Excavations at the Roman Fort of Bar Hill, 1978-82

Keppie, Lawrence

doi:10.3366/gas.1985.12.12.49

Cited by 14 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…Serious military threats, involving the approach of many hundreds of men or even more, would have been of far greater concern to the Romans, especially since it has been pointed out that the Wall may have been quite lightly 32 Jones 2012, 27. 33 ibid., 95; see Keppie 1985, fig. 3 and 56-8 for a detailed description.…”

Section: Feasibility Of a Two-level Alarm Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The discovery that the alignments from Balmuildy and from the Croy expansions both point directly at Castle Hill appears to confirm this deduction, despite the absence of Roman remains which have been reported from the putative Iron Age site. It should be noted that the Castle Hill site has never been formally excavated (Keppie 1985, 57–8).…”

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confidence: 99%

“… 18 Even a sparse scattering of trees across a landscape can obstruct views along long-distance alignments, as the author found when surveying Hadrian's Wall. In Keppie 1985, 79, Dr W.E. Boyd depicted the landscape in which much of the Antonine Wall was built as being a moderately uniform pastoral one, with grassland and patches of heather, but with individual or isolated stands of trees, such as alder, hazel and, less frequently, birch and oak.…”

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confidence: 99%

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New Discoveries Relating to the Planning of the Antonine Wall in Scotland

Poulter¹

2018

Britannia

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The importance of long-distance alignments in Roman surveying is increasingly being recognised. It has now been discovered that they were used in setting out the central sectors of the Antonine Wall, but — in contrast to Hadrian's Wall — it appears that they were employed to determine the locations of the military installations along the Wall rather than the line of its rampart and ditch. It also appears that the enigmatic enclosures and expansions which are attached to the rear of the rampart of the Wall only seem to occur in connection with these alignments. A careful analysis of possible explanations indicates that the Romans may initially have sought to set up a two-level alarm system across the central sectors of the Antonine Wall, the possible impacts of which upon the planning and design of the Wall are examined. The Supplementary Material available online (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X18000284) contains a table of inter-visabilities between known military installations, and OS grid references for the installations.

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Section: Feasibility Of a Two-level Alarm Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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New Discoveries Relating to the Planning of the Antonine Wall in Scotland

Poulter¹

2018

Britannia

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“…Another unit, cohors I Hamiorum, is known at Bar Hill (RIB I: 2167 and 2172), and it might have been replaced by the Baetasii on their return from Mauretania after ad 152 or 153. In the stoking area of the baths at Bar Hill, there was a kiln where pottery of North African style was fired alongside a few Romano-British types (Keppie 1985; for the pottery, see Anderson 1985;Swan 1999: 426-7, 456-7). The kiln seems to have been built during a short period of abandonment, perhaps when there was a change of the units in occupation and after which the baths continued in use.…”

Section: The Pottery Probably Made At Croy Hillmentioning

confidence: 99%

Excavations outside the Roman fort on the Antonine Wall at Croy Hill, 1975–8

Hanson¹

2022

SAIR

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Large-scale rescue excavation beyond the guardianship area around the Roman fort on the Antonine Wall at Croy Hill (NGR: NS 7335 7652) was undertaken over four summers (1975–8), funded by a predecessor to Historic Environment Scotland. The aims of the excavation were to identify any potential civil settlement associated with the fort and to confirm the character and date of a pre-fort enclosure identified by Sir George Macdonald in the 1930s. The latter proved to be a camp associated with the building of the Antonine Wall, not an earlier Flavian fort as previously postulated. A civil settlement was shown to lie within the guardianship area on a plateau immediately to the west of the fort, though only one timber structure extended into the excavated area. However, a curvilinear trackway wound its way down the hill from the settlement towards a southern road that bypassed the fort. The trackway was defined by substantial ditches that contained a large quantity and wide variety of artefactual material washed down from the settlement, predominantly after its abandonment. The bypass road, which showed signs of at least two phases of construction, was traced for a distance of some 275m. The area on either side of it to the east of the fort was divided up by a system of fence lines and ditches into fields or compounds, one of which contained a pottery kiln, another a cremation burial. Field observation during the excavation led to the suggestion that a fortlet lay some 80m west of the fort. This was confirmed by limited excavation within the guardianship area. The construction of the fortlet was shown to have been contemporary with the Antonine Wall.

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“…82 Keppie and Murray 1981;Breeze 1984, 54. 83 For the latter, see Keppie 1986;Keppie 2002. 84 Soc.Ant.…”

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A Roman Bath-House at Duntocher on the Antonine Wall

Keppie¹

2004

Britannia

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By LAWRENCE KEPPIE With contributions by G.B. Bailey and P.V. Webster INTRODUCTION A t the beginning of July 1775 a Roman bath-house was accidentally discovered on the northwestern slope of Golden Hill, Duntocher (FIGS 1-2), and its remains investigated. Sitedrawings were made and some finds sent for identification to the Society of Antiquaries of London. Though, an account of the work was published by Richard Gough in his 1789 edition of Camden's Britannia, 1 the excavation has been largely forgotten. The present assessment draws upon Gough's and other contemporary accounts, and upon unpublished material, especially the voluminous correspondence between Richard Gough and the Edinburgh bibliophile George Paton, now held by the National Library of Scotland, the Minute Books of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and the Gough Papers preserved in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Also presented here will be an account of the chance rediscovery of the bath-house in 1978, and a geophysical survey undertaken, at the author's request, by the Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow, in 2001. THE EXCAVATION OF 1775 As far as possible this account follows a chronological sequence in its citation of the sources, but it is helpful to begin with the 'eye-witness' report, published ten years later, by London bookseller John Knox, son of a vintner in nearby Old Kilpatrick: 2 Near the western extremity of this wall, at Duntocher, a countryman, in digging a trench upon the declivity of a hill, turned up several uncommon tiles, which exciting the curiosity of the peasantry in that neighbourhood, they broke in upon an entire subterraneous building, from which they dug out a cart load of excellent tiles. Being then, 1775, upon my return from the Highlands, and hearing of the circumstance, I repaired immediately to the place, and by threats and promises put a stop to all further proceedings, in the hope that some public spirited gentlemen would take off the surface, and explore the whole plan of the building, without demolishing it. The tiles were of 7 different sizes, the smallest being 7, and the largest 21 inches square. They were from 2 to 3 inches in thickness, of a reddish colour, and in perfect sound condition. The lesser ones composed several rows of pillars, which formed a labyrinth of passages, of about 18 inches high, and the same in width; the largest tiles being laid over these pillars, served as a roof to support the earth on the surface, which was two feet deep, and had been plowed through time immemorial. The building was surrounded by a subterraneous wall of hewn stone. Some professors in the university of Glasgow, and other gentlemen, having unroofed the whole, discovered the appearance of a Roman hot-bath. The passages formed by rows of pillars were 1

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Excavations at the Roman Fort of Bar Hill, 1978-82

Cited by 14 publications

References 4 publications

New Discoveries Relating to the Planning of the Antonine Wall in Scotland

New Discoveries Relating to the Planning of the Antonine Wall in Scotland

Excavations outside the Roman fort on the Antonine Wall at Croy Hill, 1975–8

A Roman Bath-House at Duntocher on the Antonine Wall

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