Branodunum was an ancient

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

fort to the east of the modern English village of Brancaster in

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

Name

''Branodunum'' is the Latinization of ''*Branodunon'', a Celtic compound based on ''brano-'' "raven" and ''dunon'' "closed area, fortified enclosure, citadel, fort", then "hill, mount", hence the Welsh ''Din'' (in toponyms), and ''dinas'' "town", as well as the old Breton ''din'' "fortress" and ''din cat'' "combat fortress".

Xavier Delamarre Xavier Delamarre (; born 5 June 1954) is a French linguist, lexicographer, and former diplomat. He is regarded as one of the world's foremost authorities on the Gaulish language. With linguist Romain Garnier, Delamarre is the co-publishing edi ...

, ''Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise : une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental'', Paris, Éditions Errance, 2003, p. 85-154, , ''Bran'' is still the name for the raven in Brittonic languages such as Welsh, Cornish and Breton. Perfect homonymy with ''Branodunum'' in Gaul, today Brandon (Saône-et-Loire, France).

History

The fort, built in the 230s, became later part of the

Saxon Shore The Saxon Shore () was a military command of the Late Roman Empire, consisting of a series of fortifications on both sides of the English Channel. It was established in the late 3rd century and was led by the " Count of the Saxon Shore". In the ...

fortification system. It was built to guard

the Wash The Wash is a shallow natural rectangular bay and multiple estuary on the east coast of England in the United Kingdom. It is an inlet of the North Sea and is the largest multiple estuary system in the UK, as well as being the largest natural ba ...

approaches and is of a typical rectangular ''

castrum ''Castra'' () is a Latin language, Latin term used during the Roman Republic and Roman Empire for a military 'camp', and ''castrum'' () for a 'Fortification, fort'. Either could refer to a building or plot of land, used as a fortified milita ...

'' layout. According to the 4th-century document ''

Notitia Dignitatum The (Latin for 'List of all dignities and administrations both civil and military') is a document of the Late Roman Empire that details the administrative organization of the Western and the Eastern Roman Empire. It is unique as one of very ...

'', the fort was garrisoned by the ''Equites

Dalmatae The Dalmatae, alternatively Delmatae, during the Roman period, were a group of Illyrian tribes in Dalmatia, contemporary southern Croatia and western Bosnia and Herzegovina. The region of Dalmatia takes its name from the tribe. The Delmatae ap ...

Brandodunenses'' ("

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; ; ) is a historical region located in modern-day Croatia and Montenegro, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Through time it formed part of several historical states, most notably the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Croatia (925 ...

n cavalry of Bran dunum"), although a tile found on the site stamped '' Cohors I Aquitanorum'' suggests that its original garrison was the "First cohort from

Aquitania Gallia Aquitania (, ), also known as Aquitaine or Aquitaine Gaul, was a province of the Roman Empire. It lies in present-day southwest France and the comarca of Val d'Aran in northeast Spain, where it gives its name to the modern region of Aquit ...

". There is possible evidence (burials and grave goods) of later

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

use of the site. According to the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

information boards on the site, the fort is within a rectangular field to the east of the current village of Brancaster; there is no urban development on the fort's site itself. Urban residential development in the 1970s has covered much of the area to the west of the fort where part of the local '

vicus In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (plural ) designated a village within a rural area () or the neighbourhood of a larger settlement. During the Republican era, the four of the city of Rome were subdivided into . In the 1st century BC, Augustus ...

' (civilian settlement) was situated.

Location and construction

Southern Boundary of Branodunum Roman Fort at Brancaster - geograph

The site is bounded by the modern village of Brancaster to the west, and the A149 road to the south. The site is maintained by the

. Free access is possible from the adjoining A149 road or the Norfolk Coast Path. In Roman times, the fort's northern wall lay directly on the seashore, which served as a harbour. Since then, the shoreline has accreted, and the fort now lies inland of

salt marsh A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. I ...

es. The fort was of a rectangular shape with rounded corners, with a wide wall with internal turrets at the corners and backed by an earthen rampart, which increased the wall's strength and gave easy access to the battlements. In front of the wall there was a V-shaped single ditch. The wall thus enclosed an area of 2.56 ha. In typical ''castrum'' fashion, the fort had four gates, one on each side. Evidence of the eastern and western gates and of flanking towers survives. Aerial survey has revealed the existence of several buildings in the fort's interior, including the '' principia''. A civilian settlement (''

'') existed on the eastern and northern sides of the fort, which has been dated to the 2nd century AD. Its size would make it one of the largest settlements in the territory of the

Iceni The Iceni ( , ) or Eceni were an ancient tribe of eastern Britain during the British Iron Age, Iron Age and early Roman Britain, Roman era. Their territory included present-day Norfolk and parts of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, and bordered the ar ...

tribe. Because the streets of the settlement are not aligned with the layout of the fort, it has been hypothesised that an earlier fort, built of timber, existed at the site, possibly from as early as the revolt of Queen

Boudica Boudica or Boudicca (, from Brittonic languages, Brythonic * 'victory, win' + * 'having' suffix, i.e. 'Victorious Woman', known in Latin chronicles as Boadicea or Boudicea, and in Welsh language, Welsh as , ) was a queen of the Iceni, ancient ...

in the mid-1st century AD. The walls still stood up to tall in the 17th century, but robbing of materials during following centuries means that only the site and earthworks remain.

Archaeology

The site provided the subject of an episode of series 20 of archaeological television programme ''

Time Team ''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4, Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned in 2022 on online platforms YouTube and Patreon. Created by television produce ...

'', first broadcast in January 2013. Time Team made new discoveries which extend the knowledge base beyond that described above. In 2018 archaeological geophysicist John Gater returned to the site with Sumo Survey Services, and was able to confirm the outline of the fort and the layout of interior features like barrack rooms and major buildings."Ground Penetrating Radar and Aerial Survey at Branodunum", Sumo Survey Services
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References

Sources

* *

External links

Branodunum , Roman Britain

Time Team: Brancaster
{{Saxon Shore Saxon Shore forts Roman fortifications in England Former populated places in Norfolk Roman sites in Norfolk Brancaster