Corbridge Roman Town Museum

Corbridge Roman Town is just on the outskirts of Corbridge and was known as Coria in Roman times. This was built around 123 CE for infantry way from the recently built Hadrian's Wall to the North. It was an excellent first introduction to Roman activity in Northern Britain.

The museum has a cool diorama of how the fort may have looked with the beginnings of a town nearby. The model shows an earthworks fort as the masonry buildings were started around 140 CE.

 In 1964, the remains of a wooden chest was found containing items from a Roman legionary, circa  second century CE.

Because Roman inscriptions follow certain patterns, this block was recreated from only six pieces. 

 The "Hunt Cup" from the 3rd century.

 Conical flagon from late 1st to early 2nd century.

 The Corbridge Lanx, a reproduction here, found in 1735 in a nearby river. The original was made of 97.5% silver and was dated to late 4th century.

The Romans allowed their citizens and soldiers to worship non-Roman gods, as long as they acknowledged that Emperor was in charge and divine. This was mainly to appease locals that they could mostly carry on as normal. It was also because legions of troops from one area of the empire, that were moved to a completely different area, could bring their gods with them. Here is a relief to Sol, a sun god, or Dolichenus, a Syrian sky god. For a small list of Roman deities, collected by its expanding empire, go here.

 The Romans also had guardian spirits for people, households, groups, and places/areas that they acknowledged. These were the Genius, or Genii (plural). This is an example of a statue of one. For women they are called a Juno.

 This is a stone carving of the 20th Legion, under Tullius Capito, of the sixth cohort. 

For more about the excavations, there is a free pdf by Mr Bishop and Mr Dore on the work done from 1947 to 1980.