Listed 1 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "MILDENHALL Village ENGLAND".
Cunetio (Mildenhall) Wiltshire, England.
Mildenhall village, in the parish of that name, lies ca. 2.4 km E of Marlborough,
on the river Kennet. What is called the Black Field, within the area described
as the site of the Roman settlement of Cunetio, is on the S side of the river,
and 0.4 km due E of Mildenhall church. The field is also the meeting point for
two Roman roads running respectively E-W and N-S.
Recent air photography has disclosed the existence within Black Field
of a walled township of Romano-British date, some 8 ha in extent, with at least
two phases of construction. The first phase consists of a double-ditched earthwork
with rounded corners, whose E, W, and S sides are visible in the photographs,
measuring some 261 m E-W x 210 m. The S ditches are interrupted, probably for
a small gateway. The second and later phase comprises a massive stone wall with
defensive bastions spaced at regular intervals along its E and S sides. Roughly
midway along the S wall crop markings disclosed a gateway with drum-ended flanking
towers.
Investigations since 1957 have cut sections across the township wall
on its four sides. Considerable robbing of the wall, doubtless for building stone,
had taken place in antiquity, but enough of the foundation remained to show that
the wall had been built of heavy flint rubble embedded in lime mortar, and its
thickness at the base varied between 5.55 and 4.8 m. Coin finds from mdividual
cuttings were imprecise, but suggest a date of A.D. 280-350 for the wall construction.
One of the stone defensive bastions observed from the air to project
beyond the S wall face was also investigated. The bastion footings, standing two
courses high, were formed first by heavy squared blocks of Lower Chalk laid on
to the rubble platform, though not, it appears, mortared together. Sufficient
of this lower course remained to show quite clearly that it was semi-octagonal
in plan. Evidence clearly showed that the bastion had been bonded into the wall
face, proving (also by the similarity of both wall and bastion construction) that
the masonry defenses of Cunetio were of a single date. Recent research on the
defenses of Romano-British townships elsewhere seems to indicate a sweeping reorganization
about the middle of the 4th c. A.D., one particular feature being either the addition
of projecting bastions to existing walls, or their incorporation within entirely
new stone defenses. In the light of present knowledge at Cunetio, the surrounding
stone wall with defensive bastions is to be allocated to the 4th c. phase of the
Roman occupation.
The latest excavation at the site proved the existence of a hitherto
unknown W gateway ca. 90 m S of the NW corner of the town. A small coin hoard,
dated to ca. A.D. 360, was recovered immediately above the gateway floor, at its
W end. Next to the gateway, and beneath the line of the W wall, a well was excavated.
The presence of early figured Samian and native wares in the well implies an early
occupation of the site, within the 1st c. A.D., not inconceivably related to the
Roman military advance in SW England during the initial stages of the Roman conquest.
It is perhaps noteworthy that the plan of the early ditched defenses conforms
precisely to the so-called playing card plan of a Roman military fortification,
although it must be emphasized that these belong to a civil phase of the occupation
of Cunetio.
F.K. Annable, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Feb 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
