Cawfields is a small Roman temporary camp situated immediately south of Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland, near Milecastle 42 and the well-known Cawfields quarry. Such camps were short-term marching or works camps, likely associated either with the construction phase of the Wall in the 120s AD or with later troop movements and exercises along the frontier zone.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Its location in the dense cluster of camps along the central sector of Hadrian's Wall (Haltwhistle Common, Markham Cottage, Burnhead) suggests a role in housing labour parties during Wall construction or supporting periodic military operations, contributing to one of the densest concentrations of temporary camps in Roman Britain.
The camp survives principally as low earthwork traces and is known largely through aerial photography and ground survey rather than excavation; no significant artefactual assemblage has been published, and its precise date and garrison size remain undetermined. Like neighbouring camps it shows the characteristic playing-card plan with rounded corners, but firmer chronological evidence is lacking.
Cawfields is a small Roman temporary camp situated immediately south of Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland, near Milecastle 42 and the well-known Cawfields quarry. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a site site from the Roman period in Britain.
Cawfields Roman temporary camp is classified as a Roman site — 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 Milecastle 42 (Cawfields) (0.3 km), Turret 42A (Burn Head) (0.3 km), Burnhead Roman temporary camp (0.4 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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