Romanes eunt domus
“In abundance and variety of its Roman antiquities Yorkshire stands second to no county. We find camps, signal stations, fortresses; houses, villages, towns; iron mines, lead mines, potteries: baths, amphitheatres, temples; cemeteries, inscriptions, alters; and the thousand and one objects of daily life, from shells gathered by children at the seaside to the jet pins which still adorn the dark hair of one whose beauty is otherwise dust.” -Frank Elgee 1933.
Forty years after the Romans invaded southern Britain they turned their attention to the North. Yorkshire was part of Brigantia, the land that belonged to a large confederation of Celtic tribes known as the Brigantes. The Brigantes gained a reputation for being a troublesome lot due to the continual uprisings and revolts after Rome had declared Britain conquered.
In AD 51 the Brigantes Queen Cartimandua handed over to the Romans, the guerrilla leader of the southern Celtic tribes; King Caractacus. Pots where made by the Romans to celebrate this occasion. Caractacus was the British equivalent of Che Guevara. As a political prisoner he was to be bound in chains and taken to Rome to be paraded around then publicly executed. This was a political statement by the Roman Senate that inferred that the military campaign in Britain was over, but like most political pomp and bluster the reality back in Blighty was very different.
Around AD79 the Romans sacked the Brigantes’ stronghold of Isurium Brigantum, now Aldborough near Thirsk using the infamous IX legion; the Hyspana- think of 6000 Russell Crowes from the film Gladiator. Various Roman governors then oversaw the rule of Brigantia but each of these governors bump off one another for power and political gain. At each assassination, poisoning and back stabbing, the Brigantes take full advantage of the political upheaval and start a revolt; constantly picking away at the Roman rule.
In 117AD the IX legion is annihilated after a Brigantes revolt assisted by the Caledonian tribes. This revolt is crushed when the new Emperor Hadrian comes to Britain. Hadrian establishes his wall to split the Caledonians from the Brigantes and replaces the IX legion with the VI who are stationed at York.
The Romans begin pushing north into Scotland to expand their empire. The Brigantes again take full advantage of the thinning out of the Roman numbers and start an uprising. Emperor Marcus Aurelius - played by Richard Harris in the film Gladiator - dispatches new governors and fresh troops to quash the revolt...and so it goes on.
There are relatively peaceful periods in the 350 years of Roman rule where trade and integration naturally occur alongside further periods of uprisings and revolts. Then the great Barbarian Conspiracy of AD367 transpires; an invasion which results in many Roman buildings becoming fortified and the construction of signal stations occur like the one at Scarborough. The Barbarian Conspiracy is a Celtic tribal collective consisting of Picts, Attacotti, Saxons and Franks; they are the new kids on the block and it is around this time that the Brigantes become old hat and stop getting a mention in the history books, they don’t go anywhere, they just stop getting mentioned by the historians. There is no final battle with the Romans, and there appears to be no more revolts. By AD400 Roman forts are emptied as troops withdraw back to Rome. Writers between Constantine and the sack of Rome helped bring about the Christianisation of the heathen as the endless triumph of the Empire transformed into the endless rule of the church. The brigantes are assimilated into the Empire not by the Romans but by the historians.
A significant Roman structure, possibly belonging to this late era has been recently discovered in Eastfield’s Middle Deepdale area, south of Deepdale Rigg. Archaeologists are hedging their bets that it’s a civic building of multipurpose use; a high wealth stately home and gentlemen's club that could’ve had religious use and/or use for governance. Now, I love a nice Roman building as much as the next person, but what really excites me about this discovery is its location. Why is this building not in Eboracum (York)? Constantine the Great's coastal lodge?
This late Roman structure stands deep in the heart of the Brigantia Wild West so to speak, on the edge of Parisii country -another Celtic tribe. The structure is located on the edge of bog land on a vista looking down the Vale of Pickering towards the Roman fort at Malton (Derventio Brigantum). Bog land was very important to pre Roman cultures in Britain and Europe, archaeology shows that bog land where places of religious superstition and the Romans were a suspicious lot. They didn’t like to offend any local spirits or deities connected to shrines or prominent natural places such as springs, hillocks and stony outcrops. They tended to add dedications to sacred sites rather than destroy or rebrand them with their own religious symbols. “We can use the Roman paranoia to help us divine the Celtic and pre-Celtic civilisations.” said Julian Cope in his TV series The Modern Antiquarian.
If the Roman building in Middle Deepdale turns out to be part temple or bath house, it may be part dedicated to one of the Roman Gods, the most popular of this era where Seraphis or Mithras, evidence of both found in York. It’s possible the building could have dedications to Brighid, the goddess of the Brigantes who was revered in this area and who’s worship goes far back into antiquity. “The earth mother already represented in Yorkshire by the three chalk ‘drums’ of Folkton, and on many standing stones. The cult persisted well into the middle ages and the three witches in Macbeth express its final degeneration.” Frank Elgee
This area has many exceptional sites within close proximity to each other. Some sites were so exceptional they changed the historical narrative. By this I mean that the objects found in this area changed the accepted knowledge about the place we live in; they changed our history and rewrote the history of the cultures the objects belonged to. The Mesolithic headdresses and pendant found at Star Carr, the Gristhorpe man and his coffin boat, the art of the Folkton Drums. This area’s history is a wealth of cultured peoples making extraordinary objects as far back to the first settlers after the last ice age, I think a Roman structure in this location will not disappoint.
DavWhiteArt.com
“In abundance and variety of its Roman antiquities Yorkshire stands second to no county. We find camps, signal stations, fortresses; houses, villages, towns; iron mines, lead mines, potteries: baths, amphitheatres, temples; cemeteries, inscriptions, alters; and the thousand and one objects of daily life, from shells gathered by children at the seaside to the jet pins which still adorn the dark hair of one whose beauty is otherwise dust.” -Frank Elgee 1933.
Forty years after the Romans invaded southern Britain they turned their attention to the North. Yorkshire was part of Brigantia, the land that belonged to a large confederation of Celtic tribes known as the Brigantes. The Brigantes gained a reputation for being a troublesome lot due to the continual uprisings and revolts after Rome had declared Britain conquered.
In AD 51 the Brigantes Queen Cartimandua handed over to the Romans, the guerrilla leader of the southern Celtic tribes; King Caractacus. Pots where made by the Romans to celebrate this occasion. Caractacus was the British equivalent of Che Guevara. As a political prisoner he was to be bound in chains and taken to Rome to be paraded around then publicly executed. This was a political statement by the Roman Senate that inferred that the military campaign in Britain was over, but like most political pomp and bluster the reality back in Blighty was very different.
Around AD79 the Romans sacked the Brigantes’ stronghold of Isurium Brigantum, now Aldborough near Thirsk using the infamous IX legion; the Hyspana- think of 6000 Russell Crowes from the film Gladiator. Various Roman governors then oversaw the rule of Brigantia but each of these governors bump off one another for power and political gain. At each assassination, poisoning and back stabbing, the Brigantes take full advantage of the political upheaval and start a revolt; constantly picking away at the Roman rule.
In 117AD the IX legion is annihilated after a Brigantes revolt assisted by the Caledonian tribes. This revolt is crushed when the new Emperor Hadrian comes to Britain. Hadrian establishes his wall to split the Caledonians from the Brigantes and replaces the IX legion with the VI who are stationed at York.
The Romans begin pushing north into Scotland to expand their empire. The Brigantes again take full advantage of the thinning out of the Roman numbers and start an uprising. Emperor Marcus Aurelius - played by Richard Harris in the film Gladiator - dispatches new governors and fresh troops to quash the revolt...and so it goes on.
There are relatively peaceful periods in the 350 years of Roman rule where trade and integration naturally occur alongside further periods of uprisings and revolts. Then the great Barbarian Conspiracy of AD367 transpires; an invasion which results in many Roman buildings becoming fortified and the construction of signal stations occur like the one at Scarborough. The Barbarian Conspiracy is a Celtic tribal collective consisting of Picts, Attacotti, Saxons and Franks; they are the new kids on the block and it is around this time that the Brigantes become old hat and stop getting a mention in the history books, they don’t go anywhere, they just stop getting mentioned by the historians. There is no final battle with the Romans, and there appears to be no more revolts. By AD400 Roman forts are emptied as troops withdraw back to Rome. Writers between Constantine and the sack of Rome helped bring about the Christianisation of the heathen as the endless triumph of the Empire transformed into the endless rule of the church. The brigantes are assimilated into the Empire not by the Romans but by the historians.
A significant Roman structure, possibly belonging to this late era has been recently discovered in Eastfield’s Middle Deepdale area, south of Deepdale Rigg. Archaeologists are hedging their bets that it’s a civic building of multipurpose use; a high wealth stately home and gentlemen's club that could’ve had religious use and/or use for governance. Now, I love a nice Roman building as much as the next person, but what really excites me about this discovery is its location. Why is this building not in Eboracum (York)? Constantine the Great's coastal lodge?
This late Roman structure stands deep in the heart of the Brigantia Wild West so to speak, on the edge of Parisii country -another Celtic tribe. The structure is located on the edge of bog land on a vista looking down the Vale of Pickering towards the Roman fort at Malton (Derventio Brigantum). Bog land was very important to pre Roman cultures in Britain and Europe, archaeology shows that bog land where places of religious superstition and the Romans were a suspicious lot. They didn’t like to offend any local spirits or deities connected to shrines or prominent natural places such as springs, hillocks and stony outcrops. They tended to add dedications to sacred sites rather than destroy or rebrand them with their own religious symbols. “We can use the Roman paranoia to help us divine the Celtic and pre-Celtic civilisations.” said Julian Cope in his TV series The Modern Antiquarian.
If the Roman building in Middle Deepdale turns out to be part temple or bath house, it may be part dedicated to one of the Roman Gods, the most popular of this era where Seraphis or Mithras, evidence of both found in York. It’s possible the building could have dedications to Brighid, the goddess of the Brigantes who was revered in this area and who’s worship goes far back into antiquity. “The earth mother already represented in Yorkshire by the three chalk ‘drums’ of Folkton, and on many standing stones. The cult persisted well into the middle ages and the three witches in Macbeth express its final degeneration.” Frank Elgee
This area has many exceptional sites within close proximity to each other. Some sites were so exceptional they changed the historical narrative. By this I mean that the objects found in this area changed the accepted knowledge about the place we live in; they changed our history and rewrote the history of the cultures the objects belonged to. The Mesolithic headdresses and pendant found at Star Carr, the Gristhorpe man and his coffin boat, the art of the Folkton Drums. This area’s history is a wealth of cultured peoples making extraordinary objects as far back to the first settlers after the last ice age, I think a Roman structure in this location will not disappoint.
DavWhiteArt.com
The remains of the Roman building I believe is to be documented then grassed over, the site at Star Carr is prone to farming development, the Gristhorpe Man tumulus is now a caravan site on a holiday park and the tumulus at Folkton has been ploughed flat. One gets the feeling that if these sites where found south of Britain’s North/South divide, then they might have been allocated a visitors centre.
After notes.
(a) Part of the Roman building found at Middle Deepdale is a round structure which may have been a tower or turret. This building could be associated with the signal stations at Ravenscar, Filey and on Scarborough’s headland. The location of this Roman building and the line of sight towards the Castle headland in this vicinity has always been curious to me. This area is known as Weaponess. Historian Thomas Hinderwell speculated that the tumuli in this area were part of a boundary that formed part of the towns ancient military defences that ran along the back of Oliver’s Mt near to this Roman structure. He explains that these military defences are the origin of the area’s name Weaponess. Between the Castle headland and this building was the tumulus known as the Wheatcroft Barrow. Excavated in the 19th century and then flattened early in the 20th Century to make way for a cricket pavilion, the barrows size and curious position always suggested that it had another function at Weaponess. The corner bend at Deepdale Rigg is at 113ft above sea level and this would hide the Wheatcroft barrow from another barrow near High Eastfield Farm, a tumulus close to the Roman structure, but get this...the Wheatcroft barrow is set back away from the other barrows at Wheatcroft and it sits at 96ft above sea level as does the one at High Eastfield Farm, which means both barrows can be visible to each other from their peculiar locations across the corner of Deepdale Rigg. The hight of both barrows would ensure the other can be seen.
(b) Across Britain hedgerow and tree lines have been used as the most ancient of boundary markers for use as land division. The remains of the Roman building, specifically the round structure and adjacent parts marry up with a line of trees that has recently been removed by the housing development. This tree line appears on map as early as 1853. It will be interesting if this tree line appears on any of the area’s earlier map records held in the county archives. The former tenants of this land may have been aware of the remains of this structure, their feelings or opinions on it lost in time, other than this tree line.
(c) If it was a central heated structure the Romans may have been using the spring that feeds the stream that still runs through Deepdale and Wheatcroft to White Nab; the ancient Scarborough southern boundary established by the Royal Charter of Henry III in 1256.
Bird Box Lid
