 4th century. Some cremations have also been discovered south of the fortress.

Surname

The only source for the Roman name of the Beckfoot castle is an entry in the Cosmographia of the geographer of Ravenna . She locates “Bribra” between the stations Alauna ( Maryport ) and Maglona (Old Carlisle). The name probably originates from Latin and could Hills (Welsh Bre ) or passage grave (English barrow mean). This could also be the Celto-British word for beaver or a river name (river names were often transferred to newly established settlements). A reference to the color brown would also be possible. Bibra could therefore be called “the river of the beavers” or “the brown”. It is known that beavers existed in Britain during the Anglo-Saxon period. Without earlier known name forms it is difficult to decipher which elements the ancient place name actually consists of. The current name of the nearby hamlet of Mawbray means "Jungfrauenburg" or "Fortification" and could still go back to the Roman fort.

location

Beckfoot is located on the B5300 coast road, 3 miles south of Silloth-on-Solway, 8 miles north of Maryport , 3 miles north of Mawbray and 25 miles west of Carlisle . The ground monument is located on a hillside pasture sloping slightly to the east, the highest point of which is a narrow hill along the western wall with an unrestricted view of the Solway Firth . A small stream, Wolsty Springs, flows into the sea at the fort. Today the area belongs to the pasture grounds of the Beckfoot Farm, which is 342 meters northwest of the fort. The remains of the camp are located near today's coastline. In the late 2nd century the 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 and range of finds

Originally it was believed that the Roman walls were the remains of an old monastery or a fortified farmhouse ( Bastle house ). The location and appearance of the fort are mostly known from aerial photographs and ground penetrating radar surveys. On them, in some cases very clearly, numerous details of the weir systems and the interior buildings can be seen. With the exception of the north-west corner, it was never built over in post-Roman times. The finds of the only excavation, carried out by J. Robinson in the years 1879 to 1880, indicate that the camp was used from the 2nd to the 4th century AD. The fort was only partially exposed at that time. The excavation concentrated on the southern part and on some narrowly defined search cuts in the north of the camp area. The foundations of a building could also be observed, but only superficially examined, so its function is unknown. Collingwood assumed it was either the foundations of a warehouse or, more likely, the commandant's house. However, Robinson was u. a. able to follow the entire course of the walls. The excavation had to be carried out in a great hurry. His report about it was, in addition to a sketch of the findings, only a short list of his findings. In 1936, R. G. Collingwood summarized the results of Robinson's excavations again and prepared a report. As the fort area was largely spared from modern building, it is ideal for taking aerial photographs. In 2006, an excavation was carried out on the site of the burial ground by a team from Lancaster University, but only a few and insignificant finds came to light. In 2011 the area north of the fort was re-examined geophysically by N. Williams, University of Central Lancashire. According to the evaluation, there are still extensive remains of this fort.

The most remarkable finds include an unlabeled, 43 × 18 cm altar, a statue of Diana-Luna-Lucifera, a badly damaged figure of Victoria , two copper beads, iron fragments, millstones and a large amount of ceramic shards. The building inscription of the Pannonian cohort was found before 1880. Nine coins could be recovered, including two copper pieces from Trajan - one of which was apparently washed up on the beach in 1985. Another coin dates from the time of Constantius II. Another reading consisted of three coins, one of which was a portrait of the Empress Julia Domna , her son Caracalla and the Emperor Valerian . In 2010 a probe in Beckfoot discovered a ceramic vessel filled with 308 Roman coins. The Beckfoot finds are on display at the Senhouse Roman Museum in Maryport.

development

In 122, Emperor Hadrian ordered a barrier wall to be built in northern Britain, reinforced by watchtowers and forts, from the Tyne to the Solway Firth, to protect the British provinces from the constant incursions of the Picts from the north. Most of the wall was built by soldiers from the three legions and men of the Classis Britannica stationed in Britain . The stretch of coast around Beckfoot was also secured during this time by a chain of small forts and watchtowers. These fortifications were built at the same time as the wall. They continued from Bowness-on-Solway ( Maia ) about 42 km along the west coast of Cumbria. If invaders or looters landed south of Hadrian's Wall, they should be stopped by the coast guards or - in the best case - driven away before they had the opportunity to move further north-east to attempt a rearward attack on the wall or straight into the range Invading southeast of the island. Some of the coastal forts may also have been supply ports and probably also bases of the Roman provincial fleet. The units of the Classis Britannica were mainly distributed on bases along the British and Gallic Channel coast. In addition to shipping traffic on the Solwy Firth, the fort and watchtower crews controlled a road that came from the north and opened up the fertile plains of the then densely populated Solway Planes. The Bibra crew monitored the area south of the Wampool and Waver estuary. It may have replaced the small fort 14 after its completion. However, the chain of fortresses may have been abandoned in part by the middle of the 2nd century. The remains of the small fort 14 and 15 are in the immediate vicinity of the fort. The finds indicate that Bibra was used until the 4th century AD.

Fort

Today nothing can be seen of the fort and its vicus . Above the ground, only the heavily weathered fort platform can be seen, which roughly corresponds to the shape and size of the fortification. The site has been exposed to significant soil erosion for centuries or has been buried under sand dunes. The area is today u. a. also used agriculturally. The north-west corner of the camp was completely destroyed by modern developments. It was a standard 2nd century fortification designed to accommodate a troop of around 500 men. The camp had a - somewhat irregular - square floor plan with rounded corners, which tapered slightly towards the east, and measured 123 meters from east to west and 84 meters from north to south. It covered an area of approximately 1.1 hectares.

The enclosing walls were 1.80 meters thick, reinforced by intermediate towers and surrounded by three or four ditches. An earth ramp raised at the rear served as a battlement. The corners were additionally reinforced with long rectangular towers. Robinson discovered three gates, secured on the north, south and east sides with two flank towers each. The north and south gates are offset slightly to the west. Initially, no gate could be located on the west side (coastline). A hatch was later discovered there . The east gate probably had two passages, which were separated by pillars ( spina ). One of these may have been blocked at a later date. A massive block of masonry measuring 3.3 × 2.1 meters was found on the western wall. Robinson thought it was the foundation of a lighthouse. It was probably the base of a gun platform (see Ballistae ). These platforms may have been built in the 3rd or 4th century. A number of roads leading away from the fortress and still outside the investigated area can be seen in the aerial photographs. The roads leading from the north and south gates could be traced for approximately 240 meters in both directions. A shorter section of road, 19 meters, was also visible at the east gate. The aerial photos also show a Roman road running across the camp. It connected the fortress with a road near Silloth, north of Beckfoot, and subsequently also with the patrol path that ran along the coast.

Within the fortress, the positions of the camp administration ( Principia ), the commandant's house ( Praetorium ), two warehouses ( Horreum ), possibly a hospital ( Valetudinarium ), six barracks blocks ( Contubernia ) and functional buildings ( Fabricia ), a bath in the northeast ( Therme / Balineum ), as well as workshops a. a. be identified. The two granaries were probably at the south gate, west of the north-south running warehouse main street ( Via Praeatoria ).

garrison

Time position	Troop name	description
2nd century AD	Cohors secunda Pannoniorum (the second cohort of the Pannonians)	Only one building inscription mentions the auxiliary troop unit ( Auxilia ) stationed there . Since there is no evidence of the addition of milliaria (1000 men) to the name , the unit was a Cohors quingenaria . The target strength of the cohort was ideally 600 infantry ( pedes ), originally set up in the province of Pannonia, which included parts of today's eastern Austria, Slovakia, western Hungary and northern Croatia as well as Serbia. The cohort may have been relocated to Beckfoot in the late Hadrian period and apparently participated in various construction work there. According to the inscription, it was commanded by an officer with the rank of prefect at that time. How long this cohort was in Bibra is unknown.
2nd to 4th century AD?	Classis Britannica (the British fleet)	Whether Roman naval units ( Liburnari ) and ships were stationed in the port of the fort has not yet been proven due to the lack of relevant finds.

Vicus and burial ground

On both sides of a street, the remains of a vicus can be seen in the aerial photos south of the fort. About 75 meters south of the street there are likely to have been several strip houses . During the drainage work carried out in 1855, the workers came across five fragments of the altar south of the camp. It is believed that a shrine or temple could have been at this point. A port facility has not yet been proven archaeologically or epigraphically.

To the north and south of the fort, two burial grounds were laid out along the coast. The dead of the fort and the vicus were probably buried on them. Several notable cremation burials ( Ustrina ) from the second century AD were examined on the southern field . The pyre usually stood in a shallow pit, in which the urns were also buried after the funeral ceremony. From the charred remains in one of these pits it could be read that the deceased was burned lying on a feather-filled mattress and an oak bed frame. Pine wood was used to light the pyre. Roman burials from the 3rd century were also found on the southern field. One of these cremation graves was located right next to the KK 15. In the near future, scientifically supported rescue work would urgently have to be carried out on the southern burial ground, as it is at great risk from the steadily advancing soil erosion.

literature

Robin George Collingwood, RP Wright: The Roman Inscriptions of Britain. Oxford 1965.
R. G. Collingwood: “The Roman fort at Beckfoot”. Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, No. 36, 1936.
David Shotter: Roman Coins from North-West England. Lancaster 1990.
J. Robinson: Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society. No. 5, 1881.
J. Bailey, F. Haverfield: Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society. No. 15, 1915.
JK St. Joseph: Society for Promotion of Roman Studies The journal of Roman studies, No. 41, 1951.
JK St. Joseph, S. Frere: Roman Britain from the air. Cambridge air surveys. 1983.
A. Rivet. Colin Smith: The place-names of Roman Britain. Batsford Ltd. London. 1979.
Margot Klee: Borders of the Empire, Life on the Roman Limes. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-8062-2015-8 .
David Breeze: Handbook to the Roman Wall, 14th Edition, Soc. Ants. Newcastle 2006.
G. Jones, D. Woolliscroft: Hadrian's Wall from the Air, Tempus 2001.
S. Willis, M. Symonds, D. Mason: Frontiers of Knowledge: A Research Framework for Hadrian's Wall, Part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site, Durham University, Durham 2011.
Eilert Ekwall: The concise Oxford dictionary of English place-names. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1960.
Dorothy Charlesworth, Richard Stillwell, William L. MacDonald, Marian Holland McAlister: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites. Princeton, NJ Princeton University Press, 1976.
A. Mills: Oxford Dictionary of British Place Names. Oxford University Press, 1991-2003.
DR Perriam, J. Robinson: Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria. 1998 ISBN 1-873124-23-6 .

Remarks

RIB = Roman inscriptions in Britain

↑ R. C. No. 119, Ekwall, 1960, p. 61, Bieber: bebro-s or bibro-s , Old Cornish: befer , Celtic: bebro-s , Latin: beber- and accusative -bebrum , Gaelic: beabhar , Indo-European: brebhr or bhe-bhru-s .
↑ Jones / Woolliscroft 2001, p. 128.
↑ Robinson 1881, pp. 136-148, RIC 411, Bailey / Haverfield 1915, p. 143, Shotter 1990, p. 49, Willis 2011, p. 122
↑ Collingwood 1936, pp. 76-84, Margot Klee: 2006, pp. 23-24, S. Johnson 2004.
↑ Robinson 1881, pp. 136-148, Collingwood 1936, pp. 76-84, Jones 2001, pp. 128-129, Willis 2011, p. 122.
↑ RIB 880 , Willis 2011, p. 122.
^ RL Bellhouse: Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, No. 54, 1955, p. 47, the same: Roman sites on the Cumberland coast: a new schedule of coastal sites, Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society research series 1 (1979), Issue 3, 1989, pp. 47-48, N. Hodgson: Hadrian's Wall 1999-2009, A summary of excavation and research prepared for the 13th pilgrimage of Hadrian's Wall, 8-14 August 2009, 2009, pp 160-161, Jones 2001, p. 129, Willis 2011, p. 122.

Web links

[1] R. C. No. 119, Ekwall, 1960, p. 61, Bieber: bebro-s or bibro-s , Old Cornish: befer , Celtic: bebro-s , Latin: beber- and accusative -bebrum , Gaelic: beabhar , Indo-European: brebhr or bhe-bhru-s .

[2] Jones / Woolliscroft 2001, p. 128.

[3] Robinson 1881, pp. 136-148, RIC 411, Bailey / Haverfield 1915, p. 143, Shotter 1990, p. 49, Willis 2011, p. 122

[4] Collingwood 1936, pp. 76-84, Margot Klee: 2006, pp. 23-24, S. Johnson 2004.

[5] Robinson 1881, pp. 136-148, Collingwood 1936, pp. 76-84, Jones 2001, pp. 128-129, Willis 2011, p. 122.

[6] RIB 880 , Willis 2011, p. 122.

[7] RL Bellhouse: Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, No. 54, 1955, p. 47, the same: Roman sites on the Cumberland coast: a new schedule of coastal sites, Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society research series 1 (1979), Issue 3, 1989, pp. 47-48, N. Hodgson: Hadrian's Wall 1999-2009, A summary of excavation and research prepared for the 13th pilgrimage of Hadrian's Wall, 8-14 August 2009, 2009, pp 160-161, Jones 2001, p. 129, Willis 2011, p. 122.