A tree-rific fashion statement from Roman Gloucester
- DATE WRITTEN:
- READING TIME: 3 minutes
- AUTHORS: Caz Adams (Community Engagement Officer)
Gloucester was an important urban settlement during the Roman and medieval period. Established as a Roman fortress between AD 65–74, Glevum (the city’s Roman name) later became a civilian town or colonia, probably around the end of the 1st century AD. A Roman colonia was a settlement or community, built to provide security and land for Roman citizens, especially retired soldiers. These centres helped to spread Roman culture, laws and language, particularly in newly-conquered territories.
For decades, excavations have been ongoing in the Blackfriars area of the city, the name deriving from its Dominican friary, which was founded around AD 1239. This area lay within the south-eastern corner of the former Roman city, partly inside the defences, and partly beyond. It was also a key part of the medieval city, which occupied much the same footprint as its Roman predecessor.
At this location, archaeologists have found important traces of the Roman fortress and the later colonia, buried deep under the modern streets. Around the modern Magistrate’s Court, for example, evidence for Roman buildings survives, including barracks and houses. Wall plaster, tesserae (mosaic tiles), and building materials like tiles were also found, with the latter suggesting a possible bath house.
Roman waterfront activity has also been discovered, showing how Glevum’s port connected the city to the River Severn and gave it access to Roman trade routes which stretched into the Mediterranean. Numerous artefacts have also been found, including pottery, metal artefacts like coins, pins and even a toiletry spoon or ligula, used for personal hygiene, applying make up and even used in medical procedures.
The south-eastern corner of the city was the site of the medieval castle, which first took the form of a motte and bailey, built in the later 11th century shortly after the Norman Conquest. This type of castle has a large, steep mound of earth (the motte) and a courtyard at the bottom (the bailey). Either made of wood and often later rebuilt in stone, a fortified tower called a keep would have sat on top of the mound. The bailey acted like a courtyard where soldiers, servants, animals lived and supplies were kept. This area often had kitchens, stables and workshops, while the lord and his family would have lived in the motte’s tower.
Gloucester’s original castle was replaced with another in the 12th century, which later became used as the city’s gaol (jail), once its defensive purpose was no longer needed. This in turn was replaced by a new gaol in the 18th century.
During recent excavations by Cotswold Archaeology, the finds included two Roman bone pins, both probably used as hair pins. Such finds aren’t particularly rare, but they nevertheless give a glimpse into everyday life, having been worn by women living in the city nearly two thousand years ago. One example has a pinecone head and probably dates to before AD 250. Pine cones had religious meaning in Roman times, symbolising fertility, regeneration and spiritual enlightenment, reflected in the fact that they fall from an evergreen tree, yet contain many seeds capable of creating new growth.
The pine cone, linked to Roman gods Bacchus and Mithras, and the goddess Cybele, was often used on funerary monuments and temples, in art and on artefacts thought to be votive and ritual offerings. Followers of Bacchus and Cybele carried a thyrsus, a staff topped with a pinecone. Locally to Gloucester, a terracotta pine cone, probably a roof ornament and with possible links to the worship of Mithras, was found at Great Witcombe Roman Villa.
Many Roman pine cones, in artefacts and art, have been identified as belonging to the Stone pine (Pinus pinea). A significant plant in the Roman period and native to wide areas of the Mediterranean, they provide comfort and shade in the hot climate as well as having practical uses like providing oil, serving as a food source and growing in ornamental gardens.
Beyond their ritual importance, they are also valued for their edible pine nuts, which have been cultivated and harvested since the 4th century BC, or earlier. The nuts of this species were originally imported into Roman Britain, and it is even possible that Stone pine trees were also imported to the British province – but this has yet to be proved. It seems very unlikely that the pin’s wearer in Glevum would ever have seen such a tree in real life, but instead wore it as a symbol of Rome and the health of Roman Empire. The species remains a beloved feature of Rome’s city landscape today.
Want to learn more about this find?
Head over to our Virtual Museum to explore this pinecone hairpin in more detail, and to discover finds from other fascinating sites.
