HARLOW
Essex, England.
The site, 33.5 km
NE of London and known for its temple, lies on a low
hill in the valley of the river Stort and seems to have
been sacred as early as the Belgic period; 79 pre-Roman coins, mainly of Tasciovanus and Cunobelin, have
been recovered from below the temple and its vicinity
although no structure could be identified. Later the hill
was surrounded by a ditch to form the temenos, and a
masonry temple of Romano-Celtic type was erected on
the summit. The cella was 7.4 m square with a surrounding portico 16.4 m overall. The entrance lay to
the SE; at a later date it was flanked by wings, each
containing a small room with a tessellated floor. On the
axis of the approach stood an altar base; nearby and
possibly derived from it lay an inscribed fragment of
stone dedicated NVM]INI A[VG—to the divinity of the
emperor.
Some 7 m N of the temple part of an outer portico
has been traced: this probably surrounded the temple
on all sides to form an inner temenos. Like many pagan
shrines in Britain the temple reached its greatest prosperity in the 4th c.; the building itself was probably
erected late in the 3d c., and the problem of continuity from the pre-Roman period is best explained by
the previous existence of a sacred grove on the summit
of the hill.
S. S. FRERE
