Margidunum
| Margidunum | |
|
Nottinghamshire | |
|---|---|
 View towards Margidunum | |
| Type: | Roman fort |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SK699416 |
| Location: | 52°58’2"N, -0°57’35"W |
| Village: | Bingham |
| History | |
| Information | |
| Condition: | Buried remains |
Margidunum was a Roman settlement on the Fosse Way at Castle Hill near present-day Bingham, in Nottinghamshire. The site is a protected Scheduled Monument.[1]
Description
Margidunum is a Latin adaptation of a native British word: while some have claimed it is a Latin term ing 'marly fort'; appropriate for the lime-rich clay soil hereabouts,[2] its form is of the British language: the archaeologist Felix Oswald determined its Celtic meaning to be "the fort of the king's plain", the raised ground being a suitable position for the hill-fort of the king of the Coritani tribe.[3]
The Antonine Itinerary, a 2nd-century Roman register of places and roads, (Iter Britanniarum VI and VIII) locates Margidunum as MARGIDVNO midway between Ratae (Leicester) and Lindum (Lincoln) on the Fosse Way.[4][5] Finds of military equipment established that it was initially a military post in about 55–60 AD, although no parts of a fort structure have been found. Forts were sited at close intervals along the Fosse Way to protect the Roman territory from the hostile Brigantes and Iceni tribes.
A civilian settlement then developed in about 70–80 AD on either side of the Fosse Way, indicated by several simple rectangular buildings along about a thousand yard stretch of the road. Two Roman villas have been found within amie and a half of the settlement, as well as Roman farms in the surrounding area. A rhomboid-shaped earthwork defence was built in the late 2nd century around the camp, enclosing about 7 or 8 acres. A stone wall nearly ten feet wide was later built in front of the earth rampart, with two ditches beyond it. The fort was protected to the south and east by marshland. The site remained occupied until about 500 AD.[3][6]
Investigations
In 1722 William Stukeley visited the site and documented, in his 1724 book Itinerarium Curiosum, his observations of Roman foundations of walls, floors of houses and regularly-spaced oak posts.[2] In 1896 'Castle Hill Close' field on the 'Foss Road' was reported as the supposed site of the important Roman station of Margidunum, with Roman pottery and coins found there.[7]
Excavations were conducted by the University of Nottingham in the 1920s by Felix Oswald, and again in the 1960s by Malcolm Todd. Oswald found prehistoric artefacts including a Bronze Age flint arrowhead, polished stone axes and bronze socketed celts. The 20th-century excavations discovered the stone walls and stone slab floors or beaten clay floors of over 20 Roman buildings at the site. Foundations of three large adjacent buildings show that they were the most elaborate at the site. Numerous fragments of window glass, roof tiles and evidence of underfloor heating (floors raised on pillars and box flue tiles) indicate that one of these buildings was a bathhouse. It would have had stone walls, whereas the other buildings were timber-framed with wattle and daub walls. The largest building had no internal divisions, so it was likely to be a public building. Fragments of decorated wall plaster, mosaic floor tiles, pottery, a grid iron, charred timbers, several wells, water tanks and coins were also discovered. The oldest Claudian well was lined with oak planks encased in clay, whereas the later wells were stone-lined. The wells drew water from the underground source of the nearby Newton Springs.
Oswald identified the route of two other roads crossing the camp. He deduced that one of these was probably used to transport lead from the Lutudarum lead-mines in Derbyshire, because a large lead ingot inscribed C.IVL.PROTI.BRIT.LVT.EX.ARG. was found in 1848 at Hexgrave Park near Mansfield.[2][3][8]
The site of Margidunum now lies mostly across three fields but it is partially covered by a roundabout built in 1968[9]
Nearby sites
The Roman fort of Ad Pontem (at East Stoke near Newark) was 10 miles further north along the Fosse Way. It was also a small 1st-century fort with a similar rhomboid-shaped earthwork enclosure. A settlement developed on the site and Roman occupation continued into the 4th century. Two Iron Age huts were also found there.[10]
Roman camps have also been discovered at nearby Calverton and Farnsfield, and they too are Scheduled Monuments.[11][12]
References
- ↑ National Heritage List 1006395: Margidunum Roman Station (Scheduled ancient monument entry)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Buildings at Margidunum". http://www.binghamheritage.org.uk/history_of_bingham/roman/buildings_at_margidunum.php.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Oswald, Felix (28 January 1927). "Margidunum: An account of the excavations on the site of the Roman station on the Fosse Way, new Bingham, Notts. [Paper read before the Thoroton Society"]. http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/articles/tts/tts1927/margidunum1.htm.
- ↑ "Iter VI". https://roadsofromanbritain.org/iter6.html.
- ↑ "Iter VIII". https://roadsofromanbritain.org/iter8.html.
- ↑ Stillwell, Richard. MacDonald, William L. McAlister, Marian Holland (1976). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Princeton University Press.
- ↑ Notts & Derbyshire Notes and Queries. December 1896. pp. 183.
- ↑ Patterson, Mark (2011). Roman Nottinghamshire. Five Leaves Publications. ISBN 9781907869129.
- ↑ "Roman Occupation". https://www.binghamheritage.org.uk/history_of_bingham/roman/.
- ↑ Ad Pontem Roman Fortlet: Heritage Gateway
- ↑ National Heritage List 1018264: Two Roman camps 350m north east of Lodge Farm, Calverton (Scheduled ancient monument entry)
- ↑ National Heritage List 11018121: Roman camp south of Carr Banks Farm (Scheduled ancient monument entry)