Arbeia, Roman fort

A large Roman fort, Arbeia, has been excavated in South Shields on the Lawe Top, overlooking the River Tyne. Founded c AD 120, it later became the maritime supply fort for Hadrian's Wall, and contains the only permanent stone-built granaries yet found on any Roman frontier. It was occupied until the Romans left Britain in the 5th century AD. A Roman gatehouse and barracks have been reconstructed on their original foundations, while a museum holds artefacts such as an altar piece to a previously unknown god, and a Roman-era gravestone set up by a native Palmyrene to his freedwoman and wife, a Briton of the Catuvellauni tribe. There is also a tablet with the name of the emperor Alexander Severus (d. AD 235) chiselled off.