SALINAE
(Middlewich) Cheshire, England.
The site, 30.4 km E of Chester (Deva), lies at the
confluence of the rivers Dane and Croco, and covers
an area of ca. 20 ha. Occupation began soon after A.D. 80
and continued until the mid 4th c. All buildings were of
timber and daub, with thatched or tiled roofs, and took
the form of strip shops, workshops, and living quarters,
with the narrow ends adjacent to the street.
The single N-S street ran along the line of the Roman
road from Lancaster to Littlechester (Derventio), and
occupation extends from the crossing of the Dane, for
900 m or more. The structures varied in size from 7.3 x
15 m in the 2d c., to 13.1 x 30 m in the 4th c.
Local industries included iron smelting and smithing,
lead casting, glass making, and salt making from local
brine springs. A small salt works has been excavated consisting of a brine kiln, timber workshop, and two large
dolia, one bearing the graffito AMVRCA (possibly meaning
waste from brine).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
W. T. Watkin,
Roman Cheshire (1886);
F. H. Thompson,
Roman Cheshire (1965)
MPI; I. D.
Bestwick, “Roman Britain,”
JRS 50 (1960) 238; 58
(1968) 213; 59 (1969) 210-11; “Roman Britain,”
Britannia 1 (1970) 282, 313; 2 (1971) 255; 3 (1972) 314; 4 (1973) 284.
J. D. BESTWICK
