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MONUMENT NO. 1012544

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The site of a Roman well south of Housesteads fort on Hadrian's Wall. Excavations uncovered a well contained within a structure which was rectangular at one end and semi-circular at the other, it measured 12 feet by 10; possibly a shrine or temple. Altars and other building debris were uncovered. This site may have been dedicated to Mars Thincsus and was in use from the mid-2nd to the early 4th century AD. Only the well is now visible.

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(Previously recorded by the Ordnance Survey as NY 76 NE 14.1)

(NY 7909 6858) Roman Well (G.S.)
(NY 7911 6855) Altars found AD 1883 & 1920. (1)

Seven or eight temples and at least three shrines are attested at Housesteads by altars; five or six of the temples are on or near Chapel Hill (NY 791 685). (2)

In 1883, a sculptured arched door-head with a relief of Mars and two inscribed altars were identified. The following year more excavations uncovered another piece of door-head, two uninscribed altars and, nearby, a 'Roman Well....inclosed in a building of which two courses of stone remain, measuring twelve feet by ten.'. The building was rectangular at one end and semi-circular at the other; it was evidently a small temple. One further altar was found nearby in 1920. (3)

A small shrine containing a spring and a temple, probably to Mars Thincsus, was excavated at the site described by Birley (1d). Coins and pottery suggest that it was in use from the mid-2nd to the early 4th century. Full excavation report. (4)

Full details of altars and inscriptions. (5)

A water-filled well marks the site of the shrine. (6)

NY 7909 6858. The Roman well, surrounded by a fence, was full of water at the time of visit, and could not be examined in detail. There are no structural remains of the shrine excavated by Birley (1962); the only evidence for building here is several stones lying at the base of a modern wall bisecting the site, and a squared-off column (not in situ), measuring 0.58m by 0.5m and 0.3m deep. Surveyed at 1:1000 as a part of the Housesteads Survey. (7)

Scheduled (8)

The excavated well is visible on air photographs and was mapped as part of the Hadrian's Wall National Mapping Project. (9)

Located on the English Heritage map of Hadrian's Wall 2010. (10)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

6" 1957

( 2) Archaeologia Aeliana : or miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity

Birley E and Keeney GS Fourth Report on Excavations at Housesteads 12, 1935 Page(s)230-4

( 3) by Eric Birley 1961 Research on Hadrian's Wall

Page(s)182-3

( 4) Archaeologia Aeliana : or miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity

Birley RE The Housesteads Vicus, 1961 40, 1962 Page(s)117-33

( 5) by the late R G Collingwood and R P Wright 1965 The Roman inscriptions of Britain, 1. Inscriptions on stone

Page(s)501-18

( 6) Field Investigators Comments

F1 EC Waight 05-DEC-66

( 7) Field Investigators Comments

Keith Blood/11-NOV-1985/RCHME: Housesteads Survey

( 8) Scheduled Monument Notification

14-JUL-1997

(9) Oblique aerial photograph reference number

NMR NY 7968/144 (19857/35) 04-MAY-2000

(10) English Heritage 2010 An Archaeological Map of Hadrian's Wall, 1:25,000 scale

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Monument Name/No

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HOUSESTEADS ROMAN FORT
BARDON MILL

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Housesteads Roman Fort, known to the Romans as VERCOVICIUM, is situated on the prominent crest of the Whin Sill escarpment with commanding views to th...

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