Newbrough forts

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
a) Red House Kastell
b) St. Peter Kastell
limes Britain
section Stanegate
Dating (occupancy) a) Trajan,
around AD 71 at the earliest
b) Constantinian,
until AD 370
Type a) Cohort fort?
b) street post?
unit unknown
size a) 295 × 170 meters
(5.1 ha)
b) 59 × 58 meters
(0.34 ha)
Construction a) wood-earth,
b) stone
State of preservation no visible remains.
place Newbrough (Northumberland)
Geographical location 55 ° 0 '19.8 "  N , 2 ° 11' 54.6"  W Coordinates: 55 ° 0 '19.8 "  N , 2 ° 11' 54.6"  W. hf
Previous Coriosopitum (east)
Subsequently Vindolanda (west)
Upstream Brocolitia
(Hadrian's Wall) (northeast)
Course of the Stanegate and Hadrian's Wall with locations of the forts
Coin portrait of Trajan
Sketch of the location of the forts
Coin portrait of Constans
Newbrough town center

The Newbrough forts were Roman military bases in northern Britain. Newbrough is a civil parish in County Northumberland , District Tynedale in England .

During excavations and aerial photographs, the remains of two Roman castles were uncovered or recognized. The camps belonged to the fortress line of the Stanegate . The latter formed the northern border of the Empire in Britain for some time . There are no visible remains. The remains of two temporary marching camps were also found in the Newbrough area. The ancient name of this site is unknown as it does not appear in the main sources, Itinerarium Antonini , Notitia Dignitatum and the cosmography of the geographer of Ravenna .

location

The town of Newbrough is on the north bank of the South Tyne , about five miles northwest of Hexham on Stanegatestrasse, which ran east to west. St. Peter's Church and its cemetery, at the western end of Newbrough, now occupy the area of ​​the late Roman small fort. Road connections existed in the west to Barcombe , Crindledykes, Grindon Hill and Bardon Mill ( Vindolanda ) , and in the east to Carrawburgh ( Brocolitia ) and Chesters ( Cilurnum ) on Hadrian's Wall . The Stanegate leads directly through the center of today's Newbrough, the traces of which have been found in recent excavations. It is also known today as Carel Street . In the late 2nd century the region belonged to the province of Britannia inferior , from the 4th century to the province of Britannia secunda .

Research history

The Brown Dikes marching camp was mentioned by John Horsley in the Britannia Romana in 1732 . A sundial in the garden of Newbrough Lodge consisted of an unlabeled Roman altar . It supposedly came from the St. Peters Church, which was renovated in 1867. A Bronze Age grave with two skeletons and a beaker was found in West Wharmley near Middle House. Traces of Iron Age settlement were found in Carrow, Fourstones, High Warden, Walwick and Blackcarts, at Meggies Dene Burn (West) and South Carrawburgh. Aerial photographs also showed traces of early farming activity (plowshares) at Cord Rig, Little Crag and Brown Moor. Some of these homesteads were not settled until Roman times, such as one near Grindon Hill. The late Roman stone fort at St. Peter's Cemetery was examined by Frank Gerald Simpson in 1930. During the excavations on the north wall, ceramic shards from the middle of the 4th century and a bronze coin from the time of Constantine I (found 1929) were found. The researchers had actually expected a cohort fort at this location, but the expansion of the cemetery prevented large-scale excavations. The existence of another, larger fortress therefore remains speculative. In 1972 a farmer discovered a burial place with human bones and a bronze dagger near Allerwash. Aerial photographs revealed another Roman military camp between Stanegate and the Red House properties in Newbrough in 1976.

development

The earliest traces of settlement are Bronze Age burials, the oldest traceable building remains come from the Iron Age . A 0.8 hectare hill fort on Warden Hill (1500–500 BC) was surrounded by a triple, horseshoe-shaped wall. The river valleys of the Tyne and the Irthing also form a natural east-west route through the country and were most likely used in prehistoric times. The Stanegate was the first Roman road built in this region in the first century AD. From 71 AD it marked the border line of the Roman Empire in the north and ran between the major military centers of Luguvalium ( Carlisle ) in the west and Coriosopitum (Corbridge) in the east. It is considered to be a road originally built by Gnaeus Iulius Agricola , built to connect those forts that would keep his army's back for his campaign in the far north of Britain. Their remains were discovered by archaeologists and the like. a. be documented in Newbrough and Sidgate. After Agricola's campaign, the Romans withdrew back to the Stanegate line between 81 and 117. New fortifications such as Newbrough, Carvoran ( Magnis ), Brampton Old Church, as well as the fortresses in Haltwhisle Burn and Throp were built along the road to secure it at half-day march intervals. More small forts may have been founded along the Stanegate border, but so far there is insufficient archaeological evidence to confirm this assumption. It is also believed that the road in the east of Corbridge actually ran to the North Sea port of South Shields ( Arbeia ) and in the west to the river port of Kirkbride ( Portus Trucculensis ) on Wampool. The Stanegate was the first permanently secured border in Britain.

Hadrian's Wall , built in the middle of the second century, replaced the chain of fortifications at Stanegate as a border fortification. The nearest wall fort to Newbrough was in Carrawburgh ( Brocolitia ). In the hinterland of the wall, two temporary Roman marching camps were found in Brown Moor and Brown Dikes, but they could not be precisely dated. It is possible that the Romans also operated a mine at Settlingstones. It seems that the late antique stone fort at St. Peter's Church replaced a Trajanic wood-earth fortification and was intended to fill the gap between Vindolanda and Coriosopitum . After a short period of use, it was given up again as part of the reorganization of the northern border under Emperor Constans (337 to 350). The complete lack of finds that suggest its occupation together with the lack of datable finds from the Trajan period could be explained by the following scenarios. Either there was no military occupation under Trajan in Newbrough - during his reign there was a wood-earth fortification on today's cemetery area, which was completely destroyed in the 4th century during the construction of the stone fort - or it was in the case of the Trajan fort around the fortifications discovered at Red House and the Sidegate settlement. It is assumed that after the withdrawal of the Roman army, building material from the Brocolitia fort was used to build and fortify the successor settlement "Novus Burgus". The stones of the late antique castle ruins were probably u. a. used to build St. Peters Chapel, first mentioned in 1242. The later military road (today B6318) north of the village was laid out on the orders of George Wade in 1715 and mainly fortified with stones from Hadrian's Wall. It was the most important link between Newcastle upon Tyne and Carlisle until the A69 was built .

Red House Fort

It has long been assumed that - in addition to the small late Roman fort - there was another Roman fortress in Newbrough. The location of this - as yet unexcavated - wood and earth fort was south of Stanegate Street at the eastern end of Newbrough. The majority of its approx. 295 × 170 meters (5.1 ha) area is now assumed to be in the fields east of the village, south of Stanegate and north of the B6319. The northwest corner is under the Sidgate settlement, the SE corner is about 80 meters west of the Red House property. It had a rectangular plan and was only surrounded by a moat. Most of it could be followed around all four sides. The north wall ran roughly parallel to the Stanegate. No goals have yet been discovered. The main axis of the camp may have been oriented to the northwest. Although it is generally believed that it originated in the Trajan period, it is just as possible that it was founded during Agricola's campaign in northern Britain to secure the northern sector of what would later become the Stanegate line.

Halfway between Grindon Hill and Newbrough, near the hills east of Settlingstones, a watchtower and signal tower is believed to maintain communications between the military bases along the Stanegate.

St. Peter Castle

The late Roman fort stood on the north side of St. Peters Church, measured approx. 59 × 58 meters square (0.34 hectares) and was surrounded by a moat. An earth dam was built on its south side as - presumably - access to the fort. It resembled two other Stanegate camps of this size, founded under the Trajan or Hadrian emperors , Throp and Haltwhistle Burn . Its fencing consisted of a stone wall that was erected towards the middle of the 4th century, mostly from reused building material. Their width was about 1.2 meters. In contrast to the camps in Throp and Haltwhistle, there was obviously no earth ramp piled up at the rear. In terms of its strength, it was also comparable to two signaling stations of the 4th century (370) on the Yorkshire coast (near Scarborough and Ravenscar).

garrison

It is not known which military units (legionaries or auxiliaries) were stationed in the forts due to the lack of relevant finds.

Marching camp

Two temporary marching camps were found in the vicinity of Newbrough. They consisted of a simple earth or peat wall that could be raised quickly to protect the soldiers' tent camp from enemy attacks. The wall was possibly still surmounted by a wooden palisade as a parapet. It could be that these were used as accommodation by the troops involved in building the wall. Some were probably also set up for training purposes during the military training of the recruits. The occupation of these camps was usually short-lived.

camp description
Brown Moor The heavily eroded remains of the camp are in the Brown Moor corridor. It stood on a gently sloping southern slope of a pasture south of Hadrian's Wall. From there you have a good view in all directions. The NE corner is covered by a field wall and there are no visible remains there. The fort area is also disturbed by drainage channels. Otherwise, the rectangular, 35 × 35 meter (0.12 ha) floor plan of the camp can still be clearly seen on the basis of elevations in the ground. The fortification was surrounded by a moat. The earth walls are still around 0.2 meters high and the trench is on average 0.2 meters deep. It is filled on the south and east sides. There are also no more visible traces of the gates and internal buildings.
Brown dikes The camp is located 450 meters south of Hadrian's Wall. The outlines of the Marschlagers are still visible as elevations in the ground, slight depressions (trenches) with the remains of the tutuli at each of the four entrances. It stood in a dominant position at the southeast end of Brown Moor Ridge. The area slopes gently in all directions, except in the northwest, where there is a slight increase. The fortification of the camp consisted of an earth wall, a weir ditch and external works. The floor plan is almost square with rounded corners. It measures 67 × 67 meters inside and covers an area of ​​0.45 hectares. The walls are on average 5 meters wide and 0.2 meters high. The moat is 3 meters wide and up to 1 meter high on the north side. The two 5 meter wide gates on the north and east side were designed as so-called Titulum gates. That means they were protected in the front area by 0.4 meter high entrenchments ( clavicula ) with 2 meter wide and 0.3 meter deep trenches. Two other jumps are centrally located on the south and west side, but strangely there are no passages in the wall. Where the west gate should have been, it is overlaid by a modern stone wall. No remains of the interior structures are visible above ground. However, there are four rectangular structures in the southeast corner of the camp wall and one more on the inside of the northeast corner. Their foundations consist of low grass bricks 1.4 meters wide and 0.3 meters high. However, these are probably the remains of Shielings, medieval shepherds' homes that were used during the summer months.

literature

  • John Horsley: Britannia Romana. London 1732.
  • John Hodgson: History of Northumberland Pt.II.III, 1840.
  • Barry Jones, David Woolliscroft: Hadrian's Wall from the air. Tempus Stroud, 2001, pp. 41-43.
  • Robin George Collingwood, RP Wright: The Roman Inscriptions of Britain, Vol. 1, Inscriptions on Stone. Oxford 1965.
  • John Horlsey: Britannia Romana. Osborn & Longman, London, 1732, pp. 142-143.
  • Frank Gerald Simpson: The roman fort at Newbrough. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne. Series 4, 1929-1930.
  • Eric Birley: Research on Hadrian's Wall. 1961.
  • John Collingwood Bruce: Handbook to the Roman wall, 1863.
  • Collingwood Bruce: Handbook to the Roman Wall 1951.
  • Humphrey Welfare, Vivien Swan: Roman camps in England: the field archeology, 1995.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eric Birley 1961, pp. 147-149.
  2. ↑ Hodgson 1840, pp. 362 and 395.
  3. ^ Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies Britannia: a journal of Romano-British and kindred studies, Series 21, 1990, pp. 316-319, Birley 1961, p. 147.
  4. ↑ F. Simpson 1929-1930, pp. 163-165.
  5. ↑ JC Bruce 1947, p. 105.
  6. ^ Welfare / Swan 1995, pp. 79-80, Collingwood 1951, p. 105, Horsley 1732.