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18/05/2011

Word count – 2,106

By Paul Redish

TCARC107

RICHARD

MIKULSKI THE ROMANS IN CORNWALL

Paul Redish The Romans in Cornwall

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Contents

1. Aim .............................................. 3

2. Objectives .................................... 3

3. Background ................................. 3

3.1 Roman legions .......................... 4

3.2 Marching Camps ....................... 5

4. The Romans in Cornwall ............. 6

4.1 Nanstallon ............................. 6

4.2 Restormel .............................. 6

4.3 Summation ............................ 7

5. The Project .................................. 7

5.1 Research ............................... 7

5.2 Survey ................................... 7

5.3 Landscape survey ................. 7

6. Budget ......................................... 8

7. The write up ................................. 8

8. Bibliography ................................. 9

9. Index .......................................... 12

Cover page – Roman Eagle SPQR

(crazyYoda, 2008)

Paul Redish The Romans in Cornwall

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1. Aim

To investigate Roman Occupation in

Cornwall by evaluating the Roman

forts at Restormel and Nanstallon,

comparing these to other known forts

within the British Isles and with this

information a map survey of Cornwall

looking for comparable sites will be

undertaken.

2. Objectives

To measure the earthworks and

internal wall dimensions at the

Roman forts of Restormel and

Nanstallon.

To compare the dimensions to

at least three other Roman forts

in the British Isles.

To use the comparative data to

investigate other possible

archaeological sites of interest

in the Cornish landscape

3. Background

In AD 43 the Emperor Claudius set his

sights on a small island on the north

western borders of the Empire called

Britannia (Britain), Claudius was by no

means the first Emperor to see our

island as ripe for invasion.

Julius Caesar first attempted it in 55

BC and again in 54 BC, the Emperor

Caligula once tried, he stood a Legion

on the French Coast and pounded the

sea with his artillery in AD 39. So as

we can see the invasion of Britannia

had long been thought about by

Roman Empire (Dando-Collins, 2010).

In the summer of AD 43 40,000 troops

(Figure 1), 5,000 baggage animals and

several thousand auxiliary horseman

set sail from Bononia on the French

coast, they sailed across the Channel

and landed near Pegwell bay on the

Isle of Thanet (Webster & Dudley,

1973).

Figure 1 the Legion Marches (Greaves, 2009)

The commander of the invasion was

one Aulus Plautius, who took with him

four legions the 2nd Augusta, the 9th

Hispana, the 14th Gemina Martia

Victrix and the 20th Valeria Victrix

these were accompanied by around 12

auxiliary units ranging from light

infantry cohorts to the most famous

Paul Redish The Romans in Cornwall

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mounted unit in the Roman army the

Batavian horse (Dando-Collins, 2010).

After the initial battles against the

Catuvellauni tribes the main invasion

force stopped at the Thames, Plautius

decided to extend the southern

borders and sent the 2nd Augusta

legion along the south coast.

During this march the 2nd legion

captured many forts and fought many

battles, one such fort is Hod Hill (Todd

& Historical.Association, 2004). After

making their way across Dorset and

Somerset and into Devon, they finally

stopped at the river Exe, at a point

thought to be the capital of the

Dumnonii tribe (Encyclopaedia

Britannica, 2011). It was here that the

2nd legion formed a permanent camp

and set the foundations for the Roman

town of Isca Dumnoniorium, the

modern day city of Exeter (Soulsby,

1986) (see Figure 2) .

The legion was to stay there for twenty

years until in AD 75 when they

relocated to Isca Augusta in Wales

(the modern day Caerleon).

3.1 Roman legions

To help understand the scale of

encampments used by the Roman

legions (the base at Exeter covered 17

hectares) it is important to understand

the basis of a Roman legion (Bidwell &

Council, 1980).

The standard legion was comprised of

5248 men this was broken down into

10 Cohorts, cohorts 2-9 contained 480

men each with the first being double

strength with 800 men, added to this

was an auxiliary unit of 128 horsemen

whose primary use was scouting. Each

cohort was further broken down into 3

maniples of 160 men each; these

maniples were comprised of 2

centuries each containing 80 men, this

was the back bone of every legion

Rome ever formed (Webster G. ,

1985).

It has also been documented by

Roman writers that the legions

gathered ‘camp followers’ these were

Figure 2 Isca Dumnoniorium (Archaeology.news.network, 2010)

Paul Redish The Romans in Cornwall

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everything from prostitutes to slaves,

merchants to wives. The numbers at

times equalled that of the legion they

followed (Tacitus, Translated.by,

Church, & Brodribb, 2005). With this in

mind you can understand the sheer

scale of the numbers of people

involved in a legion. The camp at

Exeter involved nearly 10,500 people

all of which needed feeding and

bedding, of course the Legion had

their own camp but the followers had

to fend for themselves. These

followers created towns or Vicus, like

Vindalanda, to service the nearby

Legion and interaction with locals was

inevitable (Southern, 2006).

3.2 Marching Camps

A Roman legion would march on

average 20 miles a day in hostile

territory. Each night would see the

setup of a marching camp; these were

always set to an exact standard and

would be rectilinear in shape. Each

morning 10 men from each century

would march ahead of the advancing

legion along with a road building crew,

it was these men’s job to choose a

camp site and start laying out the

ground works on which the camp was

built, ‘The other cohorts started

building as and when they arrived’

(Dando-Collins, 2010). They always

tried to pick a hilltop location and once

it had been levelled the first area

marked was the general’s quarters or

praetorium this was denoted with a

white flag, around this was drawn up a

grid pattern of streets and tent lines.

Each camp was exactly the same as

the last so when the rest of the legion

arrived they knew just where to place

their equipment and pitch their tents

(Coulson, et al., 2007).

But before the tents were erected the

ditch or Fossa was dug by the

legionaries, each ditch was 4 metres

deep and 1 metre across, the earth

from the ditch was used to build the

wall or Agger which was typically 3 to

4 metres high, on top of this earthen

wall was the wooden palisade or

Vallum made of sharpened stakes,

these stakes were carried by the

legionaries from the last camp.

To aid in the digging each legionnaire

carried with them a dolabra (figure 3),

a scythe and a field knife

Figure 3 Dolabra (Pangerl, 1996)

Paul Redish The Romans in Cornwall

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Whilst the defences were being dug a

picket of Roman legionaries would

guard the camp. Another squad of

legionaries would clear an area of up

to nearly 200 metres around the camp

thus denying the enemy any cover and

providing wood for all the fires required

(Dando-Collins, 2010).

At the beginning of the next day’s

march the camp would be packed, the

fortifications dismantled, the advance

marching party sent out and then the

Legion would advance to the next site,

to repeat the whole process again.

Inevitably some of these marching

camps would be turned into more

permanent structures used for garrison

duties much like the forts along

Hadrian’s Wall; it is forts such as these

that have left their presence stamped

into our landscape.

4. The Romans in Cornwall

It is reported that once the 2nd Augusta

legion had set its headquarters in

Exeter, they continued to push forward

into Cornwall establishing a chain of

garrisoned forts (Soulsby, 1986), Two

such remnants of this expansion are

the fort at Nanstallon (www.Roman-

Britain.org, 2010b) and the recently re

found fort at Restormel (www.Roman-

Britain.org, 2010a).

4.1 Nanstallon

The fort at Nanstallon had been known

about since the early 19th century due

to the many first century Roman

objects uncovered during ploughing

many of these being documented by

W Iago (Iago, 1890-1).

It has wide double ramparts inclosing

an area of 2.2 acres (8903.28 metres),

excavations revealed metalled roads,

timber angle towers and double gates.

(English-Heritage, 2011)

4.2 Restormel

An earthwork was first shown at the

site on an OS map in 1805. It was then

seen in an aerial photograph by the

China clay Company in 1968. The first

survey was done in 2007 by

Tamarside Archaeology Survey

(Nicholas, 2008-2009).

The fort has a double ditch system

inclosing an area of 1.03 (4200

metres) acres (see figure 4 on page 7)

Paul Redish The Romans in Cornwall

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Figure 4 Restormel Fort (Altered by Paul Redish) (Hartgroves & Smith, 1989)

No formal excavations have been

undertaken at this site.

4.3 Summation

Both forts are situated overlooking a

river and are only five miles apart with

a prehistoric Ridgeway running

east/west between them. Restormel

appears to be approximately half the

area of Nanstallon, which could

indicate that it is a subsidiary fort.

5. The Project

This section will concentrate on setting

out the research and field work that will

need to be undertaken in order to

further the aims of this project

5.1 Research

To start with the construction of a gant

chart will help concentrate time and

money into the areas required (Figure

5). Initial research has shown that any

journals required will either be in the

Courtney Library or via Plymouth

portal. Any books need should be

available through Truro College.

Figure 5 Gant Chart (Redish, Gant Chart, 2011)

5.2 Survey

This will be a very basic survey

comprising of both quantitative and

qualitative data recording, the tools

required for this should be a camera

and a measuring wheel (Duggal,

2006). Permission will of course be

sort from any land owner before any

survey does take place.

5.3 Landscape survey

This survey can be done with the aid

of Ordinance survey maps combined

with Google Earth, this will allow for a

good overview of Cornwall (Rippon,

2004). With the use of both these

resources it should allow for a

minimum of cost, this could escalate if

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Any sites are identified, but to limit

expenditure if anything is identified,

there will be an imposed two site visit

limit (Howard, 2007).

6. Budget

The budget for this report should

amount to no more than a hundred

pounds broken down into petrol,

books, maps and tools. (See figure 6)

If the funds do run over budget then

the reasons behind that over run shall

be analysed and included in the formal

report.

7. The write up

This should be the pooling together of

all the information garnered from the

above steps and condensing it into a

coherent report and then drawing any

conclusions that may arise.

£45

£10

£25

£20

petrol

maps

books

tools

Figure 6 Pie Chart (Redish, Pie Chart of expenditure, 2011)

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8. Bibliography

Archaeology.news.network. (2010). Isca Dumnonium. Retrieved May 19, 2011,

from Archaeology news network:

http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2010/07/discovery-of-roman-

fort-changes-history.html

Bidwell, P. T., & Council, E. C. (1980). Roman Exeter: fortress and town. Exeter:

Exeter Museum Service.

Coulson, C. L., Champion, S., Tunca, Ã.–n., Shaw, I. M., Winter, F. E., Bowsher,

J. M., et al. (2007). Military architecture and fortification. Retrieved 4 2011,

from Grove Art Online:

http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T058047pg2

crazyYoda. (2008, 08 17). Roman Eagle SPQR (cover picture). Retrieved 03 10,

2011, from deviantart: http://crazyyoda.deviantart.com/art/Roman-Eagle-

SPQR-95152818

Dando-Collins, S. (2010). Legions of Rome. London: Quercus.

Duggal, S. K. (2006). Surveying, Vol.i (2nd edition). New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill.

Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2011). Dumnonii. Retrieved 05 21, 2011, from

Encyclopaedia Britannica:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/173512/Dumnonii

English-Heritage. (2011). National Monument Record, SX 06 NW 2. Truro: English

Heritage.

Greaves, S. (2009, July). Romans. Retrieved 05 02, 2011, from Flickr: Steve

Greaves' photostream:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevegreaves/4406589305/in/set-

72157623417881371

Hartgroves, S., & Smith, J. (1989). Restormel Fort (edited by Paul Redish). Truro:

Cornwall County Council.

Paul Redish The Romans in Cornwall

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Howard, P. (2007). Archaeological surveying and mapping: recording and depicting

the landscape. Abingdon: Routledge.

Iago, W. (1890-1). Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, V10, 212-3.

Nicholas, P. (2008-2009). Geophysics at Restormel . Cornwall Council.

Pangerl, A. (1996). MilitaryEquipment-Technology. Retrieved 02 27, 2011, from

Roman Numismatic Gallery: http://www.romancoins.info/MilitaryEquipment-

Technology.html

Redish, P. (2011). Gant Chart. Newquay.

Redish, P. (2011). Pie Chart of expenditure. Newquay.

Rippon, S. (2004). Historic Landscape Analysis. Ripponden: Council for British

Archaeology.

Soulsby, I. (1986). II. Romans, Celts and Saxons. In A History of Cornwall (pp. 20-

24). Kings lynn: Biddles ltd.

Southern, P. (2006). The Roman army: a social and institutional history. Santa

Barbara: ABC-CLIO Inc.

Tacitus, C., Translated.by, Church, A., & Brodribb, W. (2005). The Histories.

Stilwell: Digireads.com Publishing.

Todd, M., & Historical.Association. (2004). A companion to Roman Britain. Oxford:

Blackwell Publishing.

Webster, G. (1985). The Roman Imperial Army of the first and second centuries

A.D. London: A & C Black.

Webster, G., & Dudley, D. R. (1973). The Roman Conquest of Britain. London: pan.

www.Roman-Britain.org. (2010a, 09 28). Restormal Roman Fortlet. Retrieved 03

11, 2011, from www.Roman-Britain.org: http://www.roman-

britain.org/places/restormel.htm

Paul Redish The Romans in Cornwall

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www.Roman-Britain.org. (2010b, 09 28). Statio Deventiasteno. Retrieved 03 11,

2011, from www.Roman-Britain.org: http://www.roman-

britain.org/places/statio_deventiasteno.htm

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9. Index

2nd

Augusta legion .............................................................................................................................................. 3, 5

Catuvellauni ............................................................................................................................................................ 3

Cornwall .............................................................................................................................................................. 2, 5

Exeter .............................................................................................................................................................. 3, 4, 5

forts ................................................................................................................................................................ 2, 3, 5

Isca Dumnoniorium ................................................................................................................................................. 3

legion .................................................................................................................................................................. 3, 4

legionaries .............................................................................................................................................................. 4

Nanstallon ........................................................................................................................................................... 2, 5

Restormel ....................................................................................................................................................... 2, 5, 6

Roman ..................................................................................................................................................... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5