Alauna Carvetiorum
| Alauna | |
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Senhouse Museum with the replica tower in the background
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 Alauna
 Alauna shown within Cumbria |
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| OS grid reference | NY03863724 |
| Coordinates | 54°43′15″N 3°29′38″W / 54.720936°N 3.493978°WCoordinates: 54°43′15″N 3°29′38″W / 54.720936°N 3.493978°W |
Alauna was a castra or fort in the Roman province of Britannia. It occupied a coastal site near the town of Maryport in the English county of Cumbria (formerly part of Cumberland).
In 2015 "Maryport's Mystery Monuments" was Research Project of the Year in the British Archaeology Awards.
It has been established "beyond reasonable doubt" that the Roman name for Maryport was Alauna.Alauna is a river name and the Roman fort stands on a hill north of the River Ellen. The name Alauna appears securely just once—in the Ravenna Cosmography. The Antonine Itinerary mentions a fort called Alone on the road from Ravenglass to Whitchurch but this cannot be Maryport, but is either a fort at Watercrook (on the river Kent near Kendal) or one at Low Borrow Bridge (on the River Lune near Tebay). The Notitia Dignitatum lists a fort called Alione, garrisoned by the Cohors III Nerviorum, which has been equated with both Alauna and Alone by different scholars.
The fort was established around AD 122 as a command and supply base for the coastal defences of Hadrian's Wall at its western extremity. There are substantial remains of the Roman fort, which was one of a series along the Cumbrian coast intended to prevent Hadrian's Wall being outflanked by crossing the Solway Firth. Geo-magnetic surveys have revealed a large Roman town surrounding the fort. An archaeological dig discovered evidence of a second, earlier, larger fort next to, and partially under the present remains.
TimeScape Surveys (Biggins & Taylor), supported by a grant from the Maryport Heritage Trust, conducted a magnetometry geophysical survey of the fort and vicus and their environs at. Some targeted areas of resistivity survey were completed. The survey was conducted between May 2000 and September 2003 on land at Camp Farm, Maryport. Covering 72.5 hectares (170 acres), it is the largest geophysical survey carried out on the northern Roman frontier.
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Wikipedia