Aquae Sulis was a Roman thermal spa town in the civitas of the Dobunni (later possibly its own small administrative unit), built around the only hot springs in Britain. The complex developed from the AD 60s–70s, with major construction of the bathing suite and adjacent Temple of Sulis Minerva in the late 1st century, undergoing successive enlargements through the 2nd to 4th centuries before declining in the early 5th century. It functioned as both a healing/religious sanctuary and a leisure resort, with the sacred spring, Great Bath (lined with lead from the Mendips), and a classical-style temple forming an integrated cult and bathing precinct unusual in Britain.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Aquae Sulis was the principal religious healing sanctuary of Roman Britain, drawing visitors from across the province and beyond, and the temple is one of only a handful of true classical-style podium temples known from Britain. The fusion of the British goddess Sulis with Minerva exemplifies provincial syncretism, while the site's prosperity reflects the economic importance of pilgrimage and the nearby Mendip lead-silver industry.
Excavations from the 18th century onward, and especially Barry Cunliffe's work from the 1960s–80s, have revealed the bathing complex, the temple precinct with its gorgon-head pediment, and votive deposits from the sacred spring including some 130 curse tablets (defixiones)
Aquae Sulis was a Roman thermal spa town in the civitas of the Dobunni (later possibly its own small administrative unit), built around the only hot springs in Britain. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a bath house site from the Roman period in Britain.
Aquae Sulis is classified as a Roman bath house — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Roman Baths (Bath) (0 km), Temple of Sulis Minerva (0 km), So-called "No.4 Abbeygate Street" (0.1 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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