Uxelodunum | |
---|---|
Location in Cumbria | |
Alternative name(s) | Petriana |
Known also as | Stanwix Fort |
Location | |
Coordinates | 54°54′18″N2°56′31″W / 54.905°N 2.942°W |
County | Cumbria |
Country | England |
Reference | |
UK-OSNG reference | NY396571 |
Uxelodunum (with the alternative Roman name of Petriana and the modern name of Stanwix Fort) was a Roman fort with associated civilian settlement ( vicus ) in modern-day Carlisle, Cumbria, England. It was the largest fort on Hadrian's Wall and is now buried beneath the suburb of Stanwix. [1]
The fort was called Petrianis in the Notitia Dignitatum, but on the Ravenna Cosmography it is called Uxellodamo. On the Rudge Cup it is spelled VXELODVM. On the Amiens Skillet it is spelled VXELODVNVM. It is also spelled VXELODVNVM on the Staffordshire Moorlands Pan. The name Petrianis comes from the cohort that was stationed there, which appears to be a latinisation of a Celtic toponym thought to mean High Fort. [2]
It is thus likely that the name Petriana was a scribal error which confused the fort's name and the occupying unit, and that the fort's true name was Uxelodunum. [3]
In 122 the province was visited by Hadrian who started the building of the wall along the frontier slightly to the north of the Stanegate, the previous frontier. Uxelodunum fort was therefore built on the wall north of the river and within sight of the Luguvallum fort, as a small turf-and-timber fort with its northern rampart consisting of the original Turf Wall and its long axis parallel to the Wall. The Wall's vallum ditches behind the wall were placed close enough to leave sufficient space for the ramparts of this fort. The fort was later rebuilt in stone when the Wall was rebuilt likewise. [4] Milecastle 65 was also built on the wall about 1 km northwest of the fort.
The fort was later considerably expanded to the north and west to accommodate the larger Ala Gallorum Petriana , [5] the nominally 1,000-strong cavalry regiment, the sole cavalry regiment of this size in Britain, after the internal buildings had been demolished as well as the south-western and northern rampart walls. In extending north beyond the Wall, as required by a cavalry fort, the fort was pushed to the edge of the escarpment and it may also have extended to the south to the limit of the Vallum. [6]
It was abandoned like the rest of the wall in about 138 before the Antonine wall was built, but was rebuilt in stone in about 165 when Hadrian's Wall was reinstated as the frontier and locally also rebuilt in stone. [7]
The fort is about 9 miles from Castlesteads (Camboglanna) and 6 miles east of Burgh by Sands (Aballava), the nearest forts on Hadrian's Wall. It stands on a natural platform above the River Eden and was intended to guard the Eden bridgehead and watch the important western route to Scotland.
The fort measured about 177 m north to south by 213 m east to west, covering approximately 9.32 acres (3.77 ha), much larger than the other wall forts. The later fort layout extended north beyond the Wall to allow the garrison to exit northwards through 3 wide gates. North of the wall the rampart was fronted by three ditches. [8]
Most of the fort lies beneath Saint Michael’s churchyard, where traces of the fort’s south-eastern rampart remain as a low, spread bank, at best 0.3m high. Some masonry is displayed in the car park of the Cumbria Park hotel.
Some nearby remains have been discovered including a bathhouse discovered in 2017 and the parade ground thought to be east of the site on an extensive clay platform of about 7.5 acres. [9]
Because of the large size of the fort, it is thought to have housed a cavalry regiment, nominally one thousand strong. This was almost certainly the Ala Petriana, [10] the sole regiment of this size on the Wall where it is placed by the Notitia dignitatum . This was a distinguished auxiliary regiment, whose soldiers had been made Roman citizens for valour on the field of battle. [11] It seems that the fort was given the name of its garrison, thus supplanting the earlier name of Uxelodunum.
Traces of a civil settlement outside the walls are surprisingly slight given the large size of the fort, but the Roman town of Carlisle was probably near enough to serve in place of a vicus. [12] Archaeological evidence includes masonry and pottery in the churchyard and material on Stanwix bank, second-century occupation found in 1931 outside the west rampart, and a mid 2nd-century bronzesmith's workshop discovered in 1930 below the fort with both military and civilian products.
Signs of buildings were visible in the 18th century south-east of the fort on the slope towards the river. [13] [14]
Excavations in 1932–4 traced the ditch for the south rampart as well as Hadrian's Wall, which formed the north face of the fort. Barrack-like buildings were also found within the outline of the fort. In 1939 a large granary, lying east to west, was found in extending the local school-yard. In 1940 the south-west angle tower was found as well as the south and east walls.
In 1934 various objects were found which appeared to have been washed down into the river from the fort. These included brooches, mountings for cavalrymen's uniforms and harness.
In 1939-40 the line of the walls was established and an angle tower and interval tower were located.
Excavations in 1984 uncovered a 24 m length of the base of the north-western rampart in the car park behind the Cumbria Park Hotel in Stanwix which are on public display. [15]
In 2017 a major discovery was made of a bath-house on the riverside beneath the grounds of Carlisle Cricket Club (Edenside cricket ground). The well-preserved remains include a hypocaust for heating. Also found was an inscription to Julia Domna, the wife of the Emperor Septimius Severus, whom she accompanied in Britain from 208 until his death in 211 at York. The inscription prompts the question, whether Julia Domna and her husband visited Petriana.
In summer 2021, a community archaeological dig took place on the site. [16] A group of tiles were found with the imperial stamp of Septimus Severus. [17] [18] Later finds included a group of about 30 semi-precious gems, some carved as intaglia, which were found in a drain and are thought to have been lost by bathers. [19] The "Uncovering Roman Carlisle" project, including the Cricket Club dig, won the Council for British Archaeology and Marsh Community Trust's Community Archaeology Project of the Year 2022 award. [20] The dig continued in 2023, and in May 2023 two large stone heads were found. [21]
Carlisle is a cathedral city in the ceremonial county of Cumbria in England. It is the administrative centre of Cumberland Council which covers an area similar to the historic county of Cumberland.
The Stanegate was an important Roman road and early frontier built in what is now northern England. It linked many forts including two that guarded important river crossings: Corstopitum (Corbridge) on the River Tyne in the east and Luguvalium (Carlisle) in the west. The Stanegate ran through the natural gap formed by the valleys of the River Tyne in Northumberland and the River Irthing in Cumbria. It predated the Hadrian's Wall frontier by several decades; the Wall would later follow a similar route, albeit slightly to the north.
The Carvetii were a Brittonic Celtic tribe living in what is now Cumbria, in North-West England during the Iron Age, and were subsequently identified as a civitas (canton) of Roman Britain.
Dux Britanniarum was a military post in Roman Britain, probably created by Emperor Diocletian or Constantine I during the late third or early fourth century. The Dux (literally, " leader" was a senior officer in the late Roman army of the West in Britain. It is listed in the Notitia Dignitatum as being one of the three commands in Britain, along with the Comes Britanniarum and Count of the Saxon Shore.
Gillam, J. P. (1950). "Recent excavations at Birdoswald"(PDF). Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society: 63, 64. doi:10.5284/1062766.
Stanwix is a district of Carlisle, Cumbria in North West England. The ward population had a population taken at the 2011 census of 5,934. It is located on the north side of River Eden, across from Carlisle city centre. Although long counted as a suburb it did not officially become part of the city until 1912 when part of the civil parish of Stanwix became part of the parish, city and municipal borough of Carlisle. Further areas were added to the city, which was by then a county borough, in 1934 and 1951. The remaining part of the parish was eventually renamed Stanwix Rural in 1966.
Magnis or Magna was a Roman fort near Hadrian's Wall in northern Britain. Its ruins are now known as Carvoran Roman Fort and are located near Carvoran, Northumberland, in northern England. It was built on the Stanegate frontier and Roman road, linking Coria (Corbridge) in the east to Luguvalium (Carlisle) in the west, before the building of Hadrian's Wall.
The River Caldew is a river running through Cumbria in England. The river rises high up on the northern flanks of Skiddaw, in the Northern Fells area of the English Lake District, and flows in a northerly direction until it joins the River Eden on the north side of the city of Carlisle.
Luguvalium was an ancient Roman city in northern Britain located within present-day Carlisle, Cumbria, and may have been the capital of the 4th-century province of Valentia. It was the northernmost city of the Roman Empire.
Coria was a fort and town 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south of Hadrian's Wall, in the Roman province of Britannia. It was strategically located on the junction of a major Roman north–south road with the River Tyne and the Roman Stanegate road, which was also the first frontier line which ran east–west between Coria and Luguvalium. Corbridge Roman Site is in the village of Corbridge in the county of Northumberland.
The Vallum is a huge earthwork associated with Hadrian's Wall in England. Unique on any Roman frontier, it runs practically from coast to coast to the south of the wall. It was built a few years after the wall. Current opinion is that the Vallum demarcated the southern boundary of a military zone, bounded on the north by the wall.
Condercum was a Roman fort on the site of the modern-day Condercum Estate in Benwell, a suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It was the third fort on Hadrian's Wall, about 6.8 miles east of Rudchester fort and only 2.4 miles west of Pons Aelius fort (Newcastle), and was situated on a hilltop 2 miles (3 km) to the west of the city.
Camboglanna was a Roman fort. It was the twelfth fort on Hadrian's Wall counting from the east, between Banna (Birdoswald) almost 7 miles (11 km) to the east and Uxelodunum (Stanwix), 9 miles to the west. It was on a high bluff commanding the Cambeck Valley. It guarded an important approach to the Wall and also watched the east bank of the Cambeck against raiders from the Bewcastle area. The site was drastically levelled in 1791 when the gardens of Castlesteads House were laid over it. The name "Camboglanna" is believed to mean "Crook Bank", or "Bent Valley" because it overlooks a bend in the river Irthing; the name is Brythonic, made of cambo- "curved, bent, crooked" and glanna "steep bank, stream/river side, valley with a stream".
Aballava or Aballaba was a Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall, between Petriana (Stanwix) to the east and Coggabata (Drumburgh) to the west. It is about one and a half miles south of the Solway Firth, and its purpose was to guard the south end of two important Solway fords, the Peat Wath and the Sandwath, which were also to become favourite routes for medieval border raiders.
Coggabata, or Congavata / Concavata, was a Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall, between Aballava to the east and Mais (Bowness-on-Solway) to the west. It was built on a hill commanding views over the flatter land to the east and west and to the shore of the Solway Firth to the north. Its purpose was to guard the southern end of two important Solway fords, the Stonewath and the Sandwath.
Maia, or Mais, in Cumbria, England was a Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall, and was the last fort at the western end of the Wall, overlooking the Solway Firth.
Hadrian's Wall is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Running from Wallsend on the River Tyne in the east to Bowness-on-Solway in the west of what is now northern England, it was a stone wall with large ditches in front and behind, stretching across the whole width of the island. Soldiers were garrisoned along the line of the wall in large forts, smaller milecastles, and intervening turrets. In addition to the wall's defensive military role, its gates may have been customs posts.
Bewcastle Roman Fort was built to the north of Hadrian's Wall as an outpost fort possibly intended for scouting and intelligence. The remains of the fort are situated at the village of Bewcastle, Cumbria, 7 miles (11 km) to the north of the Roman fort at Birdoswald, on Hadrian's Wall.
Milecastle 65 (Tarraby) was a milecastle on Hadrian's Wall (grid reference NY40855793).
Roman Cumbria was an area that lay on the north-west frontier of Roman Britain, and, indeed, of the Roman Empire itself.. Interest in the Roman occupation of the region lies in this frontier aspect: why did the Romans choose to occupy the north-west of England; why build a solid barrier in the north of the region ; why was the region so heavily militarised; to what extent were the native inhabitants "Romanised" compared to their compatriots in southern England?