Luguvalium

Luguvalium was an ancient Roman city in northern Britain located within present-day Carlisle, Cumbria, and may have been the capital of the 4th-century province of Valentia [1]. It was the northernmost city of the Roman Empire [1]. Following their earlier conquest of the southern part of Britain, and Boudica's revolt, the Roman armies began to conquer the north and erected a timber fort around 72 AD at a key point south of the River Eden in a loop protected on two sides by water [1]. This fort later became the nucleus of the important Roman town of Luguvalium which grew up outside it [1]. The fort was refurbished in 83 using oak timbers from further afield, rather than local alder, indicating the greater Roman control of the area, and was garrisoned by a 500-strong cavalry regiment [1]. Excavations in 1981-84 and 1990 discovered around 50 wooden writing tablets within the Roman fort, containing unique evidence for the cavalry regiment, the ala Gallorum Sebosiana, and its consumption of barley, wheat and weapons [1]. The collection is second in importance only to that from Vindolanda [1].