<< Feature Articles >> The Cornovii: warriors or show-offs?
Submitted by VirtHist on Saturday, 28 July 2007 Page Views: 24459
Other ArchaeologyCountry: England
This region has one of the highest densities of Iron Age hillforts in Britain and it is this, along with the very few finds of artifacts of beauty or pottery that they may have made or had the wealth to acquire, that has led many archaeologists and scholars to come to the conclusion that they were a poor, warring, warrior nation: the Cornovii were nothing but an infighting bunch of impoverished Britons with no taste in jewellery!
However, this isn't the view of all, including Dr Roger White of Birmingham University. Giving good arguments to support his theories, he believes that we don't find much of the Cornovii craftwork because, unlike the more southern tribes, their remoteness kept the influence of their continental brethren away from them, and perhaps because they showed their status in another way. He also points to the Cornovii's export of salt and a probable agricultural goods trade as the sign of their success. Carthaginian and other coins found on the River Dee certainly point to some kind of trade with the Mediterranean people.
The building of hillforts, he suggests, was the outward expression of this success. In short, they were more an export tribe than a warring one, who showed off buy constructing things rather than adorning themselves. Hillforts need many people to construct them and you have to pay them in some way, and they take a lot of time to construct. How do you do this if you’re poor and constantly fighting?
Dr White and others think each fort may have been used for different reasons and at different times of the year. Some would be centres of power and constantly in use, such as Old Oswestry (Caer Ogyrfan), whilst some would be seasonal animal enclosures (The Wrekin?) and others used for celebrations. Some, like the Berth in north Shropshire (see picture), could have been a religious site.
Of course there are always counter arguments and the Celtic expert, Sir Barry Cunliffe, does point to the fact that the Cornovii did like their swords. He does agree, however, that their lack of ceramic pottery could mean a pastoral tribe on the move. They would tend to use more leather and wood than pottery because they were less breakable for a mobile (or warlike) people.
If the Cornovii were so tough and warlike, then why didn't they put up much of a fight when the Romans arrived? They defeated the Cornovii at The Wrekin in AD47 and that appears to have been the only fight they put up. Maybe it was because they did spend too much time either fighting one another or in the classic, British pursuits of cattle raiding and slave capturing! Or, perhaps it was because they weren't a cohesive tribe. Either way, they certainly adopted the the urban Roman way when they took over the ownership of Wroxeter (Viriconium Corniovorum) after the XXth legion left for Chester (Deva) and kept the city going until the early 6th century. An enigma indeed, as the rest of their region appears to have remained one of the least Romanized in England.
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