ROMANO-BRITISH NORFOLK Castle Rising Caston Cawston . . COCKLEY ClEY COLNEY . . . represent a Roman earthen camp of lo or 12 or (according to others) 22 acres in size, and various finds of Roman objects have been adduced to support this idea. But the ' camp,' so far as I can judge without excavation, is not definitely Roman in character, and hardly any of the objects seem to have been found in or near it. (i) Dr. Jessop tells me that he has noticed one or two little bits of Samian among the contents of Anglian burial urns in the north of the parish, (ii) Harrod states that Roman potsherds were unearthed in excavating the circular earthworks north and west of the keep. But these potsherds have never been seen since ; they may be stray pieces from Anglian burial urns or even Anglian potsherds themselves, mistaken (as often) for Roman, (iii) Blome- field instances coins of Vespasian and Constantine — where found, he does not say — and an intaglio with an emperor's head, found in Arundel Close, over two miles to the north of the ' camp.' (iv) Woodward adds a coin of Faustina, locality omitted, (v) Mr. Fox saw bronze coins of Tetricus (i), Diocletian (6), Maximian (8), Allectus (i), Chlorus (4), and some fibulae in the collection, now dispersed, of the late Rev. T. Jones of Sporle. Whence exactly these came is doubtful. Mr. Jones seems not to have always re- corded localities minutely. I gather, however, from a letter of Mrs. Jones, that some of them were found in the north of Castle- acre parish, and some in Newton, the adjoining parish to the east, (vi) The Rev. J. H. Bloom has shown me nine coins, an illegible 'First and Second Brass,' and seven 'Third Brass,' one each of Gallienus, Postumus, Allectus, Gal. Val. Maximianus, Licinius, Crispus, Constantius II., found a mile or so north of the ' camp.' I cannot regard this meagre and scattered evidence as adequate to prove the camp Roman, still less to prove it Roman of the first century, as Mr. Fox conjectures. It indicates, at the utmost, a cottage or two, standing perhaps beside the Peddar's Way (which runs through Castleacre parish, and earthworks), somewhere about A.D. 300. But this may very likely have been to the north of the parish, and not in the vicinity of the ' camp.' See Blomefield, viii. 377 ; Harrod, p. 105 ; J. H. Bloom, Notices Historical and Antiquarian of Castleacre (London : 1843), P* ^7 5 Archaological "Journal, xlvi. 358 (Fox), xlvii. i ; Archaologia, xxiii. 371 ; Journal of the British Archeeological Association, xiv. 208. Kerrich's plans [British Museum, MS. Addl. 6,735, p. 72 ; 6,753, p. 97] are not of much interest. Woodward in Archaologia, xxiii. 360, Harrod, p. 43, and others place here a Roman 'camp,' calling some of the earthworks Roman. But this is most unlikely, and no Roman remains have ever been found here. Spelman [Icenia, p. 144) mentions a coin of Constantine the Great, but only as found in the neighbourhood {in vicinia effossus). Silver ring and hoard of about 300 silver and bronze, foimd Novem- ber, 1820, in digging a claypit ; they lay in rolls, and included Republican (Antony), Nero, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Nerva, Trajan, Plotina, Hadrian, Sabina, Pius, Marcus and the elder and younger Faustina — a hoard of the type described in Archaologia, liv. 474-494 Archaologia, xx. 577]. Also a hoard found 1 8 1 6, in an urn, coins of Theodosius, Arcadius, Honorius ihid. 579]. Bronze coin of Faustina, found 1728 [Blomefield, vi. 268]. ' Third Brass ' of Constantine the Great [Norfolk Archaology, iii. 42 1 ] . Pottery called Roman _Norfolk Archaology, vi. 216]. But the urns in Norwich Museum, and those shown on the plates in Archiso- logia, xiv. I and Dawson Turner, MS. 23,054, p. 82, are not Roman. 315
