new evidence from Camelon Roman fort annexe and a legionary link with Colchester

On Saturday (20th August), Past Horizons – an online magazine – posted an item on their web-site about the evidence from the Camelon Roman fort annexe, which has recently been published by Guard Archaeology. The item is titled ‘Outside the walls: excavations within the annexe at Camelon Roman fort’. Camelon is near Falkirk in Scotland. This week, the news has been posted on other web-sites and also referenced on Twitter.

The fortified annexe at Camelon Roman fort stood on its southern side. An excavation on the site of the annexe in 2014 produced military small finds and evidence of iron-smelting and occupation in the form of fragments of pottery, a possible oven, agricultural implements and cereal grains. The sites of other Roman fort annexes in Scotland have produced evidence of military buildings, houses, ovens, and industrial activity such as metal-working, as well. Camelon is near the Antonine Wall and the fort has been dated to the 1st-2nd centuries. Camelon stands on the north-west frontier of the Roman empire and it is thought that it would have been one of the most important Roman forts in Scotland. Like the fortress at Colchester, it was associated with a port facility (Colchester’s was at Fingringhoe). The Twentieth Legion of the Roman army – Legio XX – built the fortress at Colchester and, later, the fortress at Chester. They were one of the legions which built Hadrian’s Wall and they were also involved in the building of the Antonine Wall. A building inscription of Legio XX was found at the Camelon fort in 1900. Two funerary inscriptions at Colchester each commemorate a soldier of Legio XX: one was found at the Essex and Colchester Hospital in 1821 and the other near the Lexden Road in 1868.

The Colchester Roman fortress also included a fortified annexe. They were both first discovered by the Trust during excavations at the Lion Walk (shopping precinct) site in 1972. We uncovered evidence of two lines of defences, each consisting of a deep ditch with a rampart, and which were aligned north-south and east-west. The large annexe was on the eastern side of the fortress. The evidence of its defences constitute the only evidence of the annexe which we have uncovered: however, it was probably used for military stores and it may have contained the legionary bath-house/s. A large part of the site of the annexe lies beneath the modern Castle Park.

We have uncovered quite a lot of evidence about the fortress, including its defences, internal streets, barrack-blocks, officers’ quarters, etc, including some evidence which we excavated within the Williams & Griffin store in 2014. The fortress was founded in about AD 44 and decommissioned in about AD 48; it was converted to a colony (a colonia, a civilian town where army veterans were settled) in about AD 49. At Colchester, the veterans would have been of Legio XX, and who were retired and left behind when the unit moved on. The fortress and annexe here were both converted to civilian use in the colony and, presumably, by the veterans. One of the reasons that Colchester is so archaeologically important is because the fortress here was converted to a colony, and it was the earliest colony in Britain. Britain is the only part of the Roman empire where evidence has been found of forts and fortresses being converted to colonies: other examples are Wroxeter and Gloucester – and, interestingly, units of Legio XX were stationed at both of these military bases, as well as at Colchester.

Trust director Philip will be talking about the Colchester Roman fortress and annexe in his illustrated talk on Saturday 27th August, here at the Roman circus centre: details at www.thecolchesterarchaeologist.co.uk/?p=30385 .

Read the item at www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/08/2016/outside-the-walls-excavations-within-the-annexe-at-camelon-roman-fort . Read about the publication at www.guard-archaeology.co.uk/news16/ARO22News.html .

The images show our plan of the Colchester Roman fortress and annexe and a reconstruction of the fortress and annexe in AD 48, viewed from the south-west and based on archaeological evidence (painting by Peter Froste, published in our popular book City of Victory: the story of Colchester, Britain’s first Roman town).

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