Nanstallon is a small auxiliary fort in Cornwall, situated on a low spur above the River Camel about 3 km west of Bodmin. Excavations have dated its occupation to a relatively brief period in the mid-1st century AD, broadly c. AD 55/60–80, making it part of the early Flavian or late Neronian military presence in the South-West following the Roman advance under the legate of Legio II Augusta. It is small (roughly 2 acres / 0.8 ha) and would have held a part-mounted unit (cohors equitata) of perhaps 500 men.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Nanstallon is one of the westernmost Roman forts known in Britain and a key piece of evidence that Roman military control extended well into Cornwall, probably to oversee the tin and possibly silver-lead resources of the region as well as to police the local population. Together with the fortlet at Restormel and the recently identified fort at Calstock, it shows a deliberate, if short-lived, military framework in the far South-West.
Excavations by Fox and Ravenhill in 1965–69 revealed a playing-card enclosure with turf-and-timber rampart, double ditches, four gates, and internal timber buildings including a principia, praetorium, granaries, and barracks. Finds were modest — samian, coarse wares, and a small assemblage of metalwork including slag suggesting on-site metalworking — consistent with a short occupation and abandonment without violent
Nanstallon is a small auxiliary fort in Cornwall, situated on a low spur above the River Camel about 3 km west of Bodmin. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fort site from the Roman period in Britain.
Nanstallon is classified as a Roman fort — 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 Restormel (9 km), Combined viaduct and aqueduct called Treffry Viaduct (10.1 km), Later prehistoric to Romano-British multiple enclosure fort and prehistoric round barrow, 350m south east of Bogee Farm (12.6 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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