Glass fragment, Birrens
Birrens Roman Fort
A fragment of clear cut glass from Birrens Roman Fort. The
surviving section is composed of the rim and wall of a decorated
drinking vessel. the glass has some imperfections and contains air
bubbles with a simple rim and two horizontal bands of decoration.
The decoration also comprises rows of facetted oval and
diamond motifs and dates from the Flavian period (late 1st
century CE/BC)
Birrnes Roman Fort
The remains of this fort are quite impressive when approached
from the south, where its southern defences, arranged along the
edge of a natural scarp above the river are now covered in gorse
bushes. The remains of stone-built buildings are visible across the
whole of the interior, all beneath an overlying blanket of turf,
except at the south-east corner, where several courses of stonework
are visible; these belong not to the fort's defences but to
buildings in the retentura or rear of the camp, the corner-angle
itself having been lost to erosion. The extensive ditch system and
entrance causeway is especially prominent on the north, and a
scatter of shaped stones on the west rampart marks the position of
the gateway on this side.
The only classical reference for the name of the Birrens
encampment is contained in the Antonine Itinerary of the
late-second century. Iter II, "the route from the 'Entrenchments'
to the port of Rutupiae, four-hundred and eighty-one thousand
paces", details the journey from Hadrian's
Wall to Richborough in Kent. In this itinerary the name
Blato bulgio appears as the northern terminus, some 12 Roman miles
from Castra Exploratorum (Netherby, Cumbria), both stations lying
beyond the Wall of Hadrian.