The Roman Map of Britain The Rudge Cup, Amiens patera, and Staffordshire Cup

The Rudge Cup

A.MAISABALLAVAVXELODUMCAMBOGLANSBANNA

 A.  MAIS   ABALLAVA      VXELODUM      CAMBOGLANS       BANNA

The Amiens patera

MAISABALLAVAVXELODVNVMCAMBOG...SBANNAESICA

 MAIS    ABALLAVA      VXELODVNVM        CAMBOG...S     BANNA     ESICA

The Moorlands patera

MAISCOGGABATAVXELODVNVMCAMMOGLANNARIGOREVALIAELIDRACONIS

MAIS   COGGABATA      VXELODVNVM      CAMMOGLANNA

    These artifacts all record place-names along Hadrian's wall. With the discovery of the Moorlands patera we find Coggabata listed between Mais and Uxelodunum. Aballava is similarly placed on the Rudge Cup and the Amiens patera, without mention of Coggabata, as in the Ravenna Cosmography.
     The Moorlands patera locates the sites rigore vali. The Cosmography's series is  prefaced with recto tramite, and the Notitia Dignitatum's with per lineam ualli. The inscribed sources are presumed to proceed east to west and those literary, the opposite.
    From all this it is natural to gather that the proper order for the merged series would be Mais, Coggabata, Aballava, Uxelodunum, Camboglanna - a series found in no single literary or inscribed source. And were no problems, that would be the end of it.
    Why would the cosmographer omit Coggabata from his list of wall forts? His previous omissions were mostly Stanegate forts later incorporated into the wall.

        Q: Was Coggabata recorded illegibly? 

        Perhaps.

        Q: Was the omission of Coggabata simply a scribal error?

        Perhaps.

        Q: Did the founding of Coggabata post-date the cosmographer's map? 

        Drumburgh was certainly contemporary with the cosmographer's map.

        Q: Are we correct in assuming that the three artifacts list the forts in an east to west sequence?

        This is the working hypothesis generally regarded as fact.

        Q: Was Coggabata on Hadrian's Wall, or an auxilliary part of the frontier defense?

Between Drumburgh and Burgh-by Sands evidence for Hadrian's wall,  the ditch, the Vallum, and the military way  is absent between NY26755986 and NY30855941. This situation lead one English Heritage investigator to comment 'No visible remains, the area is low-lying and marshy and there may have been no Vallum.' And further from EH - 'Evidence suggests that Hadrian's Wall did originally pass through the Burgh Marsh to the east. No remains however have been identified here and hence this area is not included in the scheduling.'  And again from EH, 'There is no evidence to suggest that Hadrian's Wall was carried across Burgh Marsh west of Dykefield. No remains have been identified here and hence this area is not included in the scheduling.

It is possible that there was a fort on the southern edge of a Roman-era Burgh Marsh, perhaps a remnant of the Stanegate frontier. The site at Finglandrigg NY 273 575, earlier considered a fort, has been re-interpreted by Jones as a field system. But there remains enough evidence of other peripheral defensive features to wonder if this area was fortified similar to the western coast of Cumbria.