More information : [SU 6393 6222] TEMPLE [G.S.] (Site of). (1)
Polygonal Temple, Insula VII. Tis temple was found in 1872 by Joyce, and was re-examined 20 years later. The building is 65 ft across and has 16 sides. The cella is 16-sided externally but circular within, and is 35 1/2 ft in diameter. Both cella and portico walls are 2 ft thick with ironstone quoins and bonds. The floors were of black and white mosaic, but nothing remained in place to show the pattern. A worn coin of Vespasian, found embedded in the cella wall, suggests that the building was erected in the 2nd century. Three denarii of Septimius Severus from the cella floor may or may not postpone the date of construction to the end of that century or the early 3rd century. To the northwest of the temple is a rectangular building, possibly a store. The temple lies in the southern part of Insula VII amidst a space of about four acres almost wholly clear of other buildings. The continuous wall along the north, east and south sides of this area may be taken as a temenos boundary. A rectangular emplacement, perhaps a wayside shrine, exists in the middle of the east side of this wall. (2)
Graphical material ommitted. (3)
Temple situated within a walled precinct which also contained several other buildings interpreted as a possible priest's house and store. The temple is 20 metres wide, is sixteen sided and contains a cella, 10.8 metres in diameter and a portico 2.8 metres wide. Construction was of flint and iron stone, the outer wall was plastered and painted red. (4)
The temple was recorded of cropmarks during the Aggregate Landscape of Hampshire NMP project and the Silchester Iron Age Environs mapping project. The temple cropmarks are formed of two concentric circles measuring 19 m in diameter overall. (5-6) |