Durobrivae was a walled small town on Ermine Street where it crossed the River Nene, occupied from the later 1st century AD (originating around an early Flavian fort) and flourishing through the 2nd to 4th centuries. It grew into one of the largest and wealthiest small towns in Roman Britain, covering roughly 18 hectares within its defences, and served as the urban core of the extensive Nene Valley industrial landscape.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Durobrivae was the focal market and administrative centre for the Nene Valley pottery industry, one of the major ceramic producers of late Roman Britain, exporting colour-coated wares across the province and to the continent. It is also famous as the find-spot of the Water Newton Treasure, a hoard of 4th-century silver vessels and plaques widely regarded as the earliest known Christian liturgical silver from the Roman Empire.
Cropmarks and geophysical survey (notably extensive magnetometry by English Heritage/Historic England) have revealed a dense street grid, strip buildings, courtyard houses, suburbs, and surrounding pottery kilns and villas including the nearby Mill Hill and Castor complexes. Limited modern excavation has occurred within the walled area itself, but surface finds, the 1975 discovery of the Water Newton Treasure, and earlier antiquarian work have produced abundant pottery, coinage, and metalwork attesting to prolonged pros
Durobrivae was a walled small town on Ermine Street where it crossed the River Nene, occupied from the later 1st century AD (originating around an early Flavian fort) and flourishing through the 2nd to 4th centuries. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Durobrivae (Water Newton) 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 The fort and Roman walled town of Durobrivae and its south, west and east suburbs, immediately south and east of Water Newton Village (0.7 km), Roman site in Normangate Field (0.8 km), Roman house N of Castor Mills (0.8 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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