Lunt Fort
Encyclopedia
Roman province
In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...
of Britannia
Britannia
Britannia is an ancient term for Great Britain, and also a female personification of the island. The name is Latin, and derives from the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai, which originally designated a collection of islands with individual names, including Albion or Great Britain. However, by the...
. It is open to the public and located in the village of Baginton
Baginton
Baginton is a village and civil parish in the Warwick district of Warwickshire, England, and has a common border with the City of Coventry of the West Midlands county. With a population of 801 , Baginton village is four miles south of Coventry city centre and seven miles north of...
outside Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
. The fort has now been fully excavated and partially reconstructed; the wooden gateway was rebuilt by the Royal Engineers
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....
using the same tools and techniques that the military engineers of the Roman Army would have used.
Nothing is known of the fort from the historical record; the site was discovered when large quantities of Roman
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
pottery were discovered in the 1930s. Archaeological excavation started during the 1960s has revealed an intriguing site with three distinct periods of occupation namely a sequence of Roman military camps on the site.
The camp was occupied first by a legion, then, in the second phase by a cohort
Cohort
Cohort may refer to:* Cohort , a taxonomic term in biology* Cohort , a group of students working together through the same academic curriculum* Cohort , the basic tactical unit of a Roman legion...
which reduced the size of the fort and demolished a number of buildings to construct a gyrus. This second phase lasted around twenty years until the fort was decommissioned. Over a century later it was recommissioned as a temporary fortification.
Location
There is a large steep bank just beyond the northern boundary of the fort, which descends to the River SoweRiver Sowe
The River Sowe is a River in Warwickshire and West Midlands, England. It is a tributary of the River Avon, and flows into it just south of Stoneleigh....
. From the fort at the top of the bank there are good views of the landscape north for two or three miles and buildings of Coventry city centre can be seen about four miles away.
Historical interpretation
Lunt fort was an active site during periods of unrest in Roman Britain. The fort was built around AD 60 to act as a supply depot and headquarters for the Roman ArmyRoman army
The Roman army is the generic term for the terrestrial armed forces deployed by the kingdom of Rome , the Roman Republic , the Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine empire...
during the final campaign against Boudica
Boudica
Boudica , also known as Boadicea and known in Welsh as "Buddug" was queen of the British Iceni tribe who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire....
.
Notable features
The north, south and west sides followed the usual pattern for a Roman camp of straight ditches and ramparts. However, on the east side the defences bulge out and within the bulge a circular structure 32 m in diameter had been created. The sand and gravel subsoil had been dug out to a depth of 600 to 900 mm (23.6 to 35.4 ) and the area surrounded with a timber stockade.This ring, the only known "gyrus" in the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, may have been used for training horses. The gyrus was added to the fort during its second period of occupation and its construction caused significant disruption to the fort. Having the gyrus within the fort affects not just the wall which curves to accommodate the structure deviating from the Roman playing card shape pattern but also the layout of the fort which is significantly different to the standard layout. This makes the fort unique not just in Britain but also in the Roman Empire.
Reconstruction and modern use of the site
From the 1960s, Brian Hobley, keeper of field archaeology at the Coventry Museum, commenced a long term project to combine excavation with a study of the methods by which Roman camps were built.During the 1970s some features of the fort were reconstructed upon the original foundations; these are a section of the wall, a gateway modelled on images of Trajan's column
Trajan's Column
Trajan's Column is a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy, which commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It was probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate. It is located in Trajan's Forum, built near...
, one of the three granaries and the gyrus.
The fort is open for public, school visits and organised tours and has hosted many holiday excavation trips.
Finds
In 2001 a team of Canadian students unearthed a fragment of Roman Samian pottery and a Nero's head coin dating from 65 AD. In addition they found evidence of Saxon settlement after the Romans had left.Other finds have included a ring etched with a palm leaf. This type of design symbolized victory and was worn by successful gladiators.
Finds evidencing mediaeval occupation include large post holes and a post-Roman ditch filled with pottery fragments.