Corbridge: Excavations of the Roman Fort and Town, 1947-80

With contributions by L. Allason-Jones, D. Allen, J. Bayley, P. J. Casey, B. Dickinson, B. R. Hartley, K. F. Hartley, M. Henig, A. Liddon, D. J. Rackham, and G. Soffe. Ebook (PDF) published 2013. Corbridge, some 4km south of Hadrian's Wall, was the site of an important Roman river crossing. From the mid 80s to about 160s AD this was protected by a series of forts which underlie the remains of the later garrison town now visible on the site. This volume presents the results of excavations carried out between 1947 and 1980 beneath and around the later masonry buildings which have helped to reveal the complex history of the sequence of mainly earth and timber forts which preceded them. After an introduction which describes how the analysis of excavation data collected over many seasons' work has been undertaken, and summarising previous work on the site, a major new consideration of the crop mark evidence for the site is presented. There follows an examination of the site, covering the fort buildings area by area - 'principia', 'praetorium', barracks, defences, and other areas. The evidence is complex, and the separate phases of development of each area are fully illustrated. A selection of finds, illustrated in details and chosen for their stratigraphic relevance or intrinsic value, is studied in a series of specialist reports. The conclusion explores a new interpretation of the earlier phases of fort occupation at Roman Corbridge.