Gariannonum

Gariannonum, also Garrianonum or Garriano written today Burgh Castle, a parish of the County of Norfolk, England, was built 260-270 AD Roman fort. Gariannonum secured together with Caister-on- Sea on the Saxon Shore estuary of the River Yare. The castle ruin is now under the protection of English Heritage.

Name

The ancient name Gariannonum originates from the name of the river Gariennus, in the Geographica (2, 3, 4) of Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD.

Location

The facility is located on the east bank of the Waveney, six kilometers west of Great Yarmouth in the conservation area of ​​the Broads National Park. The fort is not - as some others - in Strabo's Geographica mentioned but which is not surprising since it was built in the 4th century AD. The River Yare is referred to in this work as Gariennus, located between the Metaris estuary (now Wash) in the north and of unspecified headland in the south. The fort itself was still right on the riverfront and is also not far from the neighboring fort Caister -on-Sea, which is located on the opposite side of the vast estuary. Roman roads to and from Gariannum are not known, it stands to reason that it was supplied only from the sea. The connection to other forts or settlements along the Saxon Shore such as Venta Icenorum ( Caistor by Norwich) could be maintained over the rivers Gariannus and the Bure to Brampton quickly and easily. Whether an overland route to Caister on Sea existed is controversial today.

Crew

According to the Notitia Dignitatum hosted Gariannonor ( as it is called there) Auxiliarreiter the Equites Stablesiani Gariannonensis, an elite division of Stablesiani ( Guard troops of the governor ) under the command of the Comes Litoris Saxonici by Britanniam as garrison troops ( Notitia Dignitatum XXVIII).

Fort

Built from the ground plan still in the style of the 2nd century AD ( rounded corners), the fortress was modernized later later with projecting towers. This - a total of ten - Horseshoe towers were constructed at regular intervals on the wall. The towers had a platform with a depression in the middle, maybe for fixing a Ballista.

Unusually for Roman buildings in Britain fortified walls and bastions of the fort are still relatively well preserved. The wall enclosed an irregular trapezoidal area of about 2.4 ha The east side is 15 m shorter than the west side, which was about 200 m long. The thickness of the ramparts, however, varies in some places. The Western Wall and parts of North and Südwalles are 2.02 m thick, while the massive East Wall, built on slightly higher ground, more than 3.02 m measured in width. The western section of the fortification was but over the centuries, although washed away by Yare its foundations could still be detected. In the middle of Ostwalles a goal has also received yet. The existing flint curtain wall projects in some places today, still to up to a height of four meters. The inside of the wall runs not vertical but slanted upward. This type of construction made ​​a redundant inner earth ramp. The typical of the Late Antiquity Brick strips on the outside provide additional strengthening of the outer facing of the grout core.

Inside, there were traces of a comprehensive development of the first half of the 4th century - but still in the style of the middle imperial times. One of the buildings had been directly attached to the NO wall.