Newcastle, Pons Aelius Roman Fort, market

HER Number:
13517

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Newcastle, Pons Aelius Roman Fort, market

Place:
Newcastle

Map Sheet:
NZ26SE

Class:
Commercial

Site Type: Broad:

Site Type: Specific:
Market

General Period:
Roman

Specific Period:
C3-C4

Form of Evidence:
Physical Evidence

Description:
The fort was possibly used as a market between 270 and 360 AD. This appears to have been incorporated into the architecture of the interior, with the space between the northern barracks and workshop and the granaries being occupied by a broad street or open space. This may have originally occurred because planned buildings were not constructed in the northern part of the fort and the resulting space was metalled and used as an assembly area for the cohort. This later became a public space. Small-change coinage, the main evidence for commercial activity, is absent from this space but is concentrated to the north and south and within the narrow lane between the principia and praetorium. Bidwell suggests that the market was located here because it was on the north-south road. Heslop adds that it was close to the Tyne crossing.

Easting:
2502

Northing:
6385

Grid Reference:
NZ25026385

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
D.H. Heslop, 2009, Newcastle and Gateshead before AD 1080, in Diana Newton and AJ Pollard (eds), 2009, Newcastle and Gateshead before 1700, pages 10-11; P. Bidwell and M. Snape, 2002, The History and Setting of the Roman Fort at Newcastle upon Tyne, Archaeologia Aeliana, 5th Series, Vol 31, p 275, 277; CP Graves and DH Heslop, 2013, Newcastle upon Tyne - The Eye of the North, An Archaeological Assessment, pp 89-90