The Excavation of the Southern Defences of the Caerleon Legionary Fortress 1982

This project puts into the public domain the results of the excavations on the southern defences at the Caerleon legionary fortress in 1982. The area is in Guardianship and the excavations were conducted as a result of consolidation work on the walls being carried out by the Cadw's predecessor government agency. Although restricted in scale, the excavations produced some of the best evidence for the construction sequence at Caerleon, starting with a turf-revetted earth rampart. The rampart wall and stone turrets had been added by the end of the first century AD. Problems of stability lead to two stretches of the wall being rebuilt at an unknown date but probably not before the end of the second century. There was some evidence for alterations to the rampart in the later second to third century. Some evidence for activities taking place on the rampart inside the fortress were also recovered. The ground floor room of an interval turret had been used as a rubbish dump and produced an important group of artefacts probably derived from the adjacent barracks. This material could be dated to the first two thirds of the second century AD. No evidence for any activity in the site during the later third or fourth century was recovered. The walls of the interval tower were probably not robbed out until the eighteenth century. The final activity on the site was the construction of a non-standard Second World War fortification in 1940. The dataset consists of the full excavation report and the photographic archive.

本项目将1982年对卡勒莱昂军团要塞（Caerleon legionary fortress）南部防御工事的考古发掘成果公开至公共领域。该区域现处于古迹监护状态，此次发掘系由卡德沃（Cadw）的前身政府机构开展城墙加固工程所催生。尽管本次发掘规模有限，但其为卡勒莱昂要塞的建筑营建序列提供了一批核心实证：最早的遗存为一道以草皮加固的土筑壁垒（turf-revetted earth rampart）。至公元1世纪末，该壁垒墙体与石制塔楼已完成增筑。因结构稳定性问题，两段城墙曾在未知年代进行修缮重建，但大概率不早于公元2世纪末。另有证据表明，该壁垒在公元2世纪末至3世纪间曾经历改建。本次发掘还获取了要塞内部壁垒区域开展各类活动的相关遗存。一座间隔塔楼的底层房间曾被用作垃圾堆置场，出土了一批重要人工制品，其大概率源自相邻的兵营遗址。这批遗存的年代可追溯至公元2世纪的前2/3时段。本次发掘未发现该遗址在公元3世纪后期至4世纪间存在人类活动的痕迹。该间隔塔楼的墙体大概率直至18世纪才遭到盗掘。该遗址的最后一次人类活动为1940年修建的一座非标准化二战防御工事。本数据集包含完整的发掘报告与影像档案库。