Isurium Brigantum
(Aldborough)
The Roman Regional Capital
Regional
Roman Capital
Isurium Brigantum was a Roman fort and town at the site
of present-day Aldborough.
In 71 CE
Vespasian sent an army under Quintus Petillius Ceralius to march north and occupy Brigantes
and Parisii territory. The Ninth Legion
erected a large camp near where Malton (northeast of York) stands today. They
also built a fort at Roecliffe, near to modern
Aldborough, which was occupied between about 71 to 85 CE. Roecliffe
was one of a string of forts along the line of the modern A1, which provided
the main Roman transport corridor. It was probably garrisoned by about 500
legionaries and the fort established a new area of Roman authority.
A road
system was soon established, focused on the new military centre at Eboracum. The strategic focus was
adjusted to a place a few kilometres downstream from Roecliffe,
at the highest navigable point on the river Ure, which led to the establishment
of a small town which would become a vital point of communication,
administration and trade in the Roman north. The Roman road which passed
through the town which became known as Isurium Brigantum (modern Aldborough) was on both Dere
Street (connecting Eboracum
(York) to the Antonine Wall) and Watling Street (connecting Eboracum
with Luguvalium (Carlisle)). There are three
milestones which have been recovered from the vicinity of the town from the
time of Emperor Decius (249 to 251 CE). As Dere Street continued north of Isurium, it branched into two forks, one leading to Cataractonium (Catterick) and on to Hadrian’s Wall,
and the other to Delgovicia (Malton). The road
system provided access to trade and this has been
evidenced by archaeological finds, including Samian pots from Gaul.
Isurium began as a trading settlement at the crossing point across
the Ure and became the civilian capital of an extensive region of north Britain
from about 120 CE until about 400 CE. There is evidence of activity at this
location from about 70 CE.
Towards the
end of the first century CE, Isurium was first
recorded in two wooden
writing tablets which were found at the fort of Vindolanda
on Hadrian’s Wall. They recorded purchases made at Isurium
by travellers between York and the frontier. The tablets evidence a significant
settlement by this time.
Isurium became one of the northernmost urban centres of the Roman
Empire. Isurium probably became a civilian
settlement between the Roecliffe fort and the River
Ure during the last part of the first century. The Civitas Capital was
probably established in about 160 AD.
The Roman civitas
was the administrative centre of the region. Roman towns such as Exeter,
Leicester, Chichester and Canterbury had the same status. Civitates
tended to be loosely based on Celtic tribal territories and they often involved
some element of administration by the old Celtic aristocracy.
Excavations
at Aldborough have enabled reconstruction of the history of the development of Isurium into a flourishing urban centre. The town
was fortified with a stone wall in the late second century, indicating its
important status, and the settlement eventually sprawled well beyond its walls,
perhaps an indicator of economic success. The original town wall used locally
quarried red sandstone blocks and must have been about 2.5 metres thick and 5
metres high. Towers were initially built on the inside face of the walls and
there was a ditch which was probably 6m wide and 2 metres deep. In time
limestone was imported some 30 kilometres from the dales and an eventual
variety of different stone material suggests a wide network of trade which
probably used the river for heavy transport.
The defended
town formed a rectangular area of 390 by 590 metres, abut 22 hectares.
Further bank
and ditch defences were erected later. Stone walls and four gates were added in
the mid third century sometime after the time when the Emperor Septimius
Severus (193 to 211 CE) based his imperial court at Eboracum. The
visible remains of the walls today are a small fraction of the Roman town.
Isurium flourished for the next hundred years, with the building of
elaborate private homes with fine decorative mosaic floors. It became a centre
of Roman civilisation and was probably occupied by local people.
A
significant Roman residential building has been identified at the site,
possibly with a bathhouse. Mosaics discovered in town houses are evidence of
the splendour of these buildings and indicate the existence of a wealthy elite.
The mosaics date to the second or early third centuries. One depicts a lion
shaded by a tree and another forms a geometric
pattern. The Helicon mosaic, of which only a fragment remains, has been
interpreted to have depicted the theatrical muse, Thalia.
An
amphitheatre was built to the southeast of the town. The banks would have
supported wooden walkways providing a base for tiers of seats. More modest
arenas such as this one were common across Britain and would have provided
various forms of entertainment including gladiatorial combat and fighting with
wild animals. A mosaic from Rudston
(near the coast at Bridlington) suggests some encounters with exotic animals
such as leopard, bulls, lion and stag, but it is perhaps more likely that any
animals used would have been bears or wolves who were indigenous to the area.
The amphitheatre was probably also used for other gatherings and for military training.
It may also have had a religious function.
It was usual
for the approaches to Roman towns to be lined with funerary monuments,
providing contact with the town’s ancestors to those who approached. Pots and
traces of substantial graves have been found suggesting cemeteries at the edge
of Aldborough.
Various
objects discovered at Aldborough, including ceramics, fragments of glass and
pottery, brooches, jewellery and material associated with the Roman army,
suggest a prosperous and well established society with
military associations and good access for trade. Rich finds of personal
adornment evidence conspicuous displays of ethnic and class differentiation.
Around the
fourteenth century church of St Andrews is the site of the Roman forum,
comprising a forum square surrounded by a basilica (a multifunctional
public building) and large town houses.
The defences
were enhanced in the fourth century CE by the addition of towers projecting
outward from the walls, and by additional external ditches, providing an
impressive appearance to the town. This suggests a more unstable society amidst
general unrest across the Empire, and a need to protect people and trade. By
this time there was probably greater social differentiation between rich
landowners and those who served and depended on them. External threats were
certainly emerging by this time and the strengthening of the walls was a
response to those threats.
When Roman
power collapsed in the early fifth century, the walled area within the town
probably continued to be used, as a source of protection. However
there is little evidence of substantial occupation after the end of Roman rule
in Britain and by the seventh century CE it fell within the region of Anglo
Saxon domination. Between 800 to 1000 CE it became a Saxon burgh, which
provided its modern name of ‘old burgh’, Aldborough, and it was listed
in the Domesday Book.
It remained
a strategically important crossing point over the Ure, the crossing being
successfully defended by Edward II at the Battle
of Boroughbridge on 16 March 1322 against the baronial revolt of Thomas of
Lancaster.
or
Go Straight to Chapter 5 – Roman Kirkdale
Or read
about Eboracum (Roman York), the
Roman Villa at Beadlam,
and the large villa of Hovingham.