Roman vallum12/13/2022 ![]() ![]() I'll be very interested in that one Geoff, one of the ideas I have for the future is a novel that takes the wall from it's first days to the end when Rome cut Britain off something like Edward Rutherfurd's Sarum. I still going to have to write a further article to cover the bigger picture, and how both the Timber Wall and Vallum fit with it. I hope any more specialist readers will be able to fill in the blanks, and make the connections for themselves. I am trying to write for a variety of different audiences, so I look for the key incite-full detail, and I try to hold back other things, or put them in a drawing. The detail is important, but often boring. ![]() "The devils in the detail", - and I'm a bit between a rock and a hard place on that one. #Roman vallum how to#Great to hear you write so you will know the problem of knowing what and how to write. I do a bit of writing and it's the tiny details most people don't know about that can sometimes make a big difference. Thanks Geoff, I stumbled on your blog through a Twitter reference today and I'm looking forward to reading your back catalogue. The way the trench is built up over soft ground at White Moss was once described as "like a canal", but this is consistent with it being a trench for a road bed. ![]() That's a great idea that has to be considered as a possibility, but sadly the levels don't really work, and bits of it are simply too steep. The sourcing suitable materials for the road bed would be a longer term project. Work tends to organised in seasons, and I suspect the Vallum was dug in a single season. This freed up the skilled army units for the more specialised building. ![]() What I think is that the Romans had a pool of less skilled labour for basic physical tasks like ditch digging. I also wonder if Roman engineers, who were as you point out remarkably efficient, would start a project without sourcing the materials (the backfill) to complete at least part of it?Ĭould it have been a temporary canal to transport supplies and construction material for the wall? Maybe the mounds were for escorting troops or guards to have a better view of the countryside and to protect and conceal the workers digging the canal? I'm not an engineer or an archaeologist, but I can't imagine a scenario where someone would build a 74 mile foundation trench and then go back to the beginning to fill it in. Roads are, and as far as I'm aware, always have been, built in relatively short stretches for reasons of efficiency, ease of supply and use of manpower. You make a well-structured argument for the vallum's purpose as a potential roadway, but as someone who has helped build roads (tamperman, Tilcon: Haltwhistle 1974) I have a problem with the theory. Summary interpretation plot of geophysical surveys within fields to the south of the fort and the main features of the fort.Great article and another remarkable insight into Hadrian's Wall. Further excavation also took place inside the fort. Excavation showed these to be the remains of a Roman period civilian settlement post-dating the military use of the fort. In 2014, further geophysical survey demonstrated the presence of extensive archaeological deposits to the south of the fort. Volunteers beginning to expose the inter-vallum roadĪ length of the inter-vallum road. This is the first Roman fort discovered in Pembrokeshire. Examination of the pottery suggests that the fort was occupied in the late first century/early second century AD and that it was reused in the mid-second to the mid-third century AD, perhaps as a civil site. For a site that has experienced regular ploughing, preservation of the archaeology was surprisingly good – the base of the clay defensive banks survived, the remains of an inter-vallum road lay just below the ground surface, and several substantial postholes indicated the former location of substantial timber buildings. Four trenches were excavated to examine the defences of the fort and part of its internal layout. #Roman vallum trial#Trial excavation in 2013 demonstrated that the site is a Roman fort. Geophysical evidence was not conclusive, but it seemed to show classic ‘playing card’ triple-ditched fort. This was followed up in 2012 by a geophysical survey which further strengthened the case for a fort at Wiston. A Roman fort at Wiston in Pembrokeshire has been previously suggested, but it was not until analysis of Lidar data that firm evidence was obtained. ![]()
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