Find may shed light on Roman era [Calstock, Cornwall, UK]

BBC ^ | Wednesday, January 30, 2008 | unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

A team of archaeologists from the University of Exeter has found a Roman fort dating from the 1st Century AD in fields in Cornwall. Several items of pottery have been excavated and a furnace which may have been used to smelt minerals. Researchers said the find at Calstock, close to a silver mine, could show for the first time the Romans' interest in exploiting Cornish minerals. Very little is known so far about the Roman occupation in Cornwall... Archaeologists became interested in the site when they found references in medieval documents to the smelting of silver "at the old castle" and "next to the church" in Calstock. The team conducted a geophysical survey, which clearly showed the outline of a feature of a similar shape to another Roman fort recently found near Lostwithiel... They started digging and found the shape of a Roman military ditch... The two other known sites of Roman forts in Cornwall are also in the south east of the county. One was discovered last year near Restormel Castle, Lostwithiel, and the other is at Nanstallon, near Bodmin.

[SunkenCiv]

Several items of pottery have been excavated

The fort is only the third found in the county

[SunkenCiv]

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[colorado tanker]

could show for the first time the Romans' interest in exploiting Cornish minerals

Maybe as to finding actual evidence, but I can't imagine the Romans would'nt have been interested. The region had been exploited for minerals for centuries before he Romans arrived.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Didn’t the Phoenicians go to Cornwall for Tin to make Bronze with?

[SunkenCiv]

That’s probably true, as that appears to have been the nearest, easiest source of tin, and they were in the western Med and western Africa. But there must have been a tin trade route that antedates the Phoenicians, I think — tin mining in Cornwall is older.