SORVIODUNUM - A REVIEW OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE 



17 



stratified deposits is often very small compared with 

 that in large towns and cities, and deep ploughing 

 has often eroded open-field sites (Wacher 1995). 

 The area of Sorviodunum lying above the present 

 River Avon flood plain has been seriously affected 

 by this problem and in addition by Medieval 

 settlement activities. However that part of the site 

 located between 200 and 300m on either side of 

 the river Avon is likely to be less disturbed with the 

 Roman levels starting at a depth of 0.6m and going 

 down to at least 1.4m or more. 



Looking to the future, because Sorviodunum 

 appears to have been a substantial town settlement 

 in the Roman period, there is an urgent need to 

 preserve and protect those areas of the site which 

 have so far escaped the ravages of development and 

 are not already scheduled. The on-going debate over 

 Romano-British wealth distribution and the 

 'ownership' of land in the Salisbury Plain area and 

 whether it formed part of an Imperial Estate 

 (Hingley 1989; Frere 1967, 274f) would suggest 

 Sorviodunum may have held an unusual, if not 

 unique, position as an urban settlement in Roman 

 Britain. There is little doubt that the site of 

 Sorviodunum offers enormous potential for further 

 research (Corney 2001, 23). Only detailed 

 investigations will elucidate the precise role and 

 functions played by Sorviodunum throughout the 

 Roman period. 



CONCLUSIONS 



The archaeological evidence suggests there was 

 extensive occupation at Old Sarum and Stratford- 

 sub-Castle throughout the Roman period. Because 

 of their close proximity the two sites together with 

 that on Bishopdown must be considered as all 

 forming part of Roman Sorviodunum. Occupation 

 at Old Sarum covered a maximum area of 12ha 

 and at Stratford-sub-Castle between 16 and 25ha. 

 The urban settlement straddles the main Roman 

 road from Silchester to Dorchester for over a 

 kilometre and would have had the status of at least 

 a large 'small' town. At this stage in our knowledge 

 the settlement on Bishopdown can be best 

 considered as a suburb or extra-mural area of the 

 town. 



The complete range of functions carried out at 

 the urban settlement is still far from clear. However 

 as a minimum it would have provided an important 

 market facility for the considerable number of 

 settlements in the surrounding area; acted as a 



strategic centre for traffic using the Roman road 

 network; and almost certainly housed a local 

 administration unit for collecting taxes and ensuring 

 the laws and edicts of the Roman authorities were 

 carried out. Any further insight into the life and 

 times of Roman Sorviodunum will have to await 

 more detailed investigations in the future. There is 

 an urgent need to progress these investigations in 

 the light of the ever-increasing pressure from land 

 development. In the short term, surveys of a 

 geophysical nature could assist in establishing the 

 extent of the site and could lead to a structured, 

 longer term, programme of protection and study. 

 On the evidence gathered during the present 

 research Sorviodunum appears to have been a much 

 larger and more important Romano-British site 

 than had been realised previously. 



APPENDIX 



by David J Algar 



Excavations and finds in 

 Stratford-sub-Castle 1962-77 

 carried out by SMARG 



1962-1965 



During the abnormally dry May and June in 1962, 

 John Stratton noticed a linear parch-mark in the 

 fields between Old Sarum and the Salisbury- 

 Devizes road. In Stratford-sub-Castle this parch- 

 mark was approximately 65m north of the accepted 

 line for The Portway, the Roman road from Old 

 Sarum to Badbury Rings and thence to Dorchester 

 (Durnovaria) as shown on the Ordnance Survey 

 maps. The line of this road had been assumed to be 

 the same as that of the trackway which ran from 

 near to the Old Castle Inn, in part as a hollow-way, 

 down to the Stratford-sub-Castle road. It appeared 

 to follow this road as the mid-part of a double dog- 

 leg for about 90m before crossing old water 

 meadows and then the River Avon. 



The parch-mark revealed in 1 962 showed up very 

 clearly as a straight line on the Old Sarum side of 

 the river and also on the opposite bank. However, 

 half-way up the hill towards the Devizes Road, the 

 line became less distinct, appearing to take a less 

 steep route than the shortest one. At the Avon, the 

 line of the parching crossed the river at a small island 

 called, because of its shape, Tadpole Island. As it 



