Nether Denton Castle

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Nether Denton Castle
limes Britain
section Stanegate
Dating (occupancy) Domitian / Trajan,
1st - 2nd century AD
Type a) Cohort fort ?,
b) Street posts
unit unknown
size a) Fort I 200 × 160 meters
(3.2 ha)
b) Fort II 250 × 225 meters
(4.6 ha)
c) Fort III 105 × 155 meters)
(1.6 ha).
Construction Wood earth
State of preservation Not visible above ground
place Nether Denton / Chapelburn (Cumbria)
Geographical location 54 ° 58 '26.4 "  N , 2 ° 38' 2.4"  W Coordinates: 54 ° 58 '26.4 "  N , 2 ° 38' 2.4"  W. hf
Previous Small fort Throp (east)
Subsequently Castle Hill Small Fort (west)
Upstream Camboglanna Castle (Hadrian's Wall) (northeast)
Course of the Stanegate and Hadrian's Wall with locations of the forts
Coin portrait of Trajan
St. Cuthbert at Chapelburn, view from the south
Sketch of the location of the Roman fortifications

The fort Nether Denton was a Roman fortification on the Stanegategrenze in northern Britain . It is located near the town of Carlisle , District Carlisle , in the parish of Nether Denton in County Cumbria , England .

The fortress is believed to date from the late 1st or early 2nd century. Before it was abandoned - after the completion of Hadrian's Wall - it seems to have been reduced in size. There are also traces of an associated vicus. In addition, the ancient site is a rare example of a civilian settlement that remained inhabited even after its fort was abandoned.

location

The parish of Nether Denton is located 12 miles northeast of Carlisle . The fort was on the church hill of St. Cuthbert, above the hamlet of Chapelburn, with a good view of the Stanegate and the river loop of the Irthing , the associated camp village ( vicus ) spread to the south and southwest near Lane Head Farm. Mile fort 51 stood 450 meters north, and there was also a line of sight to the signal tower on Pike Hill in the northwest. About a mile east, south of the level crossing west of Over Denton, at Mains Rigg (Parish Upper Denton), there was a signal tower. In the 2nd century the region belonged to the province of Britannia inferior , from the 4th century to the province of Britannia secunda .

Road connections existed via the Stanegate to:

Research history

The fort area is now partially under the St. Cuthbert Church and the churchyard. The remains of a bathhouse were observed during the construction of the rectory in 1868. At the same time, a large amount of coins and ceramics could be recovered, also in 1911. The fort wall was discovered in 1933, and the remains of the vicus were discovered in the same year when drainage ditches were built. A section of the Stanegate led through the associated civilian settlement. The remains of the settlement, the Stanegate and its side streets in the south and west of the fort as well as a short section of the connecting road from the east gate to the Stanegate can still be seen on aerial photographs taken in 1949 and 1975. Individual parcels within the vicus can also be distinguished from one another on the recordings. The coins and ceramics (100-120 AD) found in the civil settlement so far indicate a settlement phase that lasted at least into the second half of the 2nd century. The signal station at Mains Rigg was first re-examined by Frank Gerald Simpson in 1928 and 1971-1972 by staff from Durham University . The only datable finds were an Anglo-Irish silver penny from the time of Edward I , 1280–1282, and a heavily worn piece of a plate. The stone foundations were refilled after the excavation in 1972 to protect the site from robbery graves. Today nothing can be seen of them. The ancient soil features were mapped in March 1994 by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England - as part of the English Heritage Trust's "Hadrian's Wall: Birdoswald Sector Survey". A combination of chance finds, antiquarian studies, smaller excavations and aerial photographs of the area has shown that the remains of the fort, the vicus and a section of the Stanegate are still well preserved. The ground monument will provide extensive information about its creation during future excavations and will make an important contribution to further research into the Roman border protection systems of the 2nd century.

development

After the successful campaign of Gnaeus Iulius Agricola in Scotland, the Romans withdrew to Stanegatestrasse from 84 AD. New forts were erected at Newbrough, Carvoran and Brampton Old Church - every half a day's march along the road. During this time the Haltwhislte Burn and Throp fort were built. Other small forts may have sprung up elsewhere on Stanegate, but there isn't enough archaeological evidence to confirm this. These new defenses marked the first solid border in Northern Britain. The first camp in Nether Denton possibly dates back to the time of Agricola, 81 - 84 AD. The orientation of Fort I to Stanegate suggests that it was built first and the road was built later. She reached the camp at the south gate and left again through the east gate. The aerial photos also show a large camp that was located above Fort I. It is believed that Fort II was built at the same time as the Trajan camps on Stanegate, in Carlisle, Corbridge and Chesterholm (around 103 AD). The military base in Nether Denton was part of the Stanegate border, consisting of a year-round military road between Carlisle ( Luguvalium ) and Corbridge ( Coriosopitum ), along which numerous fortresses were built in the 2nd century. When completed, the chain of fortresses ran along Stanegate from Kirkbride on the Cumbrian coast in the west to Washing Well on the south bank of the Tyne in the east. It was supplemented by a series of watchtowers north of the road, from which light or smoke signals could be passed on quickly to the neighboring forts in the event of danger. B. at Mains Rigg and Pike Hill. At some point, after completion of the Stanegate, or perhaps at the same time, Fort I was leveled and probably the somewhat larger Fort II was built above it. The new bearing also retained the axis alignment of the previous building. Some time after its establishment, his garrison was apparently reduced in personnel and the fort was made smaller again. The latter was probably built in the early days of the reign of Trajan . A similar situation was observed at the Carvoran camp on Stanegate. The border was later brought forward to Hadrian's Wall , construction of which began around AD 122. At the latest when Hadrian's Wall was put into full operation, the Nether Denton fort was abandoned.

Fort

The multi-phase wood-earth fort (Fort I), oriented from NW to SE, is likely to date from the late first or early second century AD. Superficial remains are no longer visible. Recent aerial photographs, along with incidental finds from the 19th and 20th centuries, antiquarian studies, and smaller excavations have shown that the early fortress covered an area of ​​approximately 200 × 160 meters (3.2 hectares). It had the rectangular shape with rounded corners, typical for that time. The findings suggest that it was not a perfect rectangle, but a slightly rhomboid area. Only the exact location of the west and south sides are known. The position of its north-west corner was also documented, which suggests the length of the north-south side of around 200 meters. If the gate was centrally placed on the south side, the east-west length can be estimated at about 160 meters. The east side has not yet been explored. The fence consisted of a wall made of turf bricks, which was also surrounded by a moat. The wall was up to 9 meters wide and is still partly up to 1.5 meters high. On the north side the terrain drops steeply to the banks of the Irthing, and all traces of the moat have been lost due to erosion of the river bank. On the east side, nothing can be seen of the moat. The visible remains of the camp are most pronounced south of the church. These essentially consist of two trenches, both of which mark the southwest corner of the former fort.

The large distance between the inner and outer moats, 15-20 meters, indicates that they come from two different forts. The outer ditch is cut by a road. It probably belonged to the camp that was built later and was demolished before the construction of Fort III. This - larger - camp (Fort II) could have reached the considerable size of about 205 × 225 meters (4.6 hectares). Perhaps, these were only an annex ( Annex ) for temporarily receiving additional military contingents.

Fort II was made smaller at a later point in time by abandoning its southern half by reducing the southern wall by approx. 80 meters. This is how the smaller Stanegate camp (Fort III) was created, measuring approx. 105 × 155 meters (1.6 hectares). It is also very likely that the moat was also reduced to these dimensions.

garrison

It is not known by which unit the fort was occupied. The size of Fort II in particular suggests that it was built for a large garrison (around 1000 men), presumably to cope with the influx of troops who had to be stationed there after Scotland was deprived of the army at the end of the 1st century was vacated again.

Vicus

To the west of the fort there were other streets that connected to the vicus. Its remains, only visible in aerial photographs, consist mainly of the outlines of smaller buildings.

Signal tower Mains Rigg

The guard or signal station is located on a 1.6 meter high terrace that slopes down to a swampy, overgrown pasture on the north side. Today the area is heavily overgrown by vegetation. It consisted of a stone-built, rectangular tower, which was surrounded by a circular ditch with a dam (NE corner). The foundation platform measures approx. 12.5 × 11 meters from northeast to southwest. The trench was between 0.6 and 2.0 meters deep. The tower itself was about 6.5 meters square and had walls 1 meter wide. The still preserved rising varied in height between 0.5 and 0.7 meters. Although no datable finds could be recovered, it is believed that the tower was a later addition to the border security system. He closed the gap between the forts of Throp and Nether Denton, which had no line of sight to each other due to the hilly topography. It may have been built at the beginning of Hadrian's reign .

literature

  • N. Higham, B. Jones: The Carvetti, 1985, pp. 62-63.
  • T. Shipman: Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, Old Series in The Recently Discovered Remains at Nether Denton Parsonage, Vol. I, 1869, pp. 88-93.
  • Frank G. Simpson, John Kenneth Sinclair St. Joseph: Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, New Series in Report of the Cumberland Excavation Committee for 1933, Vol. XXXIV, 1934, pp. 152-154.
  • Ronald Embleton, Frank Graham: Hadrian's Wall in the Days of the Romans. Newcastle, 1984.
  • John Collingwood Bruce: Handbook to Roman Wall. 10th Edition, 1951.
  • Society for Promotion of Roman Studies. The journal of Roman studies, No. 24, 1934.
  • Barri Jones, David J. Woolliscroft: Hadrian's Wall from the air. Stroud / Tempus Publ., 2001. ISBN 0-7524-1946-3
  • Ian Archibald Richmond: Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, No. 29, 1929.
  • John C. Bruce, Ian A. Richmond: Handbook to Roman Wall. 12th Edition, 1966.
  • M. Binns: Council for British Archeology Group 3: Archaeological newsbulletin for Northumberland, Cumberland, Durham, Westmorland and Lancashire-north-of-the-sands. No. 13, 1972.
  • Patricia Southern: Roman Britain: A New History 55 BC-AD 450. Amberley Publishing Limited, 2011.
  • David Shotter: Roman Britain. Routledge, London 2012.
  • Robin George Collingwood, John Nowell Linton Myres: Roman Britain and the English Settlements. Biblo & Tannen Publishers, 1936.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Bruce 1951, p. 180, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, 34, 1934, Collingwood / Myres 1936, p. 126, pp. 152-154, Richmond 1929, pp. 314-315, Bruce / Richmond 1966, p. 169, Binns 1972, p. 8, Southern 2011, The Stanegate Frontier.
  2. ↑ Maxwell / Wilson 1987, p. 14 & Fig. 4, Jones / Woolliscroft 2001, pp. 54-56.
  3. ↑ Shotter 2012, 3 The evolution of the frontier.
  4. ↑ Jones / Woolliscroft 2001, pp. 54-56.
  5. ↑ Embleton / Graham 1984, Binns 1972, p. 8.

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