Milecastle 43, known as Great Chesters Milecastle, lay on Hadrian's Wall immediately east of the fort at Aesica (Great Chesters), which was constructed over its site around AD 128. The milecastle was therefore short-lived, built as part of the original Wall scheme c. AD 122–125 and superseded within a few years when the fort was inserted into the Wall line.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Its replacement by Aesica is an important example of the well-documented mid-construction revision of the Wall plan, when forts were moved onto the Wall line itself rather than relying on the Stanegate garrisons to the south. The site illustrates how the original tight milecastle-and-turret system was rapidly modified to provide larger, more flexible troop concentrations.
Very little survives or is known of the milecastle itself, as it was destroyed or overbuilt by the construction of Great Chesters fort; no clear structural remains have been identified, and its existence is inferred largely from the regular Wall-mile spacing and from excavations at Aesica. The fort that replaced it has been more extensively investigated, notably by Gibson and Simpson in the early 20th century, yielding the well-known Aesica brooch and evidence of long occupation into the late Roman period.
Milecastle 43, known as Great Chesters Milecastle, lay on Hadrian's Wall immediately east of the fort at Aesica (Great Chesters), which was constructed over its site around AD 128. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fortlet site from the Roman period in Britain.
Milecastle 43 is classified as a Roman fortlet — a military 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 Untitled (0.1 km), (A)Esica (0.1 km), Great Chesters Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall between the Caw Burn and the track to Cockmount Hill farm in wall miles 42 and 43 (0.3 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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