Bagendon
Bagendon is a small village located some 3 miles north of the town of Cirencester, Roman Corinium, in the Churn valley. Major earthworks enclose an area of some 80acres sloping gently upwards on either side of a small stream at the base of a wide, shallow valley. To the north, the earthworks run along a limestone escarpment before turning west to run back towards the stream now flowing north–south. On the south, the earthworks are only clearly apparent to the west side; a slighter trace to the east may or may not form part of this system. A probable sub-circular plan is created with the stream running roughly through the middle.
North of the stream, the inner ditch and mound rampart is doubled by an outer earthwork. South of the stream, the defences are again doubled, but at a greater distance. The defences to the north are problematic, the traces that are preserved having the ditch on what would be the inward side. If this defence is to be included, at least a double rampart must have been present of which only the outer element is conserved.
Excavation history
The site was partially investigated by the excavations of 1954-56 of E.M. Clifford. This work, quite limited in its scale, shows however evidence of intensive occupation with small circular huts grouped along a metalled road, coin minting, and iron- and bronze-working (Collis 1984.) The east inner rampart was sectioned and revealed that the bank, standing at 4ft 6in high, was of dump construction with rubble from the ditch, cut through the underlying oolitic limestone, making up the upper levels. A berm 4ft wide separated the bank from the V-shaped ditch, containing the collapsed traces of stone revetting from the front of the rampart (Clifford 1961).
Occupation of the site is established for the period between 10 AD and 60 AD (Collis 1984).
Also part of the complex is a small hillfort known as Ditches, c. 2km north-west of the earthwork complex. Excavations in the 1980s established that this was occupied in the early to mid 1st century AD and subsequently became the site of a Roman villa (Trow et al. forthcoming).
SITUATION ADMINISTRATIVE
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Nom usuel : Bagendon Commune : Bagendon Lieu-dit : Perrot's Brook Nom antique : - |
Département : Gloucestershire Région : South West Pays : Royaume-Uni Civitas : Dobunni |
TOPOGRAPHIE ET REMPARTS
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Superficie : 80 ha Topographie : Éperon avec barrages multiples Nb de phases du rempart : - Nb de portes connues : - Nb de portes fouillées : - |
Architecture de rempart : |
OCCUPATION INTERNE DE L'OPPIDUM
Atelier monétaire | Zone d'habitat | Zone artisanale
ENVIRONNEMENT DE L'OPPIDUM
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CHRONOLOGIE DU SITE
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Chronologie relative : LT D1a |
Occupation du site : |
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Chronologie absolue : - |
BIBLIOGRAPHIE
Clifford E.M., Bagendon - a Belgic Oppidum, Cambridge, 1961.
Collis J.R., Defended sites of the Late La Tène in Central and Western Europe, (British Archaeological Reports, Intl. series 11), Oxford, 1976.
Collis J.R., Oppida, Earliest Towns North of the Alps, H.Charlesworth and Co. Ltd, Huddersfield, 1984.
Cunliffe B., Iron Age communities in Britain, An account of England, Scotland and Wales from the Seventh Century BC until the Roman Conquest, Routledge, London and New York, 2005 (4th edition).
Cunliffe B., Rowley T., Oppida : the Beginnings of Urbanisation in Barbarian Europe, BAR supp. series II (Papers presented to a Conference at Oxford, October 1975), 1976.
Haselgrove C., The character of oppida in Iron Age Britain, in V. Guichard, S. Sievers and O-H. Urban (eds), Les processus d'urbanisation à l'âge du Fer, (Collection Bibracte 4), Glux-en-Glenne, 2000, 103–10.
Moore T., Iron Age Societies in the Severn–Cotswolds: Developing Narratives of Social and Landscape Change, (British Archaeological Reports, British Series 421), Oxford, 2006.
Trow S. James S., Moore T., Becoming Roman, Being Gallic, Staying British: Research and excavations at Ditches hillfort and villa, 1984-2006. Oxford, Oxbow Books, forthcoming.
GESTION ET MISE EN VALEUR
L'oppidum de Bagendon est principalement localisé sur des propriétés privées et est donc difficilement accessible. Il est classé Monument Historique, mais n'est aucunement aménagé pour une visite in situ.
Depuis 1856 se trouve dans la ville voisine de Cirencester le « Corinium Museum », entièrement rénové entre 2002 et 2004. Ce musée appartient au Council du district de Costwold et son conservateur est M. John Paddock.
Plus d'un million et demi d'objets illustrent l'histoire de la ville de Cirencester et de son territoire, de la Préhistoire au XIXe siècle. Ce sont surtout les collections romaines qui présentent un intérêt exceptionnel : le musée possède une des plus riches collections antiques de Grande-Bretagne, liées aux fouilles de Corinium, l'une des plus grandes cités de l'époque romano-tardive.
Doté d'un service des publics depuis 1996, le musée propose des programmes pédagogiques de qualité, notamment en direction des écoles avec une offre en accord avec les directives scolaires nationales. Visites guidées, ateliers participatifs et mallettes pédagogiques, dont certains autour de la culture celtique.
Le musée est ouvert toute l'année (fermeture hebdomadaire le samedi).
Pour en savoir plus, contacter le Corinium Museum :
Park Street, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 2BX / Tel : +44 (0)1285 655 611 / mail : museums@cotswold.gov.uk
Internet : http://www.cotswold.gov.uk