Cunetio was a substantial Roman small town on the River Kennet at Mildenhall, Wiltshire, occupied from the 2nd century through to the early 5th century A.D. Sited at a major road junction linking Silchester (Calleva) with Bath (Aquae Sulis), Cirencester (Corinium) and Winchester (Venta Belgarum), it functioned as a roadside market and administrative centre, and is unusual among Romano-British small towns for receiving substantial late stone defences — a circuit wall with projecting bastions — built in the late 3rd or early 4th century.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The scale and sophistication of Cunetio's late defences suggest it played an unusually important role in the later Roman administration of the region, perhaps as a fortified collection point for taxation in kind (annona) or a secure hub on the road network. It is best known for the Cunetio Hoard, discovered in 1978, the largest Roman coin hoard ever found in Britain (54,951 coins, mostly radiates of the 250s–270s).
Aerial photography and geophysical survey (notably by the Mildenhall/Cunetio project and earlier work by Annable) have revealed a walled enceinte of roughly 7–8 hectares with external bastions, internal street grid and traces of buildings, set within a wider extramural settlement. Excavation has been limited, but finds include the 1978 hoard, a substantial coin assemblage spanning the
Cunetio was a substantial Roman small town on the River Kennet at Mildenhall, Wiltshire, occupied from the 2nd century through to the early 5th century A.D. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Cunetio is classified as a Roman settlement — 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 Romano-British kilns, Column Ride, Savernake Forest (4.5 km), Roman site 450yds (410m) E of Pentico Farm (6.1 km), Romano-British kilns 150yds (135m) SSW of Tottenham House (6.6 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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