Navio. The Fort and Vicus at Brough-on-Noe

Abstract

project by the University of Sheffield investigated the possible existence of a civil settlement (vicus) around the fort through geophysical survey and trial excavation. The stated aim of the volume under review is to publish reports on the most recent work and to synthesize an account of the development of fort and vicus from all the available data. In fact, it goes further than this, since Dearne, the principal author and editor, also publishes archive reports (with suitable editorial commentary) on the Richmond/Gillam excavation and on Bartlett's excavation (11-35). Although there is no report included here on the 1960s work, the concluding synthesis also integrates that important body of evidence. The bulk of the volume comprises reports on resistivity survey and trial excavations in an area close to the southeast side of the fort (37-63), further out to the southeast on the fringe of the vicus (65-97), a n^ immediately to the west and southwest of the fort (99-130). There are brief notes on an air-photograph showing features to the northeast of the fort across the Noe (131-2) and on a 70 kg stone ball from the fort (133, argued to be too heavy to be a ballista projectile!). The volume concludes with a long and detailed synthesis of the evidence for the phasing and function of fort and vicus (135-64). All in all this is a useful compilation on a neglected and interesting site. Brough is unusual for the fact that it is one of only two south Pennine forts to be reoccupied in the midsecond century and held into the fourth. In consequence of this long military presence one might expect to find a substantial civil settlement here, not least because this was a lead-mining area as well as a trans-Pennine communications line. In the event, the results are tantalisingly ambiguous. The soils were moderately unresponsive to resistivity and weather/ground conditions less than ideal at the time the surveys were carried out. Although large areas were surveyed, the results by and large look like thick-spread porridge, in which some road alignments can be made out, but little else. Excavation revealed traces of timber buildings close to the fort (one associated with an iron-working hearth) and on the eastern fringe of the vicus (again associated with iron-working). Overall, preservation was poor and the plans are somewhat incomplete. On the western side of the fort, the traces of possible buildings are still more fragmentary and many of the features recorded may be property divisions, drainage features, or activity areas rather than dwellings. It is perhaps unfortunate, therefore, that the only substantial stone-footed vicus buildings are identified by D. from the fuzzy resistivity plots and not confirmed by excavation. Conclusions about the supposed size and nature of the late vicus must thus be treated with caution (cf. 37-40, 151-6).