Listed 20 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "KENT County ENGLAND" .
CANTERBURY (Town) ENGLAND
Durovernum Cantiacorum (Canterbury) Kent, England.
At a crossing of the river Stour. The name is recorded by Ptolemy and later ancient
sources. Caesar had crossed the river here or nearby in 54 B.C., but occupation
of the site began only ca. A.D. 1, when a large oppidum grew up on each bank.
Canterbury has been continuously inhabited ever since, but opportunity for large-scale
excavation occurred only after WW II as a result of bombing.
The Belgic oppidum was found to cover a wide area with sporadic huts
and gulleys; it was probably a regional capital and a silver coin of Voicenos
attests an otherwise unknown ruler. Soon after A.D. 43 gulleys were filled in
and a Roman street-grid laid down; thus Durovernum was one of the earliest civitas
capitals to be developed, and presumably reflects the pro-Roman character of the
region. The Cantiaci were not a single tribe; their name, derived from Cantium,
suggests a Roman amalgamation of small groups to form an administrative area of
convenient size. The earliest buildings were of half-timber and/or clay; masonry
structures began to appear ca. A.D. 100. About this time a theater or amphitheater
was built; it was entirely remodeled as a large classical theater with vaulted
substructure in the early 3d c. Two bath buildings are known.
The town lacked defenses until ca. 270, when a wall and bank were
constructed enclosing 52 ha. The defended area was confined to the E bank of the
Stour, and occupation ceased on the other side. Excavation has yielded evidence
for a regular settlement (early 5th c.) by Germanic immigrants using Anglo-Frisian
pottery and living in Grubenhauser that are probably of the period of Hengist.
Another important discovery was a late 4th c. silver treasure carrying Christian
symbols, which had been concealed just outside the walls near the river. It reminds
us of the Christian churches which, according to Bede, could still be identified
by St. Augustine.
S.S. Frere, 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.
DOVER (Town) ENGLAND
Dubris (Dover) Kent, England.
The Roman fort lies beneath the modern city in a valley between steep chalk hills,
close to the sea. The site was probably continuously occupied from the time of
the Roman invasion of A.D. 43. The nature of the 1st c. occupation is uncertain,
but in the 2d c. a fort was constructed to house a detachment of the Classis Britannica.
Part of the wall, a gate, and a series of internal buildings belonging to the
fort were discovered in 1970. At a later date, probably towards the end of the
3d c., the old structure was replaced by a more substantial fort of the Saxon
Shore series. Its extent is at present unknown but it must have enclosed an area
of over 2.4 ha. Traces of other buildings, as well as evidence of wharves and
jetties, have come to light from time to time. The finds are housed in the City
Museum.
On the E hill, within what is now Dover Castle, stand the remains
of a well-preserved Roman lighthouse. The structure is octagonal in plan outside
but rectangular inside. Originally it would have stood ca. 24 in high with the
outer face stepped back in eight stages, but only four Roman stages now remain.
It was built of flint rubble faced with limestone blocks and bonded with tile
courses. Its window openings and doors are well preserved. Fragments of another
lighthouse survive on the W heights on the far side of the valley.
B.W. Cunliffe, 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.
LYMPNE (Town) ENGLAND
Lemanis (Lympne) Kent, England.
A Roman fort on the side of a hill overlooking Romney Marsh; originally a navigable
inlet flanked its S side. Occupation in the 2d and 3d c. is attested by the presence
of fragments of tiles stamped CL BR (Classis Britannica) and by the discovery
of an altar, reused in the later foundations, dedicated by one Aufidius Pantera
Prefectus Classis Britannicae. These fragments hint at the existence of an early
naval base in the vicinity. The fort now visible was built towards the end of
the 3d c. and remained in use until the late 4th c. when it appears to have been
abandoned, possibly as part of the reorganizations carried out by Count Theodosius.
The walls are now distorted by landslips, but in their original form
they enclosed an irregular area of 4-4.4 ha. They were 3.6 m thick, 6 m high,
built of rubble with a limestone facing bonded at intervals with tiles, and had
a series of external D-shaped bastions. One gate, in the E wall, has been excavated:
a simple opening 3.3 m wide, flanked by two solid bastions. The W wall was pierced
by a narrow postern gate.
Internally, two buildings have been identified, a principia set back
in the N part of the fort, and a small bath suite close to the E gate.
B.W. Cunlifee, 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.
RICHBOROUGH (Town) ENGLAND
Rutupia (Richborough) Kent, England.
The Roman settlement lies on a sandy hill overlooking the valley of the river
Stour, now largely silted, which marks the position of the Wantsum Channel, a
watelway of some significance in the Roman period. The site was first used in
the year of the invasion (A.D. 43) as a bridgehead and storage depot for the invading
army, which constructed two parallel defense ditches and a rampart to protect
the anchorage and its immediate vicinity. By the next year the ditches had been
filled in and a substantial storage base had been laid out: a properly constructed
grid of graveled roads, a series of batteries of granary buildings, workshops,
and what appears to be an administrative building, all built in timber.
By ca. A.D. 85, after a series of modifications and rebuildings, the
storage base was abandoned and the buildings demolished to make way for new development.
A massive monument was constructed on a concrete base (37.8 x 24.3 m, and 9 m
deep). Originally it was a quadrifrons, encased in marble and ornamented with
bronze statuary, but all that now remains is the foundation. Its size and elaboration,
and its position at the head of Watling Street, virtually the gateway to Britain,
suggest that it may have been erected to commemorate the final conquest of the
country after Agricola's victory at Mons Graupius. In front of the monument the
streets were remetaled and a series of shops and workshops were constructed, while
nearby a mansio was built in masonry. To the S lay temples and an amphitheater.
In the early 2d c. the settlement developed further: drains were laid,
some of the shops were rebuilt in masonry, and the mansio was substantially reconstructed.
The early 3d c., however, appears to have been a period of economic decline, with
burials, including a masonry tomb, encroaching upon the built-up area. One possible
explanation is that the nearby port of Dubris (Dover) had captured the cross-channel
trade, leaving Richborough to decay.
Towards the middle of the 3d c. much of the built-up area around the
monument was flattened and the monument itself was probably turned into a lookout
post. The settlement was now enclosed by a rampart and a system of triple ditches,
with a single entrance in the center of the W side. It is possible that a small
garrison was housed within the 0.4 ha enclosure, but no trace of its accommodation
has been recorded.
Later, probably in the 280s, the monument was demolished, the ditches
filled up, and the whole central area enclosed by the massive masonry wall of
a Saxon shore fort. The wall, which still stands for a substantial part of the
circuit, was built of flint boulders faced with coursed limestone and bonded at
intervals with horizontal courses of tiles. Originally it was ca. 9 m high. The
main gate, consisting of two guard chambers flanking the single carriage roadway,
was in the W side, and the N wall had a postern. Probably there was a corresponding
postern in the S wall, but details are unknown. Circular turrets projected from
the two surviving corners of the fort, and the intervening walls each had two
rectangular bastions. Outside the walls the fort was defended by two V-shaped
ditches. The inner ditch on the W side appears to have been misaligned and was
dug again in a short time.
Interior details are obscure, but some evidence suggests that the
principia was built on the platform once occupied by the monument, while a small
bath suite was erected in the NE corner. Two other simple masonry structures,
possibly guild rooms, were found, but elsewhere the buildings must have been of
timber. Occupation continued throughout the 4th c. and probably well into the
5th. During this time Richborough maintained an important position in the Saxon
shore system. It was here that Count Theodosius landed in 369 to reorganize the
country after the so-called "barbarian conspiracy". It is also the place
where, traditionally, St. Augustine landed in 597.
The main excavations were from 1922 to 1938, and many of the structural
details discovered can be seen today. The objects are displayed in a museum on
the site.
B.W. Culliffe, 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.
ROCHESTER (Town) ENGLAND
Durobrivae (Rochester) Kent, England.
A Belgic settlement on the river Medway 38 km from London (Londinium) and 37 from
Canterbury (Durovernum). It was important enough to have a mint in the period
immediately prior to the Roman invasion. The name Durobrivae (which only occurs
in the Antonine Itinerary, but the identification is certain) means "fortress
by the bridges", which may suggest the existence of a Belgic oppidum. During the
1st and 2d c. a straggling development occurred along the line of Wating Street,
but in the last quarter of the 2d c. the first defenses, a clay-faced earth rampart
and a ditch, were constructed. A massive stone wall replaced the rampart early
in the 3d c., enclosing an area of 9.2 ha. In A.D. 604 Rochester was still of
sufficient importance for St. Augustine to make it the seat of the second cathedral
under Justus.
The only Roman remains now visible are parts of the city wall, which
survives to the height of 5.1 m at the SE corner, with fragments elsewhere incorporated
in the mediaeval defenses. Little is known of the internal plan of the Roman city,
though the High Street and Northgate Street mark its principal axes and the existence
of four gates is attested by references in Anglo-Saxon charters.
A.C. Harrison, 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.
SPRINGHEAD (Town) ENGLAND
Vagniacae (Springhead) Kent, England.
A settlement on Watling Street, some 32 km SE of London, mentioned in the Antonine
Itinerary. Excavation on both sides of the Roman line of Watling Street has revealed
numerous buildings, of both stone and timber. There appears to have been no appreciable
occupation of the site in prehistoric times and it was abandoned entirely at the
end of the Roman period.
The planning of the settlement, which appears never to have been defended,
was elementary. The constituent buildings were mostly aligned on Watling Street,
close to the road margins. At least three streets left the main road on the S
side, and two on the N. The buildings, however, make it plain that Springhead
was not an ordinary roadside village: no less than seven of the structures in
the complex appear to have been temples or cult buildings. The site is thus of
unique character in Roman Britain and is one of the few cult centers of the W
provinces to have been extensively explored.
At the heart of the cult center lay a walled temenos, entered through
a square monumental gateway from which steps led down into the temple precinct.
In the entrance court stood a statue base or altar, before which was a votive
pit containing two animal burials and a number of coins. Within the temenos lay
two large temples of the square Romano-Celtic type, both of them with wings, or
antae, on their E sides. One building (Temple I) had a square central cella containing
a base for altars, while the other (Temple II) had a number of pier bases arranged
on a square plan in the center, suggesting that the central area had been an open
court. Temple I also had an unusual and puzzling feature on its W side, a square
projecting room, apparently contemporary with the main structure.
The temenos included at least three other stone buildings which had
religious functions, though they may not all have been temples. All were small,
rectangular structures, two of them without subdivisions. Votive objects were
found in all three buildings, and beneath each of the four corners of one ("Temple"
IV) lay a foundation burial of a child. Indications of the cults practiced at
Springhead are slight. A terracotta figurine of the Gaulish pseudo-Venus type
was found in Temple I, and a bronze model of a thumb from the same area hints
at a healing cult.
On the other side of Watling Street lay other buildings which are
likely to have been temples, one of which yielded a bone statuette of a genius
cucullatus. Yet another temple lies less than 1 km to the S. Domestic buildings
appear to have been few and simple in plan.
M. Todd, 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.
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