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CAERHUN (Town) WALES
Canovium (Caerhun) Caernarvonshire, Wales.
The identification of Canovium with the Roman fort at Caerhun derives from
a milestone, and is confirmed by the Antonine Itinerary and the Ravenna Cosmography.
The fort is at the upper tidal limit of the river Conway, close to the point where
the road from Deva (Chester) to Segontium (Caernarvon) crossed the river. Another
road led directly through the mountains of Snowdonia to Tomen-y-Mur and the S.
Approximately three-quarters of the fort has been excavated; the remainder
lies under the church and churchyard. The fort (140 x 140 m; 1.97 ha), had a small
annex of uncertain function on its S side. The original fort, built ca. A.D. 80,
had earthen defenses and timber buildings in the interior. Modifications involved
the building of stone angle-towers, and later of a stone wall; this was not earlier
than ca. A.D. 150. Two of the gates have the usual paired guard-towers, but the
portae decumana and principalis dextra have only a single tower.
Little is known of the timber buildings of the original fort; the
stone ones appear to have been provided for a cohors quingenaria equitata, and
since they comfortably fill the area available the original garrison was probably
of the same character. The buildings in the central range consist of a pair of
granaries with an enclosed space between them; the headquarters, of standard form;
and the commandant's house. This last is on a very large scale, though much of
its area may have been taken up with open courtyards.
Between the fort and the river lay the bath house. Originally a simple
row-type structure, it later received considerable additions and must certainly
have had a long life; no precise dating evidence is available. Nor does the evidence
from the fort produce any clear picture. It was apparently occupied until the
end of the 2d c. A.D., with no detectable intermission. The coin lists suggest
that occupation continued until late in the 4th c., but no confirmation can be
found in the ceramic evidence. Possibly the civil settlement continued to be occupied
after the fort was abandoned. There is a suggestion that the fort may have been
briefly reoccupied late in the 3d c., perhaps under Carausius (A.D. 287-293).
The finds from the excavations of 1926-29 are in the Rapallo House Museum, Llandudno.
The site of the fort may be detected today as a level platform raised above the
surrounding fields, but no structure is visible.
M.G. Jarrett, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Feb 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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