Welsh Journals

The Fort at Caersws and the Roman occupation of Wales. By T. DAVIES PRYCE, F.S.A. The full account of Prof. R. C. Bosanquet's excavations at Caersws is yet to come. Meantime, and in accordance with the frequently expressed wishes of students of Roman Britain and of local archaeologists, it has been deemed advisable to collate some of the more important details of evidence bearing on the imperial domination in Mid-Wales and more particularly to consider the period and pur- pose of the fort at Caersws. In this article the evidence afforded by the Terra Sigillata or Samian ware found during the excavations of 1848, 1854-5, 1901 and 1909 is specially studied and for this purpose Mr. Bosanquet has very generously permitted the publication and illustration of a number of pieces which are characteristic of certain stages of the occupation. In the nature of things, this class of pottery affords little or no evidence of the later occupational-phases of the site consequently, the witness of various types of coarse pottery, coins and other finds to a settlement during the third and possibly fourth centuries of our era is also reviewed. I. — Geographical POSITION AND COMMUNICATIONS. Caersws lies in a pleasant well-watered plain and is one of the strategic centres of Wales. Here the level ground of the Severn valley finally merges into the hill-country so characteristic of the principality and here too is, as Haverfield pointed out, the furthest limit which an invader from the east could easily reach in Mid-Wales. Numerous valleys converge upon this plain and provide comparatively easy access to the country on all sides. As a base whence to dominate a wide district the site could not be surpassed. The fort stands on level ground close to the river Carno immediately above its junction with the Severn.