MAMUCIUM
(Manchester) Lancashire, England.
Site of an important fort and civil settlement at a
major road junction. It has long been known that an auxiliary fort once lay at the W end of Deansgate in Manchester. The position of the 2.4 ha cite was typical, protected on three sides by the confluence of the Irwell and
Medlock rivers. Recent demolition has allowed excavation
along the N wall. The N gateway, the position of which
shows that the via principalis ran on the E side of the
principia, revealed two phases, one of timber, the other
of stone, but a section across the defenses in 1966 suggested three phases. The turf front of the Flavian rampart was partly dismantled to fill the inner ditch when the (presumably Trajanic) stone revetment was added.
A second stone phase later replaced the first, perhaps
in the Severan period. Modern disturbance makes it difficult to interpret the late history of the fort, but Manchester's position at the hub of a communications network
must have maintained its importance. Sporadic finds
made in the last century along the line of Deansgate indicate an extensive civil settlement E of the fort. As at Bremetennacum Veteranorum (Ribchester), an inscription implies that a centurio regionarius of the sixth legion from York was in command in the later empire,
when Mamucium lay in Britannia Inferior. Finds from
the military and civil sites are housed in various museums in Manchester.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
F. A. Bruton,
The Roman Fort at Manchester (1909); G.D.B. Jones, “Roman Lancashire,”
ArchJ 127 (1970) 237ff
MPI.
G.D.B. JONES
