The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites
Richard Stillwell, William L. MacDonald, Marian Holland McAllister, Stillwell, Richard, MacDonald, William L., McAlister, Marian Holland, Ed.

WORCESTER (“Vertis”) Worcestershire, England.

Buried below the Saxon, medieaval, and modern city lies the Roman town. Although quantities of pottery and other objects, now in the City Museum, have been found in excavations, little is known about this early period. There is evidence of a pre-Roman settlement at a crossing of the Severn, and its tactical significance probably caused a 1st c. fort to be located here. Civil defenses have been found but remain to be resolved, as does the street plan. To the N was a substantial suburb, associated with iron working. It is possible that the name Vertis in the Ravenna Cosmography may apply, indicating a bend in the river, or the place at which the road turned away from it.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Trans. Worcestershire Arch. Soc. 2 (1970) 15ff.

G. WEBSTER