CANOVIUM
(Caerhun) Caernarvonshire, Wales.
The identification of Canovium with the Roman fort
at Caerhun derives from a milestone, and is confirmed
by the
Antonine Itinerary and the
Ravenna Cosmography.
The fort is at the upper tidal limit of the river Conway,
close to the point where the road from Deva (Chester)
to Segontium (Caernarvon) crossed the river. Another
road led directly through the mountains of Snowdonia
to Tomen-y-Mur and the S.
Approximately three-quarters of the fort has been
excavated; the remainder lies under the church and
churchyard. The fort (140 x 140 m; 1.97 ha), had a
small annex of uncertain function on its S side. The
original fort, built ca. A.D. 80, had earthen defenses and
timber buildings in the interior. Modifications involved
the building of stone angle-towers, and later of a stone
wall; this was not earlier than ca. A.D. 150. Two of
the gates have the usual paired guard-towers, but the
portae decumana and principalis dextra have only a
single tower.
Little is known of the timber buildings of the original
fort; the stone ones appear to have been provided for a
cohors quingenaria equitata, and since they comfortably
fill the area available the original garrison was probably
of the same character. The buildings in the central range
consist of a pair of granaries with an enclosed space
between them; the headquarters, of standard form; and
the commandant's house. This last is on a very large
scale, though much of its area may have been taken
up with open courtyards.
Between the fort and the river lay the bath house.
Originally a simple row-type structure, it later received
considerable additions and must certainly have had a
long life; no precise dating evidence is available. Nor
does the evidence from the fort produce any clear picture. It was apparently occupied until the end of the
2d c. A.D., with no detectable intermission. The coin
lists suggest that occupation continued until late in the
4th c., but no confirmation can be found in the ceramic
evidence. Possibly the civil settlement continued to be occupied after the fort was abandoned. There is a suggestion
that the fort may have been briefly reoccupied late in
the 3d c., perhaps under Carausius (A.D. 287-293). The
finds from the excavations of 1926-29 are in the Rapallo
House Museum, Llandudno. The site of the fort may
be detected today as a level platform raised above the
surrounding fields, but no structure is visible.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
P. K. Bailie Reynolds,
Excavations on
the site of the Roman fort of Kanovium at Caerhun,
Caernarvonshire (1938); W. Gardner, “The Roman
Fort at Caerhun, Co. Caernarvon,”
Archaeologia Cambrensis 80 (1925) 307-41; P. J. Casey in V. E. Nash-Williams,
The Roman Frontier in Wales (2d ed. by M. G. Jarrett 1969) 56-59.
M. G. JARRETT
