Charterhouse Roman Town
Charterhouse Roman Town is a site in the Mendip Hills of Somerset, by the village of Charterhouse-on-Mendip. Here stood a town in the Roman period, sustained by mining.
The Roman town is associated with the Iron Age hill fort, Charterhouse Camp. The Roman landscape has been designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.[1]
Name
How the town was known to the Romans and Britons of the day is not known; it might have been Iscalis, but this is far from certain.[2]
An alternative, based on inscriptions on a pig of Roman lead BRIT. EX. ARG. VEB, meaning "British from the VEB... silver works" would suggest that there was a mining place with a name beginning Ueb.... This might explain the name of the nearby village of Ubley; though usually pure Anglo-Saxon origins are assumed for its name, the 'Ub-' element might conceivably be from a pre-existing British name, hence 'Ueb-meadow'.[3]
Mining settlement
The settlement grew up around the north-western edge of prehistoric lead and silver mines, which were exploited by the Romans.[4] Mendip lead ore had up to 0.4% silver content, which the Romans used to pay the army.[5] Extraction is thought to have begun as early as AD 49[3] (although the evidence of dateable lead ingots found in the neighbourhood has recently been questioned.[6]) At first the lead and silver industries were tightly controlled by the Roman military (in the south-west, by the Legio II Augusta[7]) and there was a small 'fortlet' adjoining the mines during the 1st century, which may, however, have been little more than a fortified compound for storing lead pigs.[8] After a short time, the extraction of these metals was contracted out to civilian companies, probably because of low silver content.[9] Smelting was undertaken on site where industrial workshops have been excavated,[10] and the metal exported along a minor road to the Fosse Way, and probably through a small inland port at nearby Cheddar.[7]
Amphitheatre
An amphitheatre stood west of the settlement.[11] It is the only one in Britain to exist at a lead mine and is additional evidence of the importance of Mendip lead to the Romans.[12] The amphitheatre's banks for the seating survive 15 feet above the arena. It was surveyed in 1909. It was probably a place of entertainment for the soldiers at the Roman fort which was established here.[13]
See also
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Charterhouse, Somerset) |
References
- ↑ Firth, Hannah (2007). Mendip from the air. Taunton: Somerset County Council. ISBN 978-0-86183-390-0.
- ↑ Rivet, A L F; Smith, Colin (1979). The Place-Names of Roman Britain. London: B T Batsford.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Havinden, Michael (1981). The Somerset Landscape. The making of the English landscape. London: Hodder and Stoughton. pp. 85. ISBN 0-340-20116-9.
- ↑ National Monuments Record: No. 1519564 – Charterhouse on Mendip Roman Mining Settlement
- ↑ Elkington, H D H (1976). "The Mendip Lead Industry". The Roman West Country: Classical Culture and Celtic Society.
- ↑ Clement Whittick, G (1982). "Roman Lead-Mining on Mendip and in North Wales". Britannia 13.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Aston, Mick; Burrow, Ian (1982). The Archaeology of Somerset. Taunton: Somerset County Council.
- ↑ De la Bedoyere, Guy (2006). Roman Britain: A New History. London: Thames & Hudson.
- ↑ "Major Romano-British Settlement Charterhouse on Mendip, Avon". Roman Britain.org. http://www.roman-britain.org/places/charterhouse.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-28.
- ↑ "Charterhouse". Big Roman Dig. http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/B/bigromandig/database/2_31.jsp?activityId=361. Retrieved 2006-10-28.
- ↑ National Monuments Record: No. 194337
- ↑ Dunning, Robert (1983). A History of Somerset. Chichester: Phillimore & Co. ISBN 978-0-85033-461-6.
- ↑ Adkins, Lesley and Roy (1992). A field Guide to Somerset Archeology. Stanbridge: Dovecote press. pp. 37-39. ISBN 0-946159-94-7.