Abstract
MARGIDUNUM.—Dr. Felix Oswald reviews the results of his excavations on the Roman site of Margidunum in a paper published in the Transactions of the Thoroton Society, vol. 31. Margidunum was situated on the Fosse Way, half-way between Leicester and Lincoln, and in the early days of Roman occupation was of considerable strategic importance. When, however, the frontier was pushed north, it ceased to be of value in this respect, and, being off the trade routes, it became merely a posting station. It revived under Constantine, when in the then flourishing condition of Britain it became a seat of much activity. At the close of the occupation it suffered no violent end but sank into decay. It was never occupied by the Saxons. Owing to the long period of its continuous occupation, its history, as revealed by excavation, affords numerous illustrations of changes in Roman practice and culture. The name is probably a Romanised form of a Celtic denomination meaning ‘the plain of the king,’ and the adjacent eminence on which Belvoir Castle is situated may have been a hill-fort of the king of the Coritani. Sporadic relics of prehistoric times have been found—flint arrow heads, polished axes, and bronze socketed celts. That the Roman occupation was early is indicated by the rhomboidal form of the first camp. It was protected by a wooden palisade and a system of trenches or ditches, six in number. In later times, when the Romans abandoned this system of defence for a stone rampart with a single ditch, the marshy ground of the early site was filled in with stone and rubbish and gravelled over. In the early days the soldiers may have lived in leather tents or in the underground cellars which have been found. After the burning of the camp by Boudicca in A.D. 61, stone barracks were erected. There are other signs of this consequence of the disastrous defeat of the Ninth Legion, then stationed at Lincoln, by the British queen. Moulded stones much calcined by fire were found in the ditch. These, it is conjectured, are parts of the stone gateways which gave access to the original camp within the wooden palisade.
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Research Items. Nature 122, 624–626 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/122624a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/122624a0