ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF THE EXTRAMURAL MONUMENTAL .

CARDIFF STUDIES IN ARCHAEOLOGYARCHAEOLOGICAL EVALUATIONOF THE EXTRAMURALMONUMENTAL COMPLEX(‘THE SOUTHERN CANABAE’)AT CAERLEON, 2011An Interim ReportByP. Guest, M. Luke & C. PudneyCARDIFF STUDIES IN ARCHAEOLOGYSPECIALIST REPORT NUMBER 3333

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF THEEXTRAMURAL MONUMENTAL COMPLEX(‘THE SOUTHERN CANABAE’)AT CAERLEON, 2011Interim ReportbyP. Guest, M. Luke & C. Pudneywith contributions byP.Webster, M.Lewis & A.PowellCARDIFF STUDIES IN ARCHAEOLOGYSPECIALIST REPORT NUMBER 33

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF THEEXTRAMURAL MONUMENTAL COMPLEX(‘THE SOUTHERN CANABAE’)AT CAERLEON, 2011Cardiff Studies in Archaeology Specialist Report 33 The authors 2012P. Guest, M.Luke and C.Pudney,ISBN 978-0-9568398-2-4Published by the Department of Archaeology & ConservationSchool of History Archaeology and ReligionCardiff University,Humanities Building,Colum Drive,Cardiff,CF10 3EUTel: 44 (0)29 208 74470Fax: 44 (0)29 208 74929Email: adminshare@cardiff.ac.ukAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproducedin any form or by any means without permission of the authors.Designed by Cardiff Archaeological Illustration and DesignSoftware: Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium

ContentsIntroduction1Background3Project Aims & Objectives9Methodology11Results of the excavations13Trench 115Trench 225Trench 329Trench 433Trench 539Trench 651Trench 757Trench 861Trench 967Artefact & Environmental Assemblages73Pottery - preliminary observations79Discussion and interpretation87Bibliography95Appendix 1 - Trench Matrices97Appendix 2 - Community Engagement107Appendix 3 - Project Team113

IntroductionExcavations were undertaken across the area of the newlydiscovered complex of monumental buildings to thesouthwest of the legionary fortress of Isca at Caerleonbetween the 4th of August and the 1st of September 2011.This work was intended to evaluate the nature of thearchaeological remains in this part of Caerleon and toprovide important new information on the history androle of Isca in the Roman period, which, as one of onlythree permanent legionary fortresses in Britain, is a site ofsignificant international importance. Greater knowledgeof the extramural complex of monumental buildingswill lead to a better appreciation of Caerleon’s part inthe conquest, pacification and acculturation of Britain,and improve understanding of the River Usk’s role inconnecting the fortress with the network of auxiliaryforts in southern Wales, as well as other parts of RomanBritain and the Empire. The project was directed by DrPeter Guest of Cardiff University and Mike Luke ofAlbion Archaeology, and the core project team consistedof 13 staff and 23 student archaeologists from CardiffUniversity.From the outset the Caerleon excavations have linkedinternationally significant research with undergraduatetraining and a broad mission to engage with the public.The engagement strategy this year was to continue toraise the public’s awareness of, and participation in,archaeological fieldwork and the remains of RomanBritain. The excavation also provided an excellentopportunity to involve 23 undergraduate students andnumerous young volunteers in knowledge transfer andcommunity engagement activities that will provide themwith significant employability skills.The fields containing the Southern Canabae complexare privately owned and we are grateful to Mr MichaelHaines of Broadway Farm for permission to carry outthe excavations. The area is also a Scheduled AncientFig. 1. Aerial photograph of the 2011 Caerleon Southern Canabae trenches, the River Usk and the legionary amphitheatre1

Introductionwhile Adrienne Powell completed the assessment ofthe animal bone assemblage. We are pleased to includesummaries of their reports in this interim, which beginsthe process of integrating the stratigraphic narrative andthe related finds evidence. A summary of the communityengagement activities devised for the 2011 season is alsoprovided here (a full report is available from the authors).Professor Bill Manning kindly commented on a draftand we are very grateful to him for helping to removethe inconsistencies and glitches in the text. We wouldalso like to thank Tim Young for providing images of thegeophysical survey results as well as his interpretations.Ian Dennis of Cardiff University prepared this report forpublication with his usual skill and patience.Monument and Scheduled Monument Consent wasgranted by Cadw. Funding for the excavations wasprovided by Cardiff University, the Roman ResearchTrust, the Haverfield Bequest (University of Oxford),Time Team, Newport City Council, and the CaerleonTourist Forum. Cadw provided funding for the initialpost-excavation archiving work and preparation of thisinterim report and we are grateful to Jonathan Berryand his colleagues at Cadw for their continued support.Finally, we would like to thank the staff at the NationalRoman Legion Museum (National Museum Wales) fortheir encouragement and assistance.This report summarises the results of the evaluationand includes the stratigraphic sequences recorded ineach of the nine trenches, an overview of the findsassemblages, and a discussion of the excavation’ssignificance for understanding the legionary fortress atCaerleon. Mark Lewis and Peter Webster undertook thepreliminary analysis of the pottery from the excavations,Fig. 2. Almost the complete Caerleon Southern Canabae 2011 excavation team, 31st August.2

BackgroundThe site of Roman Isca, which lies beneath the town ofCaerleon near Newport in South Wales, is one of the bestknown legionary fortresses from the Empire - a result ofthe intensive accumulation of knowledge obtained overa century-and-a-half of antiquarian and archaeologicalexploration at Caerleon which enables the fortress’layout and history to be described in some detail. Thesignificance of the site has been understood for centuriesand Isca’s ruins were conspicuous enough in the medievallandscape of South Wales to merit comment in the workof chroniclers such as Gerald of Wales and Geoffrey ofMonmouth in the twelfth century.The first antiquarian work was undertaken by JohnEdward Lee in the 1840s, though the framework ofunderstanding of the fortress really only really beganto be established during the course of several importantexcavations carried out by the National Museum ofWales from the 1920s to the 1980s (Boon 1972; Boon1987; Jones 2001; Knight 2001: 48). These revealedmany of the buildings inside and around the fortress,including the amphitheatre, various barrack blocks (ofwhich the most important are those in Prysg Field), theheadquarters building, a possible hospital, the 11Fig. 3. Location of Caerleon, South Wales (maps reproduced by permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf ofHMSO. Crown Copyright. All rights reserved.)3

Backgroundmodern city of Newport. Isca was founded in c. A.D.74 or 75 probably by Legio Secunda Augusta during,or perhaps in advance of, the final campaigns of thegovernor of Britannia Julius Frontinus against the Siluresand other native tribes of this western part of Britain. TheUsk allowed the legion to be supplied by sea and also toprovision the auxiliary units based in the upstream fortsat Abergavenny and Brecon, while the road that crossedthe Usk at Caerleon led to the major Roman settlementsat Gloucester and Wroxeter in the east (both of which hadbeen earlier legionary bases), and westwards towards thefort at Cardiff and beyond to Carmarthen.baths, a tribune’s house, various supposed workshops,and a quay on the right bank of the Usk. From the 1980snumerous watching-briefs, evaluations and large-scaleexcavations have been undertaken by the GlamorganGwent Archaeological Trust and other commercial unitsat Caerleon, of which the most significant were those onthe Roman Gates site (Evans and Metcalf 1992) and theextramural settlement to the east of the fortress on MillStreet (Evans 2000). The insightful accounts publishedby George Boon summarised the state of knowledge inthe 1970s and 1980s (Boon 1972; Boon 1987), whileup-to-date summaries and discussions of specific themesrelating to Caerleon have appeared more recently (Brewer2002; Manning 2004; Evans 2010).Initially many of the buildings within the fortresswould have been built in timber, though the techniquesemployed by excavators in Caerleon during much of thetwentieth century means that any evidence for timberstructures would not have been recognised in their narrowtrenches. The amphitheatre was first constructed in about90 by which time the decision had probably been takento make Isca the Second Augustan Legion’s permanentbase in Britain, and most buildings appear to have beenIsca lies on a spur of gently rising ground between themeandering River Usk and its floodplain to the east andsouth, the Afon Lwyd stream to the north, and Lodge Hillto the northwest (Fig. 3). Oriented almost exactly southeast to north-west, the fortress covers 20.3 hectares (some50 acres) on the right bank of the Usk at the river’s lowestbridging point before it enters the Severn Estuary at theFortress NorthCompass NorthFig. 4. Plan of the legionary fortress of Isca at Caerleon as known in 20024

Backgroundcentury, notably from the southern and eastern parts.The identity of these late-Roman inhabitants has beena matter of considerable debate with some suggesting areduced military garrison, while others have imaginedcivilians living in abandoned barracks and other militarybuildings until the end of the Roman period when, likemost places in Britain, the archaeological evidence foroccupation disappears (Gardner 2007).rebuilt in stone between the late first and early secondcenturies. Soon afterwards the legion was redeployedto northern Britain where it assisted in the constructionof first Hadrian’s Wall and, subsequently, the AntonineWall. For the succeeding decades of the second century itis likely that the legion would have left only a small forceat Caerleon while the majority of its men were occupiedwith the various demolitions and renovations of the Wallsthat took place up to c. 160 before it was finally decidedthat Hadrian’s Wall was to be the northern frontier of theRoman Empire. Epigraphic evidence points to severalrebuilding events in Caerleon during the third century unsurprising given the age of the original buildings andthe extended period of semi-abandonment during thesecond century.In 2003 Cadw grant-aided the Glamorgan-GwentArchaeological Trust to produce a research framework forCaerleon (Evans 2004). This document set out how muchwas known about fortress, but also highlighted the areaswhere knowledge was lacking and suggested measuresthat could be taken to provide valuable information to fillin those gaps. The research framework emphasised theplan of the canabae and the development of the River Uskas research priorities, and also highlighted the potentialof modern excavations to produce important informationrelating to the society and culture of the inhabitantsof Caerleon and its environs (particularly finds andenvironmental evidence). This initiative set in motion aIt is thought that the military occupation at Isca ended c.300 when the legion was redeployed, possibly to a newfort at Cardiff before appearing as the garrison of theSaxon Shore fort at Richborough in the early fifth-centuryNotitia Dignitatum. The fortress, however, has producedevidence for occupation during much of the fourthFortress NorthCompass NorthFig. 5. Updated plan of Isca after geophysical surveys from 2006 to 2008 (newly-discovered buildings shown in red)5