Tunnocelum
| Calder Bridge Fort | |
|---|---|
| Alternative name |
a) Tunnocelum b) Tunnocelo c) Iuliocenon d) Itunocelum |
| limes | Britain |
| section | Hadrian's Wall ( Cumbrian Coast Defense ) |
| Dating (occupancy) | 2nd to 5th centuries AD? |
| Type |
a) Cohort fort b) Fleet station? |
| unit |
a) Cohors I Aeliae Classicae b) Classis Britannica ? |
| place | Beckermet / Calder Bridge |
| Geographical location | 54 ° 26 '20.4 " N , 3 ° 30' 43.2" W |
| Previous | Gabrosa (northwest) |
| Subsequently | Glannoventa (southeast) |
Tunnocelum was a suspected Roman auxiliary fort in Parish Beckermet, Calder Bridge, Copeland District, Cumbria , England.
In late antiquity, the camp housed a division of naval soldiers. Originally it was still assumed that it was one of the forts at the western end of Hadrian's Wall . However, it is now generally recognized in research circles that it was probably part of the security system along the west coast of Cumbria. The geographical allocation of this place name is unclear and is still the subject of controversial debates.
Surname
The Notitia Dignitatum , created in the late 4th or early 5th century, is one of the two written sources that mention the name of this fort. The second, the 7th century Geographer of Ravenna Cosmology , mentions a station called Iuliocenon , between Glannoventa (Ravenglass) and Gabrosentum (Moresby). The phonetic similarity of Tunnocelum - Iuliocenon makes it likely that they were the same place. The place name could be derived from the Latin word ocellus (= eye) and mean "viewpoint".
location
Where the fort was actually located has so far remained unknown due to a lack of archaeological and epigraphic evidence. According to the Notitia, the fort must have been in northern Britain. The position information of the entry in the Ravenna cosmology makes it clear that it could only have been directly on or near the coast of Cumbria. The name of his last garrison unit also suggests that they were marines. It was assumed that at the time of Roman rule over Britain the fort and port of Ravenglass ( Glannoventa ) were called Tunnocellum . Today, however, one tends more towards the thesis that this was a fort near Calder Bridge, a little northwest of Ravenglass. It was probably at the mouth of the Marriage in the Irish Sea, south of Egremont near the Sellafield nuclear processing plant. Apart from a few Roman-era readings, there is no evidence of a Roman settlement or a military camp to date.
Road connections existed possibly to Gabrosentum (Moresby), Glannoventa (Ravenglass) and inland to Derventio (Papcastle). The Roman road coming up from Ravenglass ran through Beckermet and apparently met the coastal road at Braystones. This then continued through St. Bees to Whitehaven and Moresby Castle. 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 and range of finds
William Camden located Tunnocelum in Tynemouth on the east coast; John Horsley and several other antiquarians assumed it was in Bowness-on-Solway ( Maia ). So far only a few fragments of Roman stones and inscriptions have been recovered, including an altar in Haile and a coin hoard in Braystones. In 1883 a walled-in fragment of red sandstone was found in the church of Haile, on which a Latin inscription was carved. Today it is located on the southern inner wall of the sacristy. The building is approximately 7 miles southeast of Whitehaven and 2 miles from Beckermet and Calder Bridge. The stone turned out to be an altar dedicated to the gods Hercules and Silvanus . Its base and upper part had been knocked off so that it could be built into the church wall as a spoiler . The dedicator, Primus, served as an armorer ( custos armorum ) in a vexillation of the Roman army. A Roman military base could have been in the vicinity of the church.
development
In 122 the Romans began building Hadrian's Wall , which stretched from Bowness-on-Solway ( Maia ) to Wallsend ( Segedunum ) on the Tyne. At the same time they set up 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 restless 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. It is not known when the fort was founded. It resembled the other auxiliary troop camps of the Cumbrian coastal defense, a separate fortification with a civilian settlement ( vicus ) and harbor, which stood at an estuary. Tunnocelum also secured the road from Papcastle to Ravenglass. The army - and possibly also the fleet - are likely to have used the fort for about 300 years. Presumably it was abandoned by the army at the end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century.
garrison
Like most of the forts in Cumbria, Tunnocelum could have been occupied by regular Roman soldiers by the 2nd century at the latest. The Cohors prima Aeliae Classicae ("the first cohort of the Aelian fleet") was evidently made up of marines ( marini or milites classicorum ). It is documented for Britain by a military diploma and a lead seal from the 2nd century AD, both from Ravenglass, as well as the Notitia Dignitatum (list of troops of the Limitanei des Dux Britanniarum ). Sometime between the 2nd and 4th centuries, the unit was moved from Ravenglass to Tunnocelo . There she was commanded by an officer in the rank of tribune . Since the unit is still mentioned in the Notitia, it could have been there until the dissolution of the provincial army in the early 5th century. However, her stay at Calder Bridge could not be proven by any inscriptions or finds.
See also
literature
- John Horsley: Britannia Romana; or the Roman antiquities of Britain in three books. J. Osborn and T. Longman, 1732.
- William Sidney Gibson: The History of the Monastery Founded at Tynemouth, in the Diocese of Durham, to the Honor of God, Under the Invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and S. Oswin, King and Martyr, Volume 1, W. Pickering, 1846 .
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, illustrated by numerous engravings on wood. William Smith, LLD. London. Walton and Maberly, Upper Gower Street and Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row; John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1854.
- T. Codrington: Roman Roads on Britain. 1918.
- RG Collingwood, RP Wright: The Roman Inscriptions of Britain. Oxford 1965.
- Albert Rivet, Collin Smith: The place-names of Roman Britain, 1979.
- David Shotter: Roman Names for Roman Sites in North West England. Lancaster Archaeological and Historical Society, XXIII, Lancaster 1998.
Remarks
- RIB = Roman inscriptions in Britain
- ↑ Notitia Dignitatum 49, 51, RC V 31 p. 430, 151, Rivet / Smith 1979, p. 380-381, Shotter 1998, p. 9.
- ↑ Codrington 1918, p. 159.
- ^ RIB 796 , Horsley 1732, p. 103, Gibson 1846, p. 8.
- ↑ Military diploma: AE 1997, 01001 , lead seal: C (ohortis) I Ae (liae) / cl (assicae) // FLOR / TD, Notitia XL, 51: tribunus cohortis primae Aeliae classicae - Tunnocelo
Web links
- West Cumbria Coast on Digital Atlas of Roman Empire
- Roman Inscriptions of Britain (English)
- Tunnocelum on ROMAN BRITAIN
- ROMANS IN CUMBRIA HADRIAN'S WALL AND THE COASTAL DEFENCES
Bibra Castle (Beckfoot) | Alauna Castle (Maryport) | Magis Castle (Burrow Walls) | Gabrosentum Castle (Moresby) | Tunnocelum Castle (Calder Bridge) | Glannoventa Castle (Ravenglass)