Excavation and Open Day at Chester Road, Manchester
Website editing: Graham Sherwood
A public open day held by PCA on Saturday 12 April 2008 attracted
hundreds of visitors of all ages. Many came along to the site of
the former Tom Garner Motors premises on Chester Road to see one
of the most important archaeological finds ever made in Manchester.
A field team from PCA made the highly significant discovery –
an inscribed stone altar of Roman date - during a two-month programme
of excavation. The site lay on the opposite side of the River Medlock
to Mamucium, the Roman promontory fort and associated settlement
located in the Castlefield area of the modern city, and the investigations
have provided important new evidence regarding the extent of Roman
occupation in the city.
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PCA staff gave guided
tours to the general public |
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County Archaeologist Norman Redhead explains the significance of the
altar to interested visitors at the open day |
 Background
In the Roman period, the site would have overlooked the valley of
the River Medlock from the south. Across the river, a Roman fort
was founded in the last quarter of the 1st century AD. Current knowledge
of Roman Manchester suggests that this site lay on the periphery
of the settlement area (vicus) that developed around the fort. While
knowledge of the fort’s development is relatively well advanced,
antiquarians and, more recently, archaeologists, have long been
intrigued as to the extent of Roman occupation south of the Medlock.
This question was a principal line of enquiry of the excavation.
The Roman road running between the legionary bases at York and
Chester lay immediately to the north of the site. The alignment
of modern Chester Road is such that it probably represents, or respects,
the line of the Roman road, which rose up the valley side from what
was probably a ford across the Medlock. At such a location, roadside
temples, shrines and mausolea of Roman date might be expected. Indeed,
on his map of Roman Manchester from 1900, the renowned antiquarian
Charles Roeder shows the south side of Chester Road annotated with
the word ‘Tombs’ only a short distance to the west of
the site.
This part of the city has previously produced two other surviving
Roman altars. The first of these, found in the 17th century, was
dedicated to Fortune the Preserver by one Lucius Senecianus Martius,
a centurion of the legio VI Victrix, stationed at York. The second
altar came to light in the 19th century; in more fragmentary form
it commemorates a detachment of troops from the Roman provinces
of Rhaetia and Noricum (modern day Austria). The 19th century also
saw the discovery, close to Chester Road, of sculptured stone attributed
to the worship of Mithras, a god closely associated with the Roman
military. Charles Roeder suggested that the banks of the Medlock
might have been populated by the higher ranks of Roman society,
since these locations had better drainage and ready access to the
river.
 Our
Findings
Given the background of the site, it is no surprise that the archaeological
work has exposed important remains of the Roman period. Significant
remains have been recorded exposed across the footprint of the former
garage, this activity concentrated upon slightly higher ground to
the south. A network of ditches and numerous pits have been recorded.
Some of the ditches are of substantial size, up to 2m wide and more
than 1m deep, and it is entirely possible that the site contains
land boundaries that defined the southern extent of the Roman settlement
area. Potential evidence of Roman period structures has also been
exposed, these are likely to have been of timber construction, rather
than of stone. Many of the pits are also of substantial dimensions,
these probably having been dug either for gravel extraction or refuse
disposal. Most of the pits have produced Roman pottery and assorted
domestic debris.
 One
large pit produced by far the most significant find from the site,
this being the altar, the first such object from Manchester in more
than 150 years. Almost one metre in height and fashioned in sedimentary
gritstone, this is a particularly elaborate and well-preserved example
of a Roman altar. The top of the stone has decorative scrollwork
and a bowl like ‘focus’, this being where sacrificial
offerings were made. Altars were erected wherever appropriate, sometimes
within temple precincts, sometimes at roadside shrines or sometimes
simply at sacred locations.
This altar is inscribed with a dedication, from one Aelius Victor,
to what were probably two ‘triple’ goddesses in the
Celtic tradition, the Hananeftae and the Ollototae, both being fairly
obscure. The Hananeftae previously appeared on a small number of
Roman altars - now lost - from Cologne in Germany. The Ollototae
appear on four altars previously found in Roman Britain, three of
these from the Roman fort at Binchester in County Durham, one of
which refers to the Ollototae as being ‘overseas’, the
other being found in the early 1930s at Heronbridge, south of Chester.
The dedicator, Aelius Victor, was almost certainly in the Roman
military, perhaps acting-commander of a cohort or vexillation at
Manchester. Based on the likely origin of the goddesses, it is possible
that he originated from the German Rhineland. After the aforementioned
Lucius Senecianus Martius he is only the second named individual
from Roman Manchester. A decorated samian bowl found below the altar
dates to the second half of the second century AD and this is likely
to have been the period in which Aelius Victor lived and worked
in Manchester.
 In
full, the inscription on the altar reads:
DEABUS MATRIBUS
HANANEFTIS
ET OLLOTOTIS
AELIUS VICTOR
V.S.L.L.M [v(otum) s(olvit) l(aetus) l(ibens) m(erito)]
This translates as:
To the mother goddesses, the Hananeftae and the Ollototae, Aelius
Victor gladly, willingly and deservedly fulfilled his vow
PCA would like to thank Paul Holder of Manchester University
Library and Roger Tomlin of the University of Oxford for their initial
appraisals of the inscription. We would also like to thank Norman
Redhead and his colleagues from the GMAU for their help with the
open day.
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