Petuaria Part II: Usurpers and Red Herrings

 One of the few Roman urban sites known in East Yorkshire, Brough-on-Humber is situated close to the north bank of the Humber estuary, 11 miles from Kingston-upon-Hull and less than 30 miles from York. The Humber Estuary is the largest coastal plain estuary on the east coast of Britain, providing access to several major rivers including the Don, Aire, Ouse, Trent, Hull and Ancholme.

During the Roman era a fortfied site at Brough occupied this strategic position, situated on the shore of the Humber estuary the site was perfectly situated to guard access by river, which was then navigable, into the heartland of Britannia. Northwards the land route from Brough went to the legionary fortress at York (Eboracum) and southwards across the ferry route to Lincoln (Lindum). Undoubtedly at some stage it would have functioned as a supply depot for imports for the military bases of the north. Exports would also have gone through Brough to the wider Roman world, for example lead ingots mined from Derbyshire have been found at the site.

Brough lies on the natural approach line from Lincoln from where Petillius Cerialis launched his campaign against the Brigantes in AD 71-72. Cerialis was an experienced general who had campaigned against the Britons ten years earlier as commander of Legio IX Hispania when he was engaged in the Boudican revolt. The Roman historian Tacitus records that the entire infantry force was massacred during that event, while Cerialis escaped with his cavalry. Ten years on, Cerialis was back in Britain with the newly raised Legio II Adiutrix and headed north to Lincoln to join Legio IX Hispania. II Adiutrix remained at Lincoln, while Cerialis advanced with IX Hispania to York, crossing the Humber at Brough.

The lack of known Roman forts in east Yorkshire suggests there was no great hostility from the Parisi toward the advancing Romans. The Roman fort, usually identified as Petruaria, appears to have been the first significant construction at Brough-on-Humber around AD 70, although slight traces of previous Late iron Age occupation have been detected.

Archaeologist John Wacher asserts that the early fort at Brough was evacuated in the late 70’s, possibly during Agricola’s reorganisations. After being abandoned the first Roman fort lay vacant for the next 40 years or so but the supply depot appears to have been retained. Early in the Hadrianic period, around AD 125, the fort was re-occupied for a brief period, possibly in anticipation of the next phase of construction when a new extended defensive circuit erected.1

Wacher sees these new fortifications as providing a base for the Classis Britannica (the Roman British fleet). He concedes that it is possible that at this time the civitas was reconstituted under civilian government not far from this base; it being extremely unlikely that both would have operated out of the same site. During the later 3rd and early 4th century the site was refortified with the rampart being replaced by a stone wall with external bastions.2

It is often assumed that the post-fort occupation on the site was the civitas capital of the Parisi, but there is far from general agreement on this which is based on interpretation of an inscription (RIB 707) found in 1937 and the ancient geographer Ptolemy who refers to Petuaria as the ‘polis’ of the Parisi.  [See; Petuaria: Civitas or Vicus?] 

Wacher found no evidence for a significant civilian settlement during excavations at Brough between 1958-61 noting many features that were not typical of a civitas capital, such as a lack of urban sophistication,  e.g. absence of public buildings or a planned street system, and argues that it is unusual for a town to be enclosed so early, and its turf and timber ramparts have more in common with contemporary military works rather than later town defences. Wacher sees the extensive Iron Age settlement at North Ferribly extending westwards as far as Brough with no other major settlement east, west or north of the military base, as the probable site of the vicus.3

RIB 707

Wacher argues that excavations have shown an almost exclusively military chronology for the sequence of defensive circuits and that the inscription (RIB 707) relating to the status of a British capital is completely unrelated to any structural remains.4

The inscription indicates that by AD 144 the vicus Petruariensis had a junior magistrate of a class only usually found in towns ranked as civitas capitals, and implies the existence of a theatre which would have been provided only after the provision of more functional public buildings such as a forum, basilica and a bath-house;5 despite promising ground scans the remains of these key buildings have, to date, not been found.

The identification of Petuaria with Brough-on Humber is almost entirely dependent on a Roman inscription found by the first excavators of the site Philip Corder with Rev. Thomas Romans during the 1930s. In 1937 their foreman Bertie Gott uncovered the stone inscription under the Burrs Playing Field.6

2018 GPR survey of Burrs Playing Field, Brough (Malton Museum)

In 2018 a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey was carried out at the Burrs Playing Field, the same field that had produced the inscription, and showed a D-shaped feature (marked 'G' above). 

Historic England granted consent to open a trench over the D-shaped feature in 2020, but the excavators found only a hearth that contained a burnt coin dating to c.AD 330 and rubble, evidence that any structures on this feature had been systematically demolished and its building materials used for masonry elsewhere.

However, this layer had later-3rd- and 4th-century coins and pottery associated with it, making it unlikely that it relates to a mid-2nd-century theatre. As they went below this layer they found further stony layers interpreted as successive surfaces of the courtyard. Yet it must be conceded that following two seasons of excavations over the D-shaped feature, the theatre remains elusive.7

Spolia
The ancient and widespread practice of ‘Spoliation’ (from the Latin for 'spoils') was common in late antiquity (250 - 750 AD) when entire redundant structures were known to have been comprehensively demolished and the materials used in the construction of new buildings. 

The practice survived into the Late Middle Ages, evidence can be seen at Lanercost Priory where Roman masonry from Hadrian’s Wall was robbed and used in the nearby construction of the abbey in the 12th century. One such stone built into the abbey wall displays a Roman inscription, recording the presence of Legio VI Victrix on the Wall.

An example of this practice from the Roman period in Britain can be seen in two sandstones that were uncovered at Bainbridge in Wensleydale in 1960 which record the rebuilding of a fort on Brough Hill in the 3rd Century. One of the stones bears an inscription which is one of the longest and largest ever to be found in ancient Britain, designated RIB 3215.

The inscription stones were initially built into the wall of the barracks adjacent to the east gate of the fort at Brough-by-Bainbridge, North Yorkshire, (probably the Roman fort of Virosidum?) and record work carried out by Cohors VI Nerviorum. The Nervian cohort completed extensive construction works at Brough-by-Bainbridge c. AD 205–7 including the building of four barrack blocks, the relocation of the east gate and its enclosure described in an inscription as the bracchium caementicium.

RIB 3215

Clearly the inscription RIB 3215 had become redundant when the principia (headquarters) was partly demolished to provide space for a timber building probably to accommodate the commanding officer.8

The inscription stones, RIB 3215 and RIB 3216, were later reused, upside down, in the 4th century as stone packing in the foundations for a Roman road and covered over for the next 2,000 years. The excavator Brian Hartley states that the larger stone had been re-used at least once before, since the inscribed face was partly covered by mortar. 

The history of the fort at Brough-by-Bainbridge seems somewhat similar to Brough-on-Humber. As a place name “Brough” is thought to have originated from the Old English word “burh” meaning "fortress". Occupation at Brough-by-Bainbridge began in the governorship of Agricola, it may have had an earlier phase, but the visible remains date to AD 90–105. Firstly, an earth and timber rampart was constructed which around AD 190 was rebuilt in stone. Sometime between AD 120 and AD 160 the site had been abandoned. Then we come to the time of inscription (RIB 3215), the early 3rd century, when parts of the fort were rebuilt in by the Cohors VI Nerviorum. Reconstruction took place across the whole site in the late 4th century, then pottery evidence indicates a late abandonment.

A Naval Base?
Wacher suggests the inscription at Brough-on-Humber is possibly a red herring that has misled archaeologists for decades. Notably, it was found incorporated into the masonry of an early-4th century military building, its original location unknown. The robbing of the inscription stone suggests the theatre, if it ever existed, and other associated buildings such as the forum and basilica, were redundant by the late 3rd century, purposefully demolished and the masonry used in re-fortifications of Wacher’s naval base. 

Wacher may well be correct in arguing that Brough was a failed civitas. He concludes that the town never seems to have been fortified at a time when urban defences were generally being constructed as the site no longer warranted it, and views Brough as another failed town similar to Chelmsford. He adds that when this happened disused buildings were typically robbed of their masonry to use in construction of the new defences.

Wacher considers the naval base at Brough was abandoned around AD 360 when some inhabitants of the town moved inside the fortifications and occupied the south-west corner until at least the end of the 4th century.9

The Petuaria Revisited Project team uncovered evidence of continued Roman activity in Brough on Humber into the late 4th and probably 5th centuries AD, beyond that previously thought, and seemingly at variance with earlier determinations about the end of occupation at Brough as given by Wacher, who suggested that it had become redundant by the 4th century. Yet, it must be noted that the bulk of the coins found at Brough date to the mid-4th century, in line with Wacher’s suggestion.

However, there was a significant cluster of coins from the time of Carausius and Allectus, the usurper emperors who reigned sequentially for the period AD 286-296. Carausius had declared himself as emperor in AD 286 and set Britain as his base. It seems likely that he would take advantage of British naval bases following his previous command of the Roman fleet in the English Channel. Wacher agreed with the earlier excavators Philip Corder with Rev. Thomas Romans who saw the site as a military or naval fortified site possibly re-constructed under Carausius. However coins do not provide evidence of his presence at Brough or that it was indeed a naval base yet it may hint at a connection.

An external tower, or bastion, found at Brough in 2023, resembles similar examples in Roman London, as well as those of the Saxon Shore forts, which were apparently built to protect the south and east coasts of Roman Britain from seaborne raiders.

New fortifications of this nature were typical of the 3rd century Roman Britain and tends to support the theory that Brough was a form of naval base on the shore of the River Humber, controlling access to York, and possibly part of the chain of coastal defences known as the Saxon Shore forts.10

 
Notes & References
1. J.S. Wacher, Excavations at Brough-on-Humber 1958- 1961, Society of Antiquaries of London No. XXV (1969).
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Adam Rogers, Roman Towns in Late Roman Britain, Cambridge University Press, 2011.
6. Wacher, op.cit.
7. The Past: Petuaria revisited: searching for Brough-on-Humber’s lost Roman theatre
8. Roman Inscriptions of Britain: RIB 3215. Imperial dedication to Septimius Severus, Caracalla, and Geta. 
9. John Wacher, The Towns of Roman Britain, BCA edition, 1976, p.393-97.
10. The Past: Petuaria revisited: searching for Brough-on-Humber’s lost Roman theatre

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