ARICONIUM
(near Weston under Penyard) Gloucestershire, England.
A town ca. 20 km NW of
Gloucester on the road towards the Wye valley. Excavations have produced 13 British coins which may suggest
a native or Roman military site as the precursor of the
town. Substantial stone buildings have been found, but
no defenses. In an area of ca. 100 ha the fields abound
with iron slag and the debris of smelting, some of which
was reused in the 17th and 18th c. Some furnaces have
been excavated, and it seems probable that the town was
the center of an iron smelting industry. The pottery and
coins indicate a peak of activity in the 3d and early 4th c.
The name appears in the
Antonine Itinerary, but its
meaning is not known.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
AntJ 3 (1923) 66-67;
Trans. Woolhope
Nat. Field Club (1921-23); furnaces: ibid. 38 (1965)
124-35.
G. WEBSTER