Pagans Hill Roman temple

Last updated
Pagans Hill Roman Temple
Paganreconstruction (2).gif
A reconstruction drawing of Pagans Hill Roman Temple
Somerset UK location map.svg
Archaeological site icon (red).svg
Map showing the location of Pagans Hill Roman Temple in Somerset.
Location Chew Stoke, Somerset.
RegionSouth-West
Coordinates 51°21′39″N2°38′14″W / 51.360732°N 2.6373580°W / 51.360732; -2.6373580 Coordinates: 51°21′39″N2°38′14″W / 51.360732°N 2.6373580°W / 51.360732; -2.6373580
Type Romano-Celtic Temple
History
Founded3rd Century AD
Abandoned4th Century AD
Cultures Roman
Management English Heritage

The Pagans Hill Roman Temple was a Romano-British-style temple (Romano-Celtic temple) excavated on Pagans Hill at Chew Stoke in the English county of Somerset.

Contents

Excavations

The temple was on a promontory overlooking the River Chew. It was excavated by Philip Rahtz between 1949 and 1953. [1] [2] In addition to the foundations of the temple a well (17 metres deep) and several ditches were found which contained small artifacts showing occupation of the site before the Roman period including pottery of Iron Age type, [3] and a coin dating from c. 335–337 CE. [4] Evidence of continuing use after the Roman period is provided by a bucket and an exotic 7th century glass jar found in the well. [5]

It was originally thought, on its discovery in 1830, to have been a beacon, for signalling between adjoining hill forts.

Appearance

It was a double-octagonal temple building comprised an inner wall, which formed the cella or sanctuary, surrounded by an outer wall forming an ambulatory, or covered walkway. The outer portico measures about 56½ feet in diameter, the inner cellar about 32 feet across. All walls were about 3 feet thick. Along each wall were two features described by Rahtz as buttresses but were more likely to have been pilasters, as their small size would render them ineffective as wall supports. Warwick Rodwell suggests that the ambulatory would have been cross-vaulted and the pilasters used as external supports for this. This would allow for a good deal of natural light to circulate the building and give an aesthetically balanced look to the structure. The ambulatory would then give the illusion of a labyrinth of side chambers running off from the central area. [6]

The site formed a large pilgrimage centre including guest houses and priest's house as well as the octagonal temple and holy well. [7]

History

The temple faced east and was first built in the late-3rd century, possibly to the god Mercury. [8] After the collapse of the original building another temple was built, which again fell into ruin. The final rebuild, after about 367 CE included the addition of an internal screen. The latest dateable coin found at the site was of Arcadius (383–408). The last building collapsed in the 5th century. [9]

The site of the temple is on the aptly named Pagans Hill, although that name is modern [10] and any link to the site in the naming of the road has been lost. [11]

Pagans Hill Dog

Among the artefacts found in the well approximately 15 meters west of the temple foundations, was an unusual sculpture of a dog with collar. The statue was in four sections, measured 63 cm in height overall and was made of Doulting Stone, a limestone, as still quarried today at Doulting Stone Quarry. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

Somerset County of England

Somerset is a county in South West England which borders Gloucestershire and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east and Devon to the south-west. It is bounded to the north and west by the Severn Estuary and the Bristol Channel, its coastline facing southeastern Wales. Its traditional border with Gloucestershire is the River Avon. Somerset's county town is Taunton.

Roman sites in Great Britain

There are many Roman sites in Great Britain that are open to the public. There are also many sites that do not require special access, including Roman roads, and sites that have not been uncovered.

Glastonbury Tor Hill in Glastonbury, Somerset, England

Glastonbury Tor is a hill near Glastonbury in the English county of Somerset, topped by the roofless St Michael's Tower, a Grade I listed building. The entire site is managed by the National Trust and has been designated a scheduled monument. The Tor is mentioned in Celtic mythology, particularly in myths linked to King Arthur, and has several other enduring mythological and spiritual associations.

Bath and North East Somerset Non-metropolitan district in England

Bath and North East Somerset is the district of the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset Council that was created on 1 April 1996 following the abolition of the county of Avon. It is part of the ceremonial county of Somerset.

Wansdyke (earthwork)

Wansdyke is a series of early medieval defensive linear earthworks in the West Country of England, consisting of a ditch and a running embankment from the ditch spoil, with the ditching facing north.

Dobunni

The Dobunni were one of the Iron Age tribes living in the British Isles prior to the Roman invasion of Britain. There are seven known references to the tribe in Roman histories and inscriptions.

History of Somerset

Somerset is a historic county in the south west of England. There is evidence of human occupation since prehistoric times with hand axes and flint points from the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras, and a range of burial mounds, hill forts and other artefacts dating from the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. The oldest dated human road work in Great Britain is the Sweet Track, constructed across the Somerset Levels with wooden planks in the 39th century BCE.

Chew Valley Lake Reservoir in the United Kingdom

Chew Valley Lake is a large reservoir in the Chew Valley, Somerset, England, and the fifth-largest artificial lake in the United Kingdom, with an area of 1,200 acres (4.9 km²). The lake, created in the early 1950s and opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1956, provides much of the drinking water for the city of Bristol and surrounding area, taking its supply from the Mendip Hills. Some of the water from the lake is used to maintain the flow in the River Chew.

Chew Stoke Human settlement in England

Chew Stoke is a small village and civil parish in the affluent Chew Valley, in Somerset, England, about 8 miles (13 km) south of Bristol and 10 miles north of Wells. It is at the northern edge of the Mendip Hills, a region designated by the United Kingdom as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and is within the Bristol/Bath green belt. The parish includes the hamlet of Breach Hill, which is approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of Chew Stoke itself.

Chanctonbury Ring

Chanctonbury Ring is a prehistoric hill fort atop Chanctonbury Hill on the South Downs, on the border of the civil parishes of Washington and Wiston in the English county of West Sussex. A ridgeway, now part of the South Downs Way, runs along the hill. It forms part of an ensemble of associated historical features created over a span of more than 2,000 years, including round barrows dating from the Bronze Age to the Saxon periods and dykes dating from the Iron Age and Roman periods.

Bleadon Human settlement in England

Bleadon is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England. It is about 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Weston-super-Mare and, according to the 2011 census, has a population of 1,079.

Philip Arthur Rahtz was a British archaeologist.

Hinton Blewett Human settlement in England

Hinton Blewett is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Wells and 15 miles (24.1 km) south of Bristol on the northern slope of the Mendip Hills, within the designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and in the Chew Valley near the source of the River Chew. The parish has a population of 308.

Charterhouse (Roman town)

Charterhouse was a town in the Roman province of Britannia. Its site is located just to the west of the village of Charterhouse-on-Mendip in the English county of Somerset.

St Andrews Church, Chew Stoke

The Anglican St Andrew's Church is on the outskirts of Chew Stoke, within the English county of Somerset. The church, parts of which date from the 15th century, is a Grade II* listed building.

Banwell Human settlement in England

Banwell is a village and civil parish on the River Banwell in the North Somerset district of Somerset, England. Its population was 2,919 according to the 2011 census.

Romano-Celtic temple

A Romano-Celtic temple is a sub-class of Roman temple found in the north-western provinces of the Roman Empire. Many may have had roots in the late Iron Age either in direct relation to pre-Roman structures or on sites with pre-Roman activity.

Cheddar Palace

The Cheddar Palace was established in the 9th century, in Cheddar, Somerset, England. It was a royal hunting lodge in the Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods and hosted the Witenagemot in the 10th century.

Scheduled monuments in Bath and North East Somerset

Bath and North East Somerset is a unitary authority created on 1 April 1996, following the abolition of the County of Avon, which had existed since 1974. Part of the ceremonial county of Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset occupies an area of 220 square miles (570 km2), two-thirds of which is green belt. It stretches from the outskirts of Bristol, south into the Mendip Hills and east to the southern Cotswold Hills and Wiltshire border. The city of Bath is the principal settlement in the district, but BANES also covers Keynsham, Midsomer Norton, Radstock and the Chew Valley. The area has a population of 170,000, about half of whom live in Bath, making it 12 times more densely populated than the rest of the area.

Scheduled monuments in Somerset

There are over 670 scheduled monuments in the ceremonial county of Somerset in South West England. The county consists of a non-metropolitan county, administered by Somerset County Council, which is divided into five districts, and two unitary authorities. The districts of Somerset are West Somerset, South Somerset, Taunton Deane, Mendip and Sedgemoor. The two administratively independent unitary authorities, which were established on 1 April 1996 following the breakup of the county of Avon, are North Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset. These unitary authorities include areas that were once part of Somerset before the creation of Avon in 1974.

References

  1. ↑ Rahtz, P.; Harris, L.G. (1958). "The temple well and other buildings at Pagans Hill, Chew Stoke, North Somersetshire". Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society: 25–51.
  2. ↑ Rahtz, P.; Watts, L. (1991). "Pagans Hill revisited". The Archaeological Journal. 46.
  3. ↑ Hucker, Ernest (1997). Chew Stoke recalled in old photographs. Ernest Hucker.
  4. 1 2 Boon, George C. (1989). "A Roman sculpture rehabilitated: The Pagans Hill dog". Britannia. Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. 20: 201–217. doi:10.2307/526163. JSTOR   526163.
  5. ↑ Gelling, Margaret. "Temples in Somerset and neighbouring areas" (PDF). Archeology Data Service. Retrieved 2007-01-03.
  6. ↑ Rodwell, Warwick (1980). Temples, Churches and Religion: Recent Research in Roman Britain. Chichester: British Archaeological Reports. ISBN   0-86054-085-5.
  7. ↑ Ford, David Nash. "Narrative History of the County of Somerset". Britannia. Archived from the original on 2006-11-12. Retrieved 2007-01-03.
  8. ↑ Aston, Michael; Iles, Rob (1987). The archaeology of Avon. Bristol: Avon County Council. ISBN   0-86063-282-2.
  9. ↑ "Pagans Hill temple". Curse tablets from Roman Britain. Retrieved 14 November 2010.
  10. ↑ MacInnes, Charles Malcolm; Whittard, Walter Frederick (1973). Bristol and its adjoining counties. p. 174.
  11. ↑ Dunning, Robert (1983). A History of Somerset. Chichester: Phillimore & Co. ISBN   0-85033-461-6.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.