Location of Caerleon, South Wales (maps reproduced by permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of HMSO. © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved.) 

Contexts in source publication

Context 1

... lies on a spur of gently rising ground between the meandering River Usk and its floodplain to the east and south, the Afon Lwyd stream to the north, and Lodge Hill to the northwest (Fig. 3). Oriented almost exactly south- east to north-west, the fortress covers 20.3 hectares (some 50 acres) on the right bank of the Usk at the river's lowest bridging point before it enters the Severn Estuary at ...

Context 2

... These layers were very firm in places and appear to have been deliberately compacted. Although the presence of iron pans could indicate the effects of natural processes too, the presence of charcoal, fragments of CBM, pottery and slag suggests these layers that are probably the remnants of the earliest Roman-period ground levels in the courtyard (Fig. 30). The discovery of a posthole [219] and a shallow circular pit [225] cut into these layers supports the interpretation of these as open ground. The post had been packed with pieces of ORS and clay (218/217), while the fill of the pit included what appeared to be metalworking debris ...

Context 3

... walls were located in the southern part of the trench (Fig. 33) ...

Context 4

... individual and groups of large flat stones (315/316/317/318/319) were found embedded in the top of the clay subsoil (Fig. 34). The stones were irregularly shaped and individually measured c. 0.3m by 0.2m (315/316), while some seem to have been placed together to form roughly semi-circular groups c. 0.6m by 0.6m in extent. These were found close to the brick structure and they are tentatively interpreted as post-pads (although was no obvious spatial patterning ...

Context 5

... 4 was positioned to investigate the southern end of the range of rooms on the northwestern side of the very large courtyard building in the east of the Southern Canabae (Fig. 34). The gradiometer results suggest that this northwestern range possibly was divided into large rectangular spaces with their narrow sides facing the courtyard, while a long narrow area adjoining the courtyard could have been a corridor or ambulatory. Trench 4 cut diagonally across the Roman buildings in this area and, according to the ...

Context 6

... revealed. Although the archaeology in this part of the Southern Canabae was difficult to understand in a 2m wide evaluation trench, several possible walls and at least two phases of construction were identified. The main walls had been partly robbed, although one stretch of a wall in the south of the trench was still standing several courses high (Fig. 35). The Roman archaeology in Trench 4 was undisturbed by later activity and survived only a few centimetres below the modern ground level. The provisional stratigraphic matrix for Trench 4 is located in Appendix ...

Context 7

... earliest deposit within the trench was a surface (431) located approximately 1.2m below the modern ground level (6.75m over datum). Stones and cobbles had been laid flat within a clay bedding layer that extended over the northern part of the trench (Fig. 36). The southern edge of this surface appeared to begin approximately 1.4m from the adjacent rubble structure (430) and was aligned parallel to it on a northeast-southwest orientation. The Trench ...

Context 8

... (430) that extended for a distance of 7m across the southern half of the trench. On its northern edge the angular stones appear to have been deliberately laid flat to form at least five rough courses, while the southern part of the structure was more mixed with cobbles, some of which were very large, and there was no hard edge on this side (Fig. 37). The rubble was between 0.7m and 0.8m thick and the stone blocks and cobbles were densely packed throughout, except in the centre where a narrow stone-free channel might have formed a drain (429). The northern edge of faced blocks suggests that the area exposed in the trench was part of a wide linear platform of some kind on a ...

Context 9

... end of Trench 4, was aligned east-west. This appears to correspond with a negative linear anomaly on the geophysical survey results and it separated a cobbled surfaced area to the north from a different room, or more likely building, to the south. The wall had been partially robbed, though six courses survived close to the western trench edge (Fig. ...

Context 10

... situated towards the centre of an east-west row of rooms or adjoining buildings in this part of the courtyard building. Although only a very small area of the interior of this room was included in the southwestern corner of the trench, it was possible to 36 observe the sequence of deposits here in the side of the trench that had robbed the wall (Fig. ...

Context 11

... the north of wall [418], the earlier rubble (430) was sealed by a series of layers (412/422/428), deeper in the south than the north, that seem to have served to level the original uneven platform before a new cambered surface was laid. This consisted of small pebbles (420) and small angular stones (415) bedded in silty-clay (Fig. 39). The northern side of this surface followed precisely the same northeast-southwest alignment as the underlying rubble (430), while in the south the surface butted against the third course of wall [418] suggesting that the cambered surface filled the same long narrow space as rubble (430). In the southeastern corner of the trench white ...

Context 12

... quantities of white mortar aligned northeast- southwest (416). Only a small part of this was exposed in the corner of Trench 4 and, although in plan this stoney deposit gave the impression of being the fill of a robber trench, after the area to the south in the trench was excavated it became clear that this feature was only one or two stones deep (Fig. 36). It is likely, therefore, that (416) is part of another rubble surface extending northwards, or perhaps the remains of a collapsed wall. Nevertheless, the clear differentiation between this deposit and the stone-free area to the south indicates that these ...

Context 13

... possibly natural accumulations of soil, which also sealed the levelling layers and possible clay surfaces in Area 4.3 to the north (424/426). Two adjacent areas of rubble above (419) on the eastern side of the trench could be the remains of later surfaces, or platforms of some kind, at the same height as the cobbled area (420) to the south (Fig. 39). Layer (421) consisted of large flat blocks of ORS that appeared to form a very uneven surface, while an area of smaller stones in a sandy clay matrix (417) extended southwards from (421) where it almost joined cobbled surface ...

Context 14

... building's northern rear range and consists of two spaces separated by a low brick north-south wall surviving at least five course high [523]. The wall's two faces were built using triangular bricks (the apex of each brick pointed inwards) and the core was composed of smaller pieces of broken brick, all of which were bonded together with clay ( Fig. 43). It is certain that this wall did not rise any higher because the sloping capstones of a drain (564) along its southern side rested on the top edge of the wall's uppermost course of bricks. The other side of the drain was formed by a row of irregular blocks of ORS placed on their ends between 0.5m and 0.8m from the wall. The bottom of ...

Context 15

... in a similar yellow mortar, some of which had been cut into voussoirs and were mixed with ORS voussoirs (513) (Fig. 52). Two adjoining complete box flue tiles were also incorporated into this collapsed structure. The coursing of the stones within (513) was very clear and the collapsed roof retained part of its original curvature when excavated (Fig. 53). The box flues had been laid end-on-end and were built within the tufa coursing (they showed no signs of sooting). It is thought that rows of box tile were used to form ribs supporting the vaulted ceiling that was constructed mainly of tufa, but with ORS courses perhaps to give extra ...

Context 16

... the interior of a single building, divided into two rooms by the second north-south wall [622]. Only one course of this wall was revealed but it did not appear to have been particularly well built. Some 0.55m wide, it was earth bonded and even within the narrow confines of the trench it was clear that it had been constructed slightly off straight (Fig. 63). It is assumed that this was an internal wall dividing a building into two rooms. There was no indication that this wall had been robbed, suggesting either that it supported a timber wall or that it was dismantled during or soon after the Roman ...

Context 17

... (907/914). The same construction sequence was observed in area 9.3 where a layer of ORS (930/925) levelled the make-up deposits (940/926) and formed the base for an opus signinum floor (910). Unlike in 9.2, however, the floor in this internal area was not replaced and the original surface was used throughout the duration of the building's life (Fig. ...

Context 18

... 7 shows a similar pattern to Trench 5 but with a more even distribution of types between the early second and the early/mid fourth centuries (Fig. 93a). Trench 8 figures are again based on a small sample, but show a late first to mid second century peak tailing off across the remainder of the second century and with little thereafter (Fig. 93b). Trench 9 has comparatively more later pieces than most areas. The main floruit is again in the second century and, as with all areas, there ...

Context 19

... 7 shows a similar pattern to Trench 5 but with a more even distribution of types between the early second and the early/mid fourth centuries (Fig. 93a). Trench 8 figures are again based on a small sample, but show a late first to mid second century peak tailing off across the remainder of the second century and with little thereafter (Fig. 93b). Trench 9 has comparatively more later pieces than most areas. The main floruit is again in the second century and, as with all areas, there is a third century dip. The increase in late third and fourth century pieces is, however, noticeable here (Fig. ...

Context 20

... peak tailing off across the remainder of the second century and with little thereafter (Fig. 93b). Trench 9 has comparatively more later pieces than most areas. The main floruit is again in the second century and, as with all areas, there is a third century dip. The increase in late third and fourth century pieces is, however, noticeable here (Fig. ...

Context 21

... extramural building VII (Boon 1966, Pl.III.5) there are a few pieces of grey ware with vitreous accretions (eg. from 502) which may repay further examination. Substantial fragments of a flanged bowl in this fabric came from Trench 1 context (157), which is closely paralleled by other vessels from the western Canabae (Greep in Zienkiewicz 1986b, Fig.38, 3.2-3.3). FORM T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 T8 T9 TOTALS SG 29 5 1 1 1 8 SG 37 4 3 1 2 1 11 SG 67 1 1 SG 78 1 1 2 CG 37 12 5 2 4 2 1 1 27 CG 72 1 3 4 TOTALS 23 4 2 8 5 4 2 3 2 53 Table 7 Decorated samian from the 2011 excavations Table 8 Samian as a proportion of the pottery from the 2011 excavations Also probably of local manufacture (and of ...