24 



THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE 



5. Copies of original field cards held by the Wiltshire 



County Archaeology Department. 



6. The discoveries, made by the Ordnance Survey Field 



Investigator (Mr G.W. Ridyard), appear to have never 

 been officially published. 



7. Old Sarum document archive file No 1, item 13 held 



in the Salisbury Museum. 



8. In view of the considerable ongoing debate over the 



most appropriate terminology for describing urban 

 settlements (Burnham 1995, 7-17) and the difficulty 

 at this stage in precisely categorizing the functions of 

 Sorviodunum, the term 'town' is used as the 

 descriptor in this paper. On the evidence found so 

 far the category 'middle order settlement' would 

 appear to be the most appropriate to describe 

 Sorviodunum (Burnham 1995, 10). 



9. Western 'good' towns include Dorchester, Winchester 



and Silchester, and 'bad' towns Gloucester, 

 Cirencester and Uchester. Western settlements 

 embrace Wanborough, Catsgore and Camerton 

 (Reece 1993, 865). 



10. Wiltshire and Hampshire Sites and Monuments 

 Records indicate a density of at least 0.4 sites/square 

 kilometer. Taking 7-1 0km as a reasonable distance 

 for the rural population to walk to and from market 

 in a day (Hingley 1989, 114f) gives nearly 120 farm 

 and small 'village' settlements within 10km of 

 Sorviodunum. An average 'half-way' distance of 1 6km 

 to the next town in any direction means that some 

 320 sites could have viewed Sorviodunum as their 

 principal trading centre. Taking the rural population 

 density figures for the optimum period of the first 

 half of the 4th century AD as between 20 and 50 

 persons/site (Millett 1990, 183-6) gives a potential 

 rural population range of between 6,400-16,000 

 people. To these figures must be added the likely 

 number of inhabitants in Sorviodunum itself. Millett 

 uses an urban density range of 137-216 people/ 

 hectare which for 45ha gives a population of between 

 6,165 and 9,720. Therefore the combined rural and 

 town populations could have been between 13,000- 

 26,000 people. 



11. Recent discoveries at the Beehive (SU 145335 CP) in 

 advance of a Park and Ride bus terminus construction 

 indicate the possibility of a site close by (Wessex 

 Archaeology 1998). Finds of tile and pottery (including 

 23 heavily abraded sherds amongst which were five 

 samian, one New Forest coated ware and one Black 

 Burnished ware) indicated a date range lst-4th 

 centuries. 1 6 coins covering the period from Antonius 

 Pius (AD 138-161) toValens (AD 364-378) were also 

 found. The site is located less than 1km to the NE of 

 Old Sarum on an area of land known as Folly Field 

 formed by the junction of the Roman Roads to Calleva 

 (Silchester) and Cunetio (Mildenhall). 



12. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 552 records that 

 Cynric defeated the Britons at Searobyrg, the Anglo- 

 Saxon name for Old Sarum (Gelling 1988, 54-5). 



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