: The Romans

The modern county of Ceredigion is not immediately associated with mining. As you travel towards Aberystwyth on the coast, following the inland valleys of the Ystwyth, Rheidol and the Mynach rivers in the northern part of the county, you could be mistaken in thinking that the economy of Ceredigion - formerly known as Cardiganshire - had always been dependent on agriculture.

As you journey through the hills, take a closer look at the changing landscape and a different story unfolds. Driving from one rural settlement to another, the ancient landscape hides many stories, traditions and intrigues of the years gone by.

Mining for metals such as copper, lead, zinc and silver has been an important part of the economy of the county for nearly 4,000 years.

The scattering of small communities such as Ponterwyd, Pontrhydfendigaid, Ffair Rhos, Cwmystwyth, Ysbyty Ystwyth, Goginan, Ystumtuen, Pontrhydygroes, Cwmsymlog, Taliesin and Talybont often have nothing seemingly in common.

However they do have one theme linking them all - the history and legacy of metal mining.

This information forms part of the website 'Spirit of the Miners' - a community regeneration project that sets out to create an identity for northern Ceredigion using the legacy of metal mining as a theme for regeneration.

Excavation of the granaries at Usk. The horizontal lines running across the image are the foundations for the timber granaries, with the holes for vertical posts visible in the base. A later pit can be seen cutting through one of the foundations trenches on the left-hand side. The vertical lines are unexcavated areas.

Reconstruction of the East Gate, Usk (by Martin Dugdale). Built of timber, as was all the fort, it consisted of twin towers flanking a double carriageway, linked by a walkway above the road.

Reconstruction of the three large granaries at Usk (by Martin Dugdale). The floors of these buildings were raised clear above the ground to prevent damp and vermin reaching the grain and other food stored inside.

Finds from the excavations at Usk are housed at the National Roman Legion Museum at Caerleon.

Excavations in the town of Usk, South Wales in the 1960’s, revealed a fortress that was once home to Rome's Twentieth Legion.

William Camden (1551-1623) was the first to record a link between the Romans and Usk (Monmouthshire) - identifying it as the site of Burrium. However it was not until the late 1960s that an early legionary fortress was discovered beneath the southern half of the town.

It was built in about AD55, probably by the Twentieth Legion, as a base for the conquest of south Wales.

The fortress covered an area of 19.5ha (48 acres) and was defended by an outer V-shaped ditch, and a clay and turf rampart faced with timber. This had a walkway on top, wooden towers at intervals and a gateway on each side.

Granaries and cavalry regiments

Large-scale excavations between 1965 and 1976 revealed two groups of granaries - used to store the provisions necessary to feed the large invasion force - a workshop and part of an officer's house, all built of wood. More recent work suggests that an auxiliary cavalry regiment (known as an ala) may also have been stationed with the legion.

Reorganization of the Roman army in AD66 or 67 saw the transfer of the Twentieth Legion from Usk to Wroxeter (Shropshire). This move established a line of fortresses running north-east from Exeter to Lincoln and rendered Usk obsolete as a fortress.

A new legionary fortress

However, Usk continued to be held by a small 'caretaker' garrison until AD74-75 when a new legionary fortress was established eight miles downstream at Caerleon (Newport) - a location which was less liable to flooding and was easier to supply by sea. Even then, Usk was not completely abandoned by the Romans, who established a small auxiliary fort/works depot on the site. This fort did not last beyond the end of the 1st century AD, but the works depot appears to have had a much longer life.

Today nothing survives of the fortress above ground to indicate the part this small town played in the conquest of Wales. The fortress was systematically demolished by the Romans and any timbers left have long since rotted away.

Background Reading

Report on the Excavations at Usk 1965-1976: The Fortress Excavations 1968-71 by W. H. Manning. University of Wales Press (1981).

Report on the Excavations at Usk 1965-1976: The Fortress Excavations 1972-74 and Minor Excavations on the Fortress and Flavian Fort by W. H. Manning. University of Wales Press (1989).

Roman Trawsfynydd

The first 'page' of a Roman will found near Trawsfynydd in the 19th century. The tablet was already broken in two.

Britain's only surviving Roman will was found in the 19th century near Trawsfynydd, Merionethshire. Two letters written at the time shed light on its history.

The first letter describes a 'wooden book', consisting of 10 or 12 leaves, as being found by farm servants cutting peat 5km to the south-east of the Roman fort at Tomen-y-Mur. The letter reads:

"I saw the book a few days after it was first found – only 2 or 3 of the leaves then contained the inscription perfect – On the rest it had been partly obliterated by the carelessness of the farm servants. The work is, probably, a relic of the Ancient Druids, who may have employed a modification of the Roman alphabet to write their own language."

The author of the letter was mistaken in linking the text to the Druids, but did well to identify it as Roman, since at this time Roman 'cursive' (joined characters) writing was unknown.

TV show prompts artefact to be identified

Pottery inkwell, an iron stylus for writing on waxed tablets, a seal box and a lead property marker.

The second letter records the delivery, probably in the mid 19th century, of one leaf to George Carr Pearson in London. Pearson studied the tablet, but never returned it. Eventually, the tablet was found again when clearing a house in West Kensington. In 1991 it came into the possession of Mr Stafford Ellerman, who in 2003 saw a television programme about the writing tablets discovered at the Roman fort of Vindolanda on Hadrian's Wall. He realised he too owned a Roman writing tablet and took it to the British Museum for identification. He generously donated it to Amgueddfa Cymru.

The will

Detail of the tablet revealing the Roman writing preserved on its surface.

The tablet is a thin rectangular slab of wood from a silver fir tree, which was not native to Britain. The wax coating on one side is now degraded. Originally this would have been a smooth dark coating made of beeswax and a colouring agent, probably soot, in which the scribe wrote with his 'stylus' (a pointed metal writing tool) to expose the pale wood underneath. Some 300 stylus tablets have now been found on sites in Britain.

With careful photography and meticulous study of the original, it is possible to discern a ghost of writing in many places. The writing is in 'lower-case' Roman cursive script. The tablet forms the first page of a Roman will, written in Latin.

Its author names an heir to his estate, possibly his wife or daughter, and charges them with responsibility for accepting it within 100 days of becoming aware of their inheritance. The identity of the author and the extent of his estate were presumably detailed on the other tablets, now lost.

Considering that Roman wills were regularly written on waxed tablets, with good reason to preserve them and millions of Roman citizens to write them, it is surprising that the actual tablets should be so rare; four are known from Egypt and now this example from Wales.

The text translates as:

"[The name and status of the testator] ... before I die, I order that [name] be my sole heir...

Let all others for me be disinherited [...] on no other terms than that as much as I shall give, have given, shall have ordered to be given [...] and you [enter upon, accept my estate [... within] the next hundred [days] after my death in which you know or can know that you are my legitimate heir, in the presence of witnesses [...] let the heirs be those who know that they are [...] of this property.

But if you do not thus accept my estate, if you refuse to enter upon it, be thou disinherited [...], whom I have instituted as my sole heir."

Background reading

‘A Roman Will from North Wales’ by R. S. O. Tomlin. In Archaeologia Cambrensis, 150 (2004) pp. 143–56

Life and Letters on the Roman Frontier by A. K. Bowman. Published by British Museum Press (1994).

Aerial view of Segontium showing the playing-card shape that is typical of Roman forts. Many of its stone buildings have been exposed for public display. Image: Cadw (Crown Copyright).

R. E. M. Wheeler with Lady Lloyd George (far right) at Segontium in 1922. Image © Private collection.

In the early 4th century construction of a bathhouse began in the south-east corner of the fort. The building was never completed.

Roman soldiers worshiped many gods. This relief from Segontium depicts Mars, the god of war and, on some occasions, healing.

The Roman fort of Segontium was founded in AD77 and was garrisoned until about AD394. No other Roman fort in Wales was held so long.

Segontium's name comes from that of the river: 'sego-' , meaning 'vigorous', which is hidden in its modern form, Seiont. The fort, one of the most famous in Britain, occupies a key position in the Roman military network. It is built on the summit of a broad rounded hill overlooking the Menai Strait and the Isle of Anglesey.

The first excavations were undertaken by R. E. M. Wheeler, then Keeper of Archaeology at the National Museum of Wales. Wheeler undertook excavations within the fort between 1921 and 1923. Many of the stone buildings now on view were uncovered at this time.

Further excavations undertaken between 1975-79 revealed a number of timber barrack blocks dating to the later 1st century and earlier part of the 2nd centuries AD. This indicates that the fort was designed initially to accommodate a 'cohors milliaria' (a regiment of auxiliary infantry, up to 1,000 strong).

There is clear evidence that the garrison had been reduced in size by about AD120. A large courtyard house, with its own small bathhouse, was constructed in the mid 2nd century. This impressive building may have been the residence of an important official who was possibly in charge of regional mineral extraction.

In the earlier part of the 3rd century the garrison was the First Cohort of Sunici, a 500-strong infantry regiment originally recruited from Germany. The name of the unit appears on an inscription, which records the repair of the fort's aqueduct around AD200.

The garrisons of the later 3rd and 4th centuries were much smaller. At this time Segontium's main role was the defence of the north Wales coast against Irish raiders and pirates. Coins found at Segontium point to a continued presence of troops at this key fort until AD394.

This extraordinarily long occupation can be explained by the need to protect the fertile and mineral-rich lands of Anglesey. Throughout the Roman period Segontium was the military and administrative centre for north-west Wales.

The military significance of Caernarfon did not end when the Romans left. In the medieval period a Norman 'motte' (a mound upon which a castle was sited) was established at the mouth of the Seiont, followed in the late 13th century by the famous Edwardian castle with its walled town joining it and, finally, by a small fort planted at the mouth of the strait in 1775.

Background Reading

'Excavations at Segontium (Caernarfon) Roman Fort, 1975-1979', by P. J. Casey and J. L. Davies. Published by the Council for British Archaeology (1993).

'Roman & Early Medieval Wales' by C. J. Arnold & J. L. Davies. Sutton Publishing (2000).

'Segontium and the Roman Occupation of Wales' by R. E. M. Wheeler. In Y Cymmrodor, vol. 33 (1923).

The Roman pottery kilns at Holt. These kilns were established by the 20th Legion to provide pottery for their fortress at Chester.

Black burnished Ware. This pottery was originally produced by the Durotriges tribe in Dorset and was widely used by the Roman army and civilians in Britain.

Here we see two South Wales Grey Ware vessels and a Caerleon grey ware bowl. South Wales Grey Ware was developed in the Usk region, and was notable for its storage jars and containers.

Range of vessels found at Usk Roman fortress - a flagon for drinking, a jar for storage, a bowl for mixing or cooking, and a large lid, probably used during cooking.

The Romans brought many things to Wales - roads, baths and towns among much else - but one of their most significant introductions was mass-produced pottery.

Pottery had been used in Wales for 4,000 years prior to the Roman conquest, but its production had always been small scale.

A hundred years after the Roman invasion Britain was awash with potteries, selling their wares across whole regions of Britain. Pottery was everywhere, and was used by almost everyone.

Pottery, the indispensable material

One of the key forces behind this change was the Roman army. The legions used pottery to store and transport food, drink and other raw materials. Pottery was used for cooking and serving food, and for building, plumbing and roofing. In short it was an indispensable material.

One of the first legionary fortresses in Wales was at Usk (Monmouthshire), established between AD55-60. Here the garrison maintained itself by making its own pottery, and by importing items from conquered territories in England and on the continent.

When a fortress was established at Chester, its pottery supply was guaranteed by the building of its own potteries at Holt (Wrexham). Military kilns also exist at other Welsh forts.

Although Welsh potters were at first unable to service the Roman army, over the years local industries developed to meet the needs of this enormous market. In the Usk region potters began to produce jars in a style known as 'South Wales Grey Ware'. Other cooking and serving vessels were also produced, but these faced stiff competition from the 'Black Burnished Ware' industry of southern Britain.

It was not just the army that benefited from these new industries. The massive quantity of pottery now being produced in Wales also found a market among the civilian and native population. On archaeological sites of this period across Wales, the presence of Roman pottery is a defining characteristic.

While for many native Britons baths and villas would have remained foreign concepts, Roman pottery became an acceptable element of the conquest and occupation - part of the Romanization of Britain.

Background Reading

A Pocket Guide: Roman Wales by W. H. Manning. University of Wales Press and The Western Mail (2001).

Report on the Excavations at Usk 1965-1976: The Roman Pottery edited by W. H. Manning. University of Wales Press (1993).