ROMAN VALLUM FULL
ROMAN VALLUM SERIES

Another was dedicated to Antenociticus and the deities of the emperors by a centurion of the Twentieth Legion named Aelius Vibius. One of these was dedicated to Antenociticus by a prefect of a cohort of the Vangiones from the Rhineland. Fortunately the three altars found at Benwell all have dedications, to the same native god. Unless inscriptions are found, it is not always possible to determine who a temple was dedicated to. So it is not that surprising that this temple is small. Temples were not intended for congregational worship, rather they were a place where individuals made personal vows. Replicas of two of the three altars recovered by archaeologists have been placed where they would have been used to make votive offerings to the gods. The footprint of this small, single apse temple has been reconstructed for visitors. The temple was located in the vicus (civilian settlement next to the fort) which lay east of the fort, between the fort and the vallum. Today replica altars stand in the reconstructed temple at Benwell. This must have happened around the end of the second century, as that is the date of pottery remains recovered in the infill. Excavation of the vallum showed that it was filled with clay, and stone buildings were then erected over the infill on both the east and west sides of the crossing.

And when built the sides of the ditch would have been revetted with squared rubble stones. Today the vallum is only about half its original depth. That the road required resurfacing three times indicates a road that saw heavy use. With the use of stone chippings by the Roman on their roads, the process of was called metalling. Metalling comes from the Latin word metallim, which means a mine or quarry.

ROMAN VALLUM SERIES

Clearly visible as a series of steps are three successive layers of ‘road metalling’. On the fort-side of the crossing, excavators have left exposed a section of the road that crossed the causeway. Archaeologists now think the vallum also indicated a legal or administrative boundary. Apparently not! The fact that there were monumental gateways over the vallum suggests that the ditch and ramparts were more than just a military boundary. I visited the Benwell Vallum Crossing after spending ten days exploring sites along Hadrian’s Wall, the quality of the stonework was such that I initially thought that these were recent replicas put in place recently. John Collingwood Bruce, one of the earliest scholars of the Wall and author of the still definitive handbook of the Wall, suggested that the surviving stonework of this gateway was the best dressed of any Hadrianic work on the Wall. Still in place are the stones that would have formed the base of the western arch. The stonework on the crossing shows that it supported a monumental gateway. Looking over the causeway – the three successive layers of road metalling. Both have been preserved and, along with nearby sections of the Wall, are well worth a visit. All that remains of the fort and its vicus are two significant features. Rescue excavations of the southerly section in the late 1920s and 1930s, however, do reveal this fort to be much like the others.

ROMAN VALLUM FULL

Sadly, the archaeology of the fort was not recorded in the 1860s and so our understanding of the full extent of the fort and its internal structure is incomplete. There is nothing left of the fort today the northerly portion was destroyed in the early 1860s during the construction of a reservoir, while the rest was destroyed in the 1930s to make way for a private housing estate and the expanding city of Newcastle. Hence the name Condercum, which translates as a place with a wide view.

The fort was built on a strategic, naturally level hill-top, around 127 metres above sea level. Benwell Roman Fort, or Condercum as it would have been known by the Romans, was the second of 12 forts constructed along the line of Hadrian’s Wall.

Roman vallum