Ariconium
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''Ariconium'' was a road station of
Roman Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered was ...
mentioned in Iter XIII of the ''Iter Britanniarum'' of the
Antonine Itineraries The Antonine Itinerary ( la, Itinerarium Antonini Augusti,  "The Itinerary of the Emperor Antoninus") is a famous ''itinerarium'', a register of the stations and distances along various roads. Seemingly based on official documents, possibly ...
. It was located at Bury Hill in the parish of
Weston under Penyard Weston under Penyard is a small village in Herefordshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 1,007. It lies on the A40 road two miles east of Ross-on-Wye. The Penyard is a prominent hill. The parish church of St ...
, about east of Ross on Wye,
Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...
, and about southeast of
Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...
. The site existed prior to the Roman era, and then came under Roman control. It was abandoned, perhaps shortly after 360, but precisely when and under what circumstances is unknown. Discovered as a result of efforts to map the stations of the Antonine Itineraries, research and excavation have provided the only information on its history, to date showing it to have been a place of bloom furnaces,
forge A forge is a type of hearth used for heating metals, or the workplace (smithy) where such a hearth is located. The forge is used by the smith to heat a piece of metal to a temperature at which it becomes easier to shape by forging, or to th ...
s, and
iron working Ferrous metallurgy is the metallurgy of iron and its alloys. The earliest surviving prehistoric iron artifacts, from the 4th millennium BC in Egypt, were made from meteoritic iron-nickel. It is not known when or where the smelting of iron fro ...
throughout its existence.


Context

The
Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and northwest, Herefordshire to the n ...
and nearby areas were an ancient source of
iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...
and
charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...
. There is evidence of early
mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...
and
smelting Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron, copper, and other base metals. Smelting uses heat and a ch ...
, and there were many sites consisting of groups of forges. The site of ''Ariconium'' was on the rise of a hill, where airflow is increased due to the
terrain Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin word ...
. This favoured the establishment of bloomeries, an ancient process that produced imperfect iron, together with cinders, dirt, and unreduced
oxide An oxide () is a chemical compound that contains at least one oxygen atom and one other element in its chemical formula. "Oxide" itself is the dianion of oxygen, an O2– (molecular) ion. with oxygen in the oxidation state of −2. Most of the E ...
. A Roman contribution was the use of bellows, causing an air blast that was hotter and produced better but unforgeable iron, requiring a further refining by reheating, and using a great deal of charcoal. The cinder refuse or ''scoriae'' was dumped in great piles at such sites.


Discovery of the site

In the early years of serious research into the locations of stations on the Antonine Itineraries, the location of ''Ariconium'' was in doubt, and
William Camden William Camden (2 May 1551 – 9 November 1623) was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and herald, best known as author of ''Britannia'', the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, and the ''Annal ...
(1551–1623) suggested '' Magnis'', the site of modern Kenchester, some northwest of modern Hereford. Later analysis of the Antonine Itineraries, notably by John Horsley (1685–1732), refined previous estimates and ultimately placed ''Ariconium'' at Bury Hill, Weston under Penyard, west-northwest of ''
Glevum Glevum (or, more formally, Colonia Nervia Glevensium, or occasionally ''Glouvia'') was originally a Roman fort in Roman Britain that became a " colonia" of retired legionaries in AD 97. Today, it is known as Gloucester, in the English county ...
'' (at modern
Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...
), and northeast of ''
Blestium Blestium (also Blestio in the Antonine Itinerary (Iter XIII)) was a small fort and iron working centre in the Roman province of Britannia Superior, part of Roman Britain. It has been identified with the site of the later town of Monmouth in s ...
'' (at modern
Monmouth Monmouth ( , ; cy, Trefynwy meaning "town on the Monnow") is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is northeast of Cardiff, and west of London. I ...
). With confidence that the overgrown ruins near Weston under Penyard were actually the site of ''Ariconium'', local people began clearing away the brush, revealing the enormous magnitude of the cinder piles, and further revealing the walls of buildings. Stories emerged of significant Roman-era relics, and there were unverified stories that existing relics having no provenance had actually been found in ''Ariconium''. Such capable modern research as has been done so far supports the characterisation of a large iron working site with massive refuse piles covering approximately , pottery remnants, and numerous artefacts. Finds have included pre-Roman British coins, including one minted by
Cunobelin Cunobeline (or Cunobelin, from Latin , derived from Common Brittonic ''*Cunobelinos'' "Strong as a Dog", "Strong Dog") was a king in pre-Roman Britain from about AD 9 until about AD 40.Malcolm Todd (2004)"Cunobelinus_[Cymbeline/nowiki>_(d._''c' ...
, and coins from the Roman arrival until 360, after which there are no coins found.


History

The site was occupied by the pre-Roman Britons, likely as part of an iron working industry. It was continually occupied throughout the Roman era, and the scale of industrial activity increased over the period. It is clear that there was a focus of settlement activity near Bromsash, but the area appears to some archaeologists to have contained dispersed centres of activity and settlement rather than a Roman town. ''Ariconium'''s only documented significance is as a station on Iter XIII of the ''Iter Britanniarum'', with the single mention there being its only mention in classical history. It seems to have been abandoned shortly after 360. Its sudden abandonment is consistent with a violent end, and may be related to the collapse of authority and widespread marauding at that time, as reported by
Ammianus Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquity (preceding Procopius). His work, known as the ''Res Gest ...
, a situation that lasted for almost a decade, and from which parts of
Roman Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered was ...
never recovered. Evidence of later occupation of the site has not been found.


The name

The origin of the name ''Ariconium'' is uncertain, as is its pre-Roman name. The Romans often named a place in recognition of some feature of the terrain, or in recognition of the people then living in the area. There is a similarity to other Roman place-names such as ''
Viroconium Viroconium or Uriconium, formally Viroconium Cornoviorum, was a Roman city, one corner of which is now occupied by Wroxeter, a small village in Shropshire, England, about east-south-east of Shrewsbury. At its peak, Viroconium is estimated to ...
'' (post-Roman
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
: ''Caer Guricon''), also known as ''Uriconium'', but as yet no established connection to them. It is generally believed that ''Ariconium'' is the origin of the name of the post-Roman kingdom of
Ergyng Ergyng (or Erging) was a Welsh kingdom of the sub-Roman and early medieval period, between the 5th and 7th centuries. It was later referred to by the English as ''Archenfield''. Location The kingdom lay mostly in what is now western Herefordsh ...
, although ''Ariconium'' was located outside the later boundaries of Ergyng. It is plausible that both derive from an earlier name for a wider area. In turn, Ergyng is believed to have given its name to
Archenfield Archenfield (Old English: ''Ircingafeld'') is the historic English name for an area of southern and western Herefordshire in England. Since the Anglo-Saxons took over the region in the 8th century, it has stretched between the River Monnow and R ...
. Since 2008, it has been used as the generic name for a united benefice of six Church of England parishes in the area
Aston Ingham, Hope Mansel, Lea, Linton, Upton Bishop and Weston-under-Penyard.


In literature

As with many other places in Britain, there have been speculative articles written that connect ''Ariconium'' to the characters in
Arthurian King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a Legend, legendary king of Great Britain, Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In the earliest tradition ...
tales. Some are careful with their wording and state that they are not asserting historical facts; others are less careful and propagate fiction in the guise of hypothesis. There are occasional mentions of ''Ariconium'' in poetic works, (for example) but there is nothing to connect them with the Ariconium of this article. They may be references to Kenchester at a time when Camden placed the site there, or to a similar-sounding word such as ''Uriconium'', or to some other place or person; or as works of poetry, they may refer to nothing in particular at all.


References

Bibliography * * * * * * * * * Notes {{Authority control History of metallurgy Iron Age sites in England Roman towns and cities in England Archaeological sites in Herefordshire