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Roman building stone
The front face of this wedge-shaped stone is decorated with two vertical palm- or fig-like motifs stretching for almost the complete height of the block. These are carved to either side of another motif, consisting of a vertical groove running down the centre of the block, with a curved incision on either side cut towards the upper end. If this motif is a trident the curved lines would be very unusual and it is perhaps most likely a military standard is intended; in which case the the motifs to either side would indeed be palms. The presence of two types of mortar, especially on the decorated face, would seem to indicate that it had been re-used on two seperate occasions. At one time the upper edge must have been the external face for a small piece of rendering painted dark red still adheres to it. Probably late-1st or 2nd Century AD.
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Site Name: Caerleon, Newport: Gwent
Notes: Found during the examination of the south corner turret and and a stretch of the south-west defences of the fortress, in advance of their consolidation by the Welsh Office (Ancient Monuments Branch). It lay on top of the fortress-wall close to the south-corner, where it had probably been structurally re-used, not in the original fabric, but in a later rebuild or patching.