The Hayling Island sanctuary was a circular shrine on the north-west of the island, established in the late Iron Age (c. 50 BCE) likely under the patronage of the Atrebates/Regni, and rebuilt in monumental masonry form around 55-60 CE as one of the earliest Romano-Celtic temples in Britain. The Roman phase comprised a circular cella within a square temenos, an architectural form rare in Britain but echoing Gallo-Roman temples in northern France, suggesting strong cross-Channel cultural ties. The site appears to have gone out of regular use by the later 3rd century.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Its unusually early and architecturally sophisticated Roman rebuild — possibly contemporary with the client kingdom of Togidubnus and the nearby palatial complex at Fishbourne — makes it a key site for understanding elite religious patronage and the rapid Romanisation of the Sussex/Hampshire coastal zone immediately after the Claudian conquest.
Excavations, principally by Downey, King and Soffe from the 1970s onwards, revealed continuity of the circular plan between Iron Age and Roman phases and recovered a votive assemblage including currency bars, brooches, weaponry (spearheads, sword fragments), horse and vehicle fittings, and coins of Commius and Verica — a martial and equestrian deposit pattern characteristic of southern British Iron Age shrines,
The Hayling Island sanctuary was a circular shrine on the north-west of the island, established in the late Iron Age (c. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a sanctuary site from the Roman period in Britain.
Hayling Island Iron-Age/Roman Sanctuary is classified as a Roman sanctuary — a religious 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 villa and section of Roman road south-west of Littlepark Wood (5.5 km), A Romano-Celtic temple, Iron Age shrine and associated remains 250m north west of Ratham Mill (9.7 km), Fishbourne Roman site (11.9 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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