The (Roman?) fort on Alderney

[Sean Manning]

The latest issue of Current Archaeology revives the argument that an early fort on Alderney is Roman from around 400 CE. My university doesn't subscribe to that journal, so I can't read their full argument, but the first part of the article is on their webpage (link). Could one of our experts on Roman Britain fill us in on the background? The fort there even has what look like surviving merlons which were included in the wall when it was made taller.

[Robert Vermaat]

I already read something about that in the CBA report from 1976:
CBA Research Report No 18 (1977): The Saxon shore, D E Johnston (editor), especially "The Channel Islands by David E Johnston (p 31-34)".

It's online:
http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/arch...r/rr18.cfm

[Medicus matt]

It's moved on a bit since 1976 Robert. Earlier excavations failed to support the idea of the visible stonework being Roman because of a lack of any sort of Roman datable finds. However, the recent series of digs has found such evidence some tile and pottery, as well as the foundations of what's thought to be a tower. Not conclusive evidence to prove that the 'fort' itself is Roman, but they're getting there.

If you search on Youtube under Alderney Roman Fort you'll find a number of clips detailing different aspects of the excavations, and there's a good summary of the background and recent developments on pages 4-7 of this article....

http://www.associationromanarchaeology.o....part2.pdf

[Robert Vermaat]

It's moved on a bit since 1976 Robert.

I sure hope so! Just mentioned that one to show that it wasn't exactly 'new'. :wink: