Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ttngx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-31T15:11:06.828Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Roman Wales: Aerial Discoveries and New Observations from the Drought of 2018

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2020

Toby G. Driver
Affiliation:
RCAHMW, Aberystwyth toby.driver@rcahmw.gov.uk
Barry C. Burnham
Affiliation:
Lampeter b.burnham123@btinternet.com
Jeffrey L. Davies
Affiliation:
Aberystwyth jld@aber.ac.uk

Abstract

This paper provides description and context for some of the discoveries made by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales during aerial reconnaissance in the drought conditions of the summer of 2018. New discoveries include two marching camps, three auxiliary forts and a remarkable series of stone buildings outside the fort at Pen y Gaer. The photographs also clarify the plan of several known villas as well as identifying some potential villa sites and enclosure systems of probable Romano-British date in south-eastern, south-western and north-western Wales. The recognition of a new road alignment south of Carmarthen is suggestive of another coastal fort at or near Kidwelly.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Crown Copyright and The Authors, 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

All figures (except fig. 11) are Crown copyright and are reproduced with the permission of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW), under delegated authority from The Keeper of Public Records. The maps are based upon Ordnance Survey material with the permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office, © Crown copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. Licence number: 100022206.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bidwell, P., Croom, A., and Hodgson, N. 2018: ‘The annexe of the Roman fort at Slack, West Yorkshire: excavations by B.R. Hartley in 1968–9’, Britannia 49, 151CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briggs, C.S. 2009: ‘Some preliminary observations on Sir John Gardner Wilkinson's survey of the Ogofau Gold Mines, Dolaucothi, of 1868’, in James, H. and Moore, P. (eds), Carmarthenshire and Beyond: Studies in History and Archaeology in Memory of Terry James, Carmarthenshire Antiquarian Society Monograph 8, Llandybie, 134–49Google Scholar
Burnham, B.C., and Burnham, H.B. 2004: Dolaucothi-Pumsaint: Survey and Excavations at a Roman Gold-Mining Complex 19871999, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Burnham, B.C., and Davies, J.L. 2010: Roman Frontiers in Wales and the Marches, AberystwythGoogle Scholar
Crossley, D.W. 1968: ‘Excavations at Pen y Gaer Roman fort, Brecknock, 1966’, Archaeologia Cambrensis 117, 92102Google Scholar
Davies, J.L., and Driver, T.G. 2015: ‘Cefn-Brynich Farm: a new Claudio-Neronian fort in the Usk valley, Powys’, Britannia 46, 267–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, J.L., and Driver, T.G. 2018: ‘The Romano-British villa at Abermagwr, Ceredigion: excavations 2010–15’, Archaeologia Cambrensis 167, 143219Google Scholar
Davies, J.L., and Kirby, D.P. (eds) 1994: Cardiganshire County History 1: From the Earliest Times to the Coming of the Normans, CardiffGoogle Scholar
Davis, O., and Driver, T. 2014: ‘Llancayo Farm Roman marching camp, Usk, Monmouthshire’, Archaeologia Cambrensis 163, 173–84Google Scholar
Dowdell, G. 1976: ‘New Mill Farm, Monknash (SS 9155 6980)’, Archaeology in Wales 16, 34Google Scholar
Driver, T. 2007: Pembrokeshire: Historic Landscapes from the Air, AberystwythGoogle Scholar
Driver, T. 2014: ‘Aerial survey, pan Wales: Royal Commission aerial reconnaissance: major cropmark discoveries 2013’, Archaeology in Wales 53, 157–73Google Scholar
Evans, E. 2001: Romano-British South East Wales Settlement Survey: Final Report, Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust Report 2001/023, Swansea, https://issuu.com/ggat/docs/ggat63rbsettlementsurvey.pdf_9_1_20 (accessed February 2020)Google Scholar
Frere, S.S. 1984: ‘Roman Britain in 1983: sites explored’, Britannia 15, 266332CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hankinson, R. 2007: Pen-y-gaer, Bwlch, Near Crickhowell, Powys: Archaeological Evaluation, Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust Report 904, Welshpool, http://walesher1974.org/herumd.php?linktable=her_source1_link&group=CPAT&level=3&docid=301365432 (accessed February 2020)Google Scholar
Hanson, W.S., and Maxwell, G.S. 1980: ‘An Agricolan praesidium on the Forth-Clyde isthmus (Mollins, Strathclyde)’, Britannia 11, 43–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopewell, D. 2013: Roman Roads in North-West Wales, BangorGoogle Scholar
Hopewell, D. 2016: ‘A Roman settlement at Tai Cochion, Llanidan, on Anglesey’, Archaeologia Cambrensis 165, 21112Google Scholar
James, H. 2004: ‘Appendix: the Roman road from Llandovery to Pumsaint, Carmarthenshire’, in Burnham, B.C. and Burnham, H.B., Dolaucothi-Pumsaint: Survey and Excavations at a Roman Gold-Mining Complex 19871999, Oxford, 305–12Google Scholar
Jarrett, M.G. (ed.) 1969: The Roman Frontier in Wales (2nd edn), CardiffGoogle Scholar
Jones, N.W., and Hankinson, R. 2012: Pen-y-Gaer Roman Vicus, Cwmdu, Powys: Excavation and Survey 2005–12, Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust Report 1163, Welshpool, https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-1352-1/dissemination/pdf/Clwyd_Powys/cpat1163.pdf (accessed February 2020)Google Scholar
Jones, R.H. 2012: Roman Camps in Britain, StroudGoogle Scholar
Meek, J. 2011: Exploration Tywi! Llys Brychan, Bethlehem: Archaeological Evaluation 2009, Dyfed Archaeological Trust Report 2010/24, Llandeilo, http://www.dyfedarchaeology.org.uk/tywi/llysbrychan.pdf (accessed February 2020)Google Scholar
Mein, A.G. 1992: ‘Trostrey Court Farm, Trostrey (SO 3610 0435)’, Archaeology in Wales 32, 74Google Scholar
Murphy, K., and Mytum, H. 2012: ‘Iron Age enclosed settlements in west Wales’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 78, 263313CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RCAHMW 1986: An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Brecknock (Brycheiniog): The Prehistoric and Roman Monuments 2: Hill-forts and Roman Remains, LondonGoogle Scholar
Richmond, I. 1968: Hod Hill: Excavations Carried out between 1951 and 1958 for the Trustees of the British Museum (2 vols), LondonGoogle Scholar
Savory, H.N., and Lloyd, J.C. 1958: ‘Excavations at an early Iron Age hill-fort and a Romano-British iron smelting place at Gwernyfed Park, Aberllynfi in 1951’, Brycheiniog 4, 5371Google Scholar
Shoesmith, R. 1991: Excavations at Chepstow, Cambrian Archaeological Association Monograph 4, CardiffGoogle Scholar
Silvester, R.J., and Hankinson, R. 2006: Roman Military Sites in Powys, Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust Report 767, Welshpool, http://walesher1974.org/herumd.php?linktable=her_source1_link&group=CPAT&level=3&docid=301363478 (accessed February 2020)Google Scholar
St Joseph, J.K. 1983: ‘The Roman fortlet at Gatehouse of Fleet, Kirkcudbright’, in Hartley, B.R. and Wacher, J. (eds), Rome and her Northern Provinces, Stroud, 222–34Google Scholar
Todd, M. 1968: The Roman Fort at Great Casterton, Rutland, NottinghamGoogle Scholar