Roman Interlude - sources - WordPress.com€¦  · Web view03/09/2016  · Roman Interlude - sources. Aim: To understand what sources exist for the Roman period. When it comes to

Roman Interlude - sources

Aim: To understand what sources exist for the Roman period.

When it comes to understanding the Roman period, the chronology, the nature of the Roman presence, the impact and so on we have a range of sources to depend on and though there are limitations with the sources we can piece together a good understanding of Roman Scotland. The evidence includes:

1. Roman Monuments2. Literary Sources3. Coins4. Inscriptions5. Analogous evidence (similar stuff from other parts of the empire)

6. Material Culture

ROMAN MONUMENTS - militaryImportantly we need to start off recognising the fact that the Roman monuments are almost all of a military nature because the nature of Rome’s involvement in Scotland was essentially military. This means that the monuments we see are primarily forts, fortlets, watchtowers; they are the remains of the army and the army’s movements. We don’t find many Roman civilian settlements, villas, temples or amphitheatres because they were not built in Scotland during the military incursions. As said we have military remains, most often EARTHWORKS (soil and wood rather than stone remains) of almost every type of military structure. These remains allow us an insight into what Roman power would have physically looked like and they help us understand the nature of the Roman interlude.

EARTHWORKS 1. Amongst the biggest earthworks are MARCHING CAMPS. These are massive camps built by the

army for brief stopovers/sojourns. They would provide shelter at night for their tents and once an area was conquered a network of turf and timber forts would be built roughly a days march apart. The marching camps would be used for perhaps 2 or 3 nights to protect the army as they built more permanent garrisons. They are like camps for the labouring soldiers. Sometimes, you can see overlapping marching camps from successive campaigns.

This drawing shows a Roman marching camp. Organised and highly efficient, the army advanced into Scotland. Each night they dug a ditch and bank, and pitched their tents within the defended interior. Camps of this nature were temporary structures, used while moving the army or until more permanent barrack blocks were constructed. Many tents were needed: soldiers slept eight to a tent, and the army in Scotland was some 15,000 strong. The Roman army was a highly organised

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military machine. The soldiers were full-time and well armed.

Ardoch, Blackhall Camps (Plan)At Ardoch you see turf ramparts and ditches from the Roman fort. There are the fragmentary visible remains of at least three temporary marching camps. Such a camp, used for only two or three days, could house an entire army, protected by a single rampart and ditch.

The image shows a plan of the camps which have mainly been identified as crop marks by aerial photography. The existence of a major fort and the temporary camps indicate the significance of this area in the Roman campaigns and occupation. The largest temporary camp was about 130 acres (55 hectares) and may have been part of the Emperor Severus' campaigns (AD 208 - AD 211). It overlies an earlier double-ditched watchtower.

As well as having marching camps there are Roman forts in the North of Britain.

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Roman FortsThere are many legionary forts across the North dating from the very earliest involvement in Scotland through to the bitter end of Roman involvement. The forts were generally built for single regiments of 500 or 1000 men, or similar sized groups. One of the best surviving forts is at ARDOCH where 5 ditches survive defining the site.

Ardoch Roman Fort.This earthwork at Ardoch would have originally been one of the most impressive forts in the Roman Empire. Though the site has been partly excavated the overall building sequence is still uncertain. The best-preserved remains are from the latest phase.

This is an aerial view of the fort. The rectangular ramparts and ditches, which enclose the fort, are from its most recent phase of occupation. At least one earlier fort was larger than this. This is represented by a rampart further to the north.

The large number of temporary camps in the area suggest that this was an important stop-over on a busy communications route. Excavations found evidence that the cohors I Hispanorum had used the fort.

There are also Roman Fortlets. These are small outposts built for about 50-80 auxiliaries in one or two barrack blocks, deployed from a nearby fort on a regular basis. A large proportion of their time was probably spent on local patrols or undertaking manoeuvres. Fortlets were usually only protected by a single rampart and ditch.

Even smaller than fortlets were watchtowers/signal stations. These were also defended by a rampart and ditch and often ran along roadsides and formed frontiers in the early 1st century AD.

Muir o' Fauld Roman Watch-tower (Reconstruction drawing)

The Gask Ridge formed a frontier during the early Roman military campaign in Scotland between 79 & 88 AD. Timber watchtowers were placed along the Roman road between the forts at Bertha (near Perth) & Strageath (near Muthill). Their purpose was to control movement in & out of the province.

The towers were built to a standard plan about 3 square metres in size with timber uprights at the four corners supporting a platform on which a wooden structure stood, two or three storeys high. Each tower was enclosed by a rampart and a single ditch with an entrance. The towers

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were spaced roughly one mile apart along the road.

As well as having fortlets, forts, watch-towers and marching camps we have FRONTIER WALLS. The line of watch-towers of the Gask Ridge is an early frontier in Perthshire but better known is the Antonine Wall and in the North of England we have Hadrian’s Wall. On these frontier walls was see the actual wall, ramparts and ditches and also the associated forts, bath-houses, roads and training areas.

Section of the Antonine WallThe Antonine Wall was built ca.142 AD in the time of the Emporer Antoninus Pius and ran from Old Kirkpatrick on the Clyde to Carriden on the Forth and was the most northerly frontier of the Roman Empire. It was constructed of soil faced with turf on a stone foundation and was originally 12 feet high with a ditch 40 feet by 12 feet on the northern side. A cobbled road on the southern side linked a network of fortlets. This was known as the 'Military Way'. Remnants of the wall survive.

The Bearsden Bathouses The bathing suite consisted of three elements: a hot dry room, a hot steam range and a cold plunge bath. A stone head of the goddess Fortuna was found in this last room in 1973.Bath-houses were essential installations at Roman forts. They had a social as well as a hygienic function; gaming boards are often found inside!

The Lilia on the Antonine Wall at Rough Castle. Lilia are a set of regular holes dug by the Romans as mantraps for invaders.

Archaeologically, there are Roman military remains of forts, fortlets, marching camps, watch towers and whole frontier systems. These sources will give us an insight into the nature of the Roman interlude in Northern Britain.

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