Source/Archive record SEM8668 - A composite coastal cordon on Exmoor? Exploring local influence on First-Century AD fortlet use

Type Article in serial
Title A composite coastal cordon on Exmoor? Exploring local influence on First-Century AD fortlet use
Author/Originator
Date/Year 2018
Serial Title Britannia : A Journal of Romano-British and Kindred Studies
Volume 49
Part/Number 53-77
International Standard Serial Number 0068-113X
International Standard Serial Number 1753-5352

Please read the Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record .

Abstract/Summary

Exceptional aspects of the design and location of a pair of first-century fortlets on the Exmoor coast are explicable as a product of local influence. Previous explanations for the remote setting of these small posts and the distinctive defences securing them have focused on a signalling role, with the fortlets serving as a means to transmit messages to naval vessels patrolling the Bristol Channel. Instead, both the landscape setting and articulation with local settlement patterns imply that these installations strengthened pre-existing measures to counter coastal raiding. Parallels between this variant fortlet design and settlement morphology in the South-West peninsula suggest that the army co-opted an indigenous architectural style. The two fortlets could act as components of what was effectively a composite coastal cordon, built on collaboration between the Roman military and the local population.

External Links (1)

Referenced Monuments (2)

  • Old Burrow Roman Fortlet, Countisbury (Monument)
  • The Beacon Roman Fortlet, Martinhoe (Monument)

Referenced Events (0)

Record last edited

Apr 26 2021 9:59PM