the Roman gateway to Britain

When a newly constructed gateway and tower, constructed utilizing the proof of two,000-year-old timber publish holes, opens to guests on 19 April, it’s going to assist make sense of a puzzling Roman website: the “port” of Richborough in Kent, an island gateway to the Roman invasion of Britain, which now lies greater than two miles inland.

The gate and tower, reconstructed from foundations uncovered in current excavations, will assist clarify why the Romans selected the location—now within the care of English Heritage—as their base for the invasion of 43AD. The fort developed right into a affluent buying and selling city, with an amphitheatre and a marble clad triumphal arch, however the one stays at this time are imposing stretches of the partitions encircling inexperienced humps and bumps within the fields. The positioning was progressively deserted as the ocean channels silted up, and by no means rebuilt. Sharp-eyed passengers on the trains that edge the fort can see a large chunk of Roman wall, which collapsed and slid down the financial institution into the river.

The view from the highest of the gate tower reveals a flat panorama nonetheless patchworked with ditches and creeks. It seems like an unpromising website for an invasion, however when the Roman galleys arrived in 43AD, the River Wantsum was navigable for ships so far as Richborough island. There, a shallow gravel shore gave a protected touchdown place protected against the notorious shoals and sandbanks off Ramsgate, often known as the “ship swallower” and nonetheless studded with hundreds of shipwrecks. The excessive windy ridge of the islet gave a commanding view of the encircling space, with sufficient land to determine a fort that grew right into a affluent buying and selling port. From Richborough their ships may attain the Thames at Reculver. Marching males may additionally press far inland: guests can nonetheless stroll out by means of a spot within the partitions onto a farm observe that marks the start of Watling Avenue, one of the vital well-known Roman roads as soon as main north by means of London and St Albans and on to the Roman city at Wroxeter.

Archaeologists discovered the foundations of the timber gate and tower in 2021, and the eight-metre-tall reconstruction, in-built oak utilizing Roman woodworking strategies and handmade nails, relies on one depicted on Trajan’s Column in Rome.

Paul Pattison, senior properties historian at English Heritage, described the reconstruction as outstanding: “The Roman invasion was a significant milestone in our historical past. We all know that Richborough witnessed over 360 years of Roman rule—from the very starting to the bitter finish—however standing atop this eight-metre-high gateway, looking and imagining what the primary Romans might need seen, is sort of an expertise.”

Because it was first excavated within the Twenties, the location has yielded a few of the richest finds from any Roman website in Britain, together with 56,000 cash, 460 brooches and greater than 1,000 hairpins. The positioning museum will show current finds for the primary time, together with a glass cup made within the Center East testifying to luxurious imports by means of the city, hairpins together with one in gold and a crude native copy, and a set of scales within the type of Harpocrates, the god of silence—a novel instance in Britain.

• Richborough Roman Fort and Amphitheatre and the newly constructed gateway open on 19 April