Experts uncover second Roman fort on city site
Tim Gent and his team have discovered two roman forts on the site of the old St Loyes School Topsham Road Exeter.
EXETER archaeologists believe they have found a second Roman fort on a development site in the city.
As the Echo has already reported, a team of city archaeologists has unearthed a previously unknown fort on the site of the former St Loye's campus off Topsham Road.
Archaeologists said the original discovery was set to rewrite Exeter's early history.
Now the excavations have revealed what the experts believe could be a second fort, built on top of the first.
Tim Gent, head of Exeter Archaeology, said Romanists across the country and further afield were already discussing the significance of this first Exeter fort when the second came to light.
Suspicions that there was a fort on the site arose three years ago during trial trenching.
Excavations before the site was developed for a retirement village unearthed V-shaped ditches which in places are more than two metres deep.
These would have been dug to provide protection for the fort.
Now ditches on a different alignment to those of the first fort have been found, and Mr Gent told the Echo: "The new V-shaped ditch cuts through trenches that were dug to hold timbers for the first fort's barrack blocks — these are long fairly narrow linear trenches. This shows that the army used the site again at a later date.
"It looks as if we now have three military establishments in Exeter — the known fortress in town, our new fort at St Loye's, and now this further new evidence.
"These are early days, but at the moment the pottery found on the site suggests the first fort might be earlier than the fortress. The pottery found so far from the second fort suggests it could have been built perhaps a decade or two later."
Archaeologists believe the fortress could date from the middle of the first century AD.
Mr Gent said: "If we are right, our first fort could have been built when the Romans were campaigning, while the area was being subdued.
"The fortress, which was used by the legionary troops, would have been built once the locals were more accepting of the Romans being here.
"We have little to go on yet, but our second fort, or fortlet, off Topsham Road may well have been built later as some sort of defence for the fortress. All this is really significant in providing us with knowledge of the way in which Exeter developed and just what the Roman military were doing in the area."
http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/news/City-site-yields-evidence-second-Roman-fort/article-2467337-detail/article.html
