Pontes (Pontibus) is a road station listed in the Antonine Itinerary on Iter II, between Ad Ansam and Bagacum routes in the Gallia Belgica/northern frontier zone. The name ("at the bridges") indicates a crossing point, almost certainly over the Authie or a tributary in the Somme valley, where the modern village of Ponches-Estruval preserves the toponym. It would have functioned as a small roadside settlement and mansio, likely active from the 1st through 4th centuries AD.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Its role was primarily logistical — a bridge and staging post on a long-distance Roman road linking the Channel coast hinterland to the interior of Gallia Belgica, providing changes of horses, lodging, and a fiscal/cursus publicus function. Such bridge stations were minor but essential nodes in the imperial communications network, particularly given the military supply routes serving the Channel ports.
The identification with Ponches-Estruval rests primarily on toponymic and itinerary evidence rather than substantial excavated remains, and the site has not been the subject of major published excavation. Surface finds and aerial reconnaissance in the Authie valley have indicated Roman activity in the vicinity, but no detailed structural plan of a mansio or bridge has been securely published for this specific location.
Pontes (Pontibus) is a road station listed in the Antonine Itinerary on Iter II, between Ad Ansam and Bagacum routes in the Gallia Belgica/northern frontier zone. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Pontes 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 Ad Lullia? (2.7 km), Lintomagus? (15.8 km), Port-le-Grand (20.4 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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