Aldborough Roman Site: The Roman Town of Isurium Brigantum
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.2
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Classical
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Classical
- Civilizations
- Roman
- Site type
- City
On this page10 sections
History
Aldborough Roman Site in Aldborough, United Kingdom, preserves the remains of Isurium Brigantum, a Roman settlement established as a trading centre around AD 70. It developed into a substantial urban centre during the late first or early second century and became an important focus for communication, administration, and trade in northern Britain.
Roman foundation and the Brigantes
Isurium developed beside the River Ure, at the highest navigable point of the river, and near important Roman roads. The settlement probably grew as a civilian centre between the Roman fort at Roecliffe and the river during the later first century. Excavations at Roecliffe in 1993 identified two forts, while first-century finds from Aldborough are more likely to belong to a related civilian settlement than to a pre-Roman town called Isurium.
The Roman advance into northern Britain followed conflict within the Brigantes, the largest tribal confederation in the region during the Roman conquest. Queen Cartimandua initially maintained an alliance with Rome, but her former husband Venutius later took power and led resistance to Roman rule. The resulting instability contributed to the Roman occupation of the north. The Roman governor Julius Agricola was associated by Tacitus with the final subjugation of the Brigantes in AD 79 and with the construction of Isurium.
Civitas capital and urban expansion
During the second century, Isurium became the civilian administrative capital of the Brigantes. A civitas was a Roman administrative territory and its principal urban centre. Isurium held this role approximately from AD 120 to AD 400, when it served as the main administrative focus of the extensive northern confederation.
The town prospered under Roman rule and grew into a wealthy, established urban centre with military associations and broad commercial connections. Its settlement eventually extended beyond the town walls, probably as economic activity increased. Its position on the road network and beside the River Ure supported links between York, the Pennines, and the northern frontier.
After Roman rule
Following the collapse of Roman power in the fifth century, the fate of Isurium remains uncertain. The walled area probably continued in use, and archaeological and documentary evidence points to its continuing importance during the Anglo-Saxon period. By the seventh century, Anglo-Saxons controlled the area. The Domesday survey of 1086 later described Aldborough as a major centre with extensive landholdings.
A church was built within the courtyard of the Roman forum, probably before the Norman Conquest. Its position indicates that parts of the Roman town remained standing or usable at that time. In the medieval period Aldborough was a borough by prescription, and from 1558 it returned two Members of Parliament.
Preservation and archaeological investigation
From the eighteenth century until the Great Reform Act of 1832, successive Dukes of Newcastle kept Aldborough as a pocket borough. Their efforts to restrict the village’s size limited large-scale development and helped preserve the Roman town. Eighteenth-century discoveries included mosaics in the centre of the village and extensive wall remains found in 1770, which may have belonged to the Roman forum. The sixteenth-century antiquary John Leland also described Roman silver and bronze coins, tombs, aqueducts, and tessellated pavements in fields overlying the town.
Andrew Lawson, who bought Aldborough manor in 1834, encouraged excavations during the 1830s and 1840s. He investigated buildings in the manor grounds, formed a substantial collection of Roman artefacts, and constructed protective buildings over some mosaics. He also established a museum, which opened in 1863. In the 1950s, Lady Margery Lawson-Tancred transferred the museum and the area now forming the English Heritage site into state care under the Ministry of Works. She supported archaeological research, wrote a guidebook, and encouraged women to work at the site.
Excavation declined after Lawson’s work and resumed through programmes begun after the First World War. During the twentieth century, important investigations were undertaken by Mary Chitty, J. N. L. Myres, K. Steer, Dorothy Charlesworth, and Margaret Jones. In 1964, Charlesworth, then Inspector of Ancient Monuments, commissioned Jones to carry out rescue excavation at Aldborough.
The Aldborough Roman Town Project, established by the University of Cambridge in 2009, investigates the development and role of Isurium in the Roman north. Since 2016, its work has included excavation, reassessment of earlier discoveries, geophysical survey, landscape mapping, and study of antiquarian and archival evidence. Recent investigations have examined the forum’s orientation, part of a large warehouse first found in 1924, and Roman workshops including a blacksmith’s workshop. Aldborough Roman Site is cared for by English Heritage and is a scheduled monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
Remains
Isurium covered approximately 22.3 hectares and followed a regular street grid. The modern village preserves part of this Roman plan, while geophysical survey has revealed further streets, town houses, temples, and public buildings beneath the present landscape. The town occupied terraces along a hillside beside the River Ure, and its planned centre included a forum and basilica, a large public building used for administration, law, and commerce.
Roads, walls, and water features
The earliest Roman road at Aldborough ran west from York towards the Pennines and provided access to mineral resources. The road through the town formed part of Dere Street, the major Roman route from York towards the northern frontier, and also of the Roman route linking York with Carlisle. A bridge over the River Ure created a route north towards Hadrian’s Wall, the Roman frontier barrier across northern Britain.
A stone wall enclosed the town, probably from the late second century. Four gates are associated with the circuit. In the fourth century the defences were strengthened with forward-projecting towers or bastions and additional external ditches. A rectangular basin measuring approximately 2.7 by 1.8 metres was found north of the walls. Similar basins occurred near the east and west gates and may have been cisterns, although their water supply is unknown.
Public centre and civic buildings
The forum was probably near the centre of Isurium, although its identification is not completely certain. A wall approximately 82 metres long, discovered in 1770, may have formed part of the complex. Later investigation located forum walls beneath the churchyard, where the Roman civic centre was subsequently incorporated into the changing use of the site.
Geophysical survey has also identified an amphitheatre beyond the town walls. Its curved seating was detected through the survey, adding a public entertainment building to the wider urban landscape revealed beneath the modern settlement.
Domestic and industrial buildings
Excavations have sampled residential buildings in several parts of the town. Some houses contained elaborate mosaic floors and hypocausts, Roman underfloor heating systems. These features indicate a high standard of domestic architecture and the presence of wealthy inhabitants. Twenty-two mosaics are associated with Aldborough, most from the south-western quarter, where many decorated large town houses with predominantly abstract geometric designs made from small cubes called tesserae.
A bath complex stood in the western part of the town beside the wall. Its function is uncertain, since it may have served a private house, a public bath, or a roadside lodging station. A large warehouse first discovered in 1924 has been partly re-excavated, while other excavated industrial remains include Roman workshops, among them a blacksmith’s workshop.
Helicon Mosaic and archaeological finds
The Helicon Mosaic is a finely made pavement from an apsidal room, an apse being a rounded or curved end to a room. Excavated in the nineteenth century and dated to the early fourth century AD, it contains an unusual Greek inscription formed with blue glass tesserae. The pavement belonged to the apse at one end of a dining room, where principal guests could view it while reclining or seated nearby. Its imagery of the Muses reflects knowledge of Greek mythology and cultural influences from across the Roman Empire. The mosaic was later lifted and is displayed in the site museum.
Objects recovered from Aldborough include ceramics, glass fragments, pottery, brooches, jewellery, and items associated with the Roman army. An enamelled box used to protect a wax seal on a document provides evidence for administrative or personal activity. Pottery stamped by the maker NATOR dates to approximately AD 100 to 140, the period when the settlement was developing into a town. A Roman coin found during metal-detecting work in 2004 is now held by the Yorkshire Museum in York, while the Aldborough museum displays archaeological material recovered from the site and illustrating the lives of Roman civilians.
