Coria was a

fort A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from La ...

and town south of

Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall (, also known as the ''Roman Wall'', Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Aelium'' in Latin) is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Roman Britain, Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Ru ...

, in the

Roman province The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...

Britannia The image of Britannia () is the national personification of United Kingdom, Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used by the Romans in classical antiquity, the Latin was the name variously appli ...

. It was strategically located on the junction of a major Roman north–south road (

Dere Street Dere Street or Deere Street is a modern designation of a Roman roads, Roman road which ran north from Eboracum (York), crossing the Stanegate at Corbridge (Hadrian's Wall was crossed at the Portgate, just to the north) and continuing beyond int ...

) with the

River Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden, Northumberland, Warden near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The ...

and the Roman

Stanegate The Stanegate (meaning "stone road" in Northumbrian dialect) was an important Roman road and early frontier built in what is now northern England. It linked many forts including two that guarded important river crossings: Corstopitum (Corbr ...

road, which was also the first frontier line which ran east–west between Coria and

Luguvalium Luguvalium (or ''Luguvalium Carvetiorum'') was an ancient Roman Empire, Roman city in northern Roman Britain, Britain located within present-day Carlisle, Cumbria, Carlisle, Cumbria, and may have been the capital of the 4th-century Roman provinc ...

(the modern

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

). Corbridge Roman Site is in the village of

Corbridge Corbridge is a village in Northumberland, England, west of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle and east of Hexham. Villages nearby include Halton, Northumberland, Halton, Acomb, Northumberland, Acomb, Aydon and Sandhoe. Etymology Corbridge was k ...

in the county of

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

. It is in the guardianship of

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

and is partially exposed as a visitor attraction, including a site museum.

Name

The full

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

name is uncertain. The place-name appears in contemporary records as Corstopitum and Corie Lopocarium. These forms are generally recognised as corrupt. Suggested reconstructions include Coriosopitum, Corsopitum or Corsobetum.Bethany Fox, 'The P-Celtic Place-Names of North-East England and South-East Scotland', The Heroic Age, 10 (2007), http://www.heroicage.org/issues/10/fox.html (appendix at http://www.heroicage.org/issues/10/fox-appendix.html). The

Vindolanda tablets The Vindolanda tablets are some of the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain (antedated by the Bloomberg tablets from Roman London). They are a rich source of information about life on the northern frontier of Roman Britain. Writ ...

show that it was locally referred to by the simple form, Coria, the name for a local tribal centre. The suffix ought to represent the name of the local tribe, a member of the Brigantian confederation but its correct form is unknown. It gave its name to

, albeit by processes which are debated.

History

Early occupation

There is evidence of

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

round houses on the site but the first Romans in the area built the Red House Fort, to the west, as a supply camp for Agricola's campaigns.

Forts

Soon after Roman victories in modern

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, around AD 84, a new fort was built on the site with turf ramparts and timber gates, as part of the Stanegate frontier system of linked forts. Barrack blocks surrounded a headquarters building, a commander's residence, administrative staff accommodation, workshops and granaries. It was probably occupied by a 500-strong cavalry unit called the Ala Gallorum Petriana but burnt down in AD 105. A second timber fort was built, guarding an important crossing of the

, when the

Solway Firth The Solway Firth is an inlet on the west coast of Great Britain, forming part of the border between England and Scotland. The firth (a Scottish term for an inlet of the sea) divides Cumbria (including the Solway Plain) from Dumfries and Gallow ...

–Tyne divide was the Roman frontier. Around AD 120, when Hadrian's Wall was built just over two miles to the north, the fort was rebuilt again, probably to house

infantry Infantry, or infantryman are a type of soldier who specialize in ground combat, typically fighting dismounted. Historically the term was used to describe foot soldiers, i.e. those who march and fight on foot. In modern usage, the term broadl ...

away from the Wall. About twenty years later, when the frontier was pushed further north and the

Antonine Wall The Antonine Wall () was a turf fortification on stone foundations, built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland, between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth. Built some twenty years after Hadrian's Wall to the south ...

built, the first stone fort was erected under the Governor Quintus Lollius Urbicus. English Heritage has released monographs on the forts along Hadrian's Wall through the Archaeology Data Service. Bishop and Dore's report on the excavations at Corbridge 1947–80 reveal the complex history of the sequence of mainly earth and timber forts which preceded the masonry building
(available here)
The reports also cover a metal hoard found within the fort, possibly linked to the abandonment between AD 122 and 138Allason-Jones, L., Bishop, M. (1988
Excavations at Roman Corbridge: The Hoard.
English Heritage. (also available on th
Archaeology Data Service
website).

Town development

After the Romans fell back to Hadrian's Wall in AD 163, the army seems to have been largely removed from Coria. Its ramparts were levelled and a big rebuilding programme of a very different nature was instigated. A series of probable

temples A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

were erected, followed by granaries, a fountain house and a large courtyard complex, which may have been intended to become a civilian forum or a military storehouse and workshop establishment. It was never finished in its original plan. Burnt timber buildings may relate to

Cassius Dio Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history of ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...

's reference to tribes crossing the frontier but by the early 3rd century there was more construction. Two compounds opposite the supposed forum were built as part of a military supply depot within the town. It was connected with the

Second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

and the Sixth Legion and may have been part of the supply network for Septimius Severus' northern campaigns. An elaborate house was built in the 3rd-4th century which may have housed an Imperial official. Coria was probably a big market centre for the lead, iron and coal industries in the area, as well as agriculture, evidenced by the granaries. A pottery store has also been identified. When occupation came to an end is unclear. It is not even known if the site was still occupied when the

Anglo-Saxons 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 ...

arrived to found adjoining Corbridge. The Corbridge Hoard was found here.

Rediscovery

The first excavations were carried out in 1861 by a Mr Coulson but the plans, reports and drawings were lost and only a summary of his findings published in Archaeologica Aeliana. In 1906 a small scale excavation was carried out on the site following a desire by the Northumberland County History Committee to assess the Roman remains at Corbridge, ahead of a book on the history of the parish, The excavation was overseen by Francis J. Haverfield and supervised by

Leonard Woolley Sir Charles Leonard Woolley (17 April 1880 – 20 February 1960) was a British archaeologist best known for his Excavation (archaeology), excavations at Ur in Mesopotamia. He is recognized as one of the first "modern" archaeologists who excavat ...

. This excavation showed the potential of the site and as the County History Committee could not undertake such a large work the Corbridge Excavation Committee was formed to continue the work. Excavations continued very year from 1907 to 1914. Leonard Woolley supervised the first part of the 1907 season from July to September then left for Egypt. R H Forster supervised the excavations from then on. A number of students and scholars also worked on the excavations, making it one of the first training excavations in British archaeology. They included J.P. Bushe-Fox. Brian Dobson later ran adult training excavations at Corbridge in the 1960s and 1970s.

Tombstone of Flavinus, Roman Standard Bearer

Work on

Hexham Abbey Hexham Abbey is a Grade I listed church dedicated to Saint Andrew, St Andrew, in the town of Hexham, Northumberland, in the North East England, North East of England. Originally built in AD 674, the Abbey was built up during the 12th century ...

in 1881 brought to light a Roman funerary monument in the stonework of the south porch of the transept. An elaborately carved stone (now on display in the abbey) shows a standard-bearer in the Roman cavalry riding down a barbarian: its inscription shows it to commemorate Flavinus, an officer in the ''ala Petriana'' who died aged 25 after seven years' service. The ''ala Petriana'' is known to have been stationed at Corbridge, and the slab is thought to date to the late first century and to have once stood in the military cemetery near the fort there.

In fiction

*In Rosemary Sutcliff's 1965 novel '' The Mark of the Horse Lord'', the lead character is a

gladiator A gladiator ( , ) was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their ...

in Corstopitum before he leaves to join the Dal Riata north of the Antonine Wall. *In Mary Stewart's 1979 novel '' The Last Enchantment,''

Merlin The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) is an interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across England. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of UK Re ...

and Ulfin pass through Cor Bridge on their way to spy on

Morgause Morgause ( ) is a popular variant of the figure of the Queen of Orkney, an Arthurian legend character also known by various other names and appearing in different forms of her archetype. She is the mother of Gawain and often also of Mordred, ...

and Lot of Lothian in Dunpeldyr ( Traprain Law near Dunbar, East Lothian). *In Gillian Bradshaw's ''Island of Ghosts'', three Sarmatian alae are stationed in Cilurnum, Condercum and Eburacum, and often have dealings in Corstopitum. *In Juliet Landon's 2006 historical romance ''The Warlord's Mistress'', it is 208 AD and a beautiful spy from one of the Celtic tribes holding out against Roman rule is living in Coria, where she meets one of the Roman rulers. *In Ruth Downie's 2008 novel, ''Terra Incognita,'' the protagonists find themselves near Coria as the action opens. *In

László Krasznahorkai László Krasznahorkai (; born 5 January 1954) is a Hungarian novelist and screenwriter known for difficult and demanding novels, often labeled postmodern, with dystopian and melancholic themes. Several of his works, including his novels '' Sat ...

Man Booker International Prize The International Booker Prize (formerly known as the Man Booker International Prize) is an international literary award hosted in the United Kingdom. The introduction of the International Prize to complement the Man Booker Prize, as the Boo ...

-winning novel '' War and War'', Corstopitum features as one of the sites visited by four mysterious travellers in a manuscript discovered by Korin, the central character of the novel.

References

External links

*
English Heritage web page on Corbridge Roman Site

Teachers' resource pack: English Heritage Handling Collection
* M. Bishop, J. Dore
Corbridge. Excavations of the Roman fort and town, 1947-80
* Tony Wilmott
Hadrian's Wall. Archaeological research by English Heritage 1976-2000

Haverfield, F, ‘An account of the Roman remains in the parish of Corbridge’, in A History of Northumberland, vol 10, ed HHE Craster (Newcastle upon Tyne and London, 1914), 455–522

Roman Britain page on Corbridge Roman Site
{{authority control Roman towns and cities in England Roman sites in Northumberland English Heritage sites in Northumberland History of Northumberland Former populated places in Northumberland Museums in Northumberland Museums of ancient Rome in the United Kingdom Archaeological museums in England Roman auxiliary forts in England Corbridge Stanegate