Dumnonii

Origins

The Dumnonii emerged from the Iron Age communities of the south-western peninsula, a land of hillforts, defended farmsteads known as rounds, and coastal promontory forts. Greek writers from Pytheas onwards describe the tin trade of the far south-west, and harbours such as Mount Batten on Plymouth Sound linked the region with Brittany and the wider Atlantic world.

Rule and society

No kings or coins of the Dumnonii are known, which suggests a looser society of local lineages rather than a single dynasty. Most people lived in small enclosed farms raising cattle and grain, while tin streaming in Cornwall and Dartmoor gave the region its main export. Courtyard houses and underground passages called fogous are distinctive of the far west.

Decline and legacy

Roman forces reached the south-west after 43, and around 55 the legio II Augusta built a fortress at Exeter. When the army moved on, the town became Isca Dumnoniorum, capital of a self-governing civitas, though the countryside stayed little Romanised. The name survived in the post-Roman Kingdom of Dumnonia and in the county name Devon.