Recent Excavations at Caerwent. 
By A. TricE Martin, M.A., F.S.A. 
(Read February 2nd, 1909.) 
Before giving you an account of our most recent work on 
this most interesting site, it may be as well to give you a brief 
summary of the results that have been achieved since we 
began our work in 1899. 
The site which is roughly rectangular, measuring about 
500 yards from east to west, and 400 from north to south, 
comprises about forty-three acres and is enclosed by a massive 
wall, a great portion of which still remains. On the south 
side of the city the wall is still standing to a height of nearly 
twenty feet. Inside this wall the spade has brought to light 
an earth-mound which seems to have been the original 
defence and on the outer slope of which the wall was built at 
a later date. 
Of the east and west gateways only scanty traces have been 
found, as they have been obliterated by the modern high road 
which runs through the city from Chepstow on the east to 
Newport on the west. The north and south gateways have, 
however, been fully excavated and are still open for inspection. 
They are among the best examples of Roman gateways known 
to us in Britain. The city itself was divided by streets inter- 
secting at right angles into imsulae, or blocks as is generally 
the case with cities of this type. These blocks contain 
dwelling-houses, some of which were of very large dimensions, 
one of them having a frontage of nearly 200 feet on the street. 
At the present time over thirty of these houses have been 
excavated and carefully planned. Generally speaking they 
belong to one or other of two distinct types—-the corridor 
type, where the rooms are arranged with reference to a 
corridor, and the courtyard type, where the rooms are 
arranged round a central corridor. Both these types are 
found at Silchester, but at Caerwent in the case of the 
courtyard type the rooms are generally arranged round all 
four sides of the courtyard, whereas at Silchester they are 
only arranged round three sides. 
The houses at Caerwent have afforded excellent instances 
of hypocausts, and some excellent pavements have been 
uncovered and drawn. Two of them have been removed to the 
