Major finding of a large Roman fort in wales

Dr Mark Merrony,

Supernumerary Fellow, Wolfson College, University of Oxford

Date: 20th of January 2027

Time: 20:00

Venue: Zoom

Dr Merrony is an accomplished field archaeologist. His recent discovery of a Roman fort in west Wales was followed by a successful survey and a trial excavation was planned for this past July. This previously unknown fort overturns past assumptions that the local population was on peaceful terms with the invading Romans. His talk will focus on his findings.

About the speaker:

Dr Mark Merrony is Supernumerary Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, with research interests in the archaeology and history of the Roman Empire, especially the Middle East, and the Romano-British context, notably the Cherwell valley, Oxfordshire, and west Wales.

Dr Merrony studied Archaeology at Saint Davids University College, Lampeter as well as Classical Archaeology at Wolfson College and Somerville College, University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a Fellow at Wolfson.
He has worked in magazine publishing in the fields of archaeology, art history, and history since 2002. He specialises in the Roman period and has authored several books and articles in this area.

Image attribution - An artist’s reconstruction depicts the Roman fort in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Credit: Roman Fort Project

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