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Carlisle: Excavation of a Section of the Annexe Ditch of the First Flavian Fort, 1990
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 November 2011
Extract
The Roman fort of Carlisle was first discovered by the late Dorothy Charlesworth in 1973 at Annetwell Street. Excavation by her and after 1980 by the Carlisle Archaeological Unit located the southern defences of the primary fort and identified a sequence of Roman forts extending from AD. 72/3 down to the fourth century. In 1981–2 excavation at Castle Street produced a sequence of timber phases closely matching the fort stratigraphy, with military association in the finds assemblages, but lying outside the fort defences. The early phases were arguably part of a defended annexe or within a military vicus, though proof was lacking.
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References
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67 See note 63.
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69 ibid., D189, fig. 280.
70 ibid., D127–148, figs 272–3.
71 ibid., D76, fig. 264.
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76 The repertoire of Roman seam and hem stitching is illustrated and discussed elsewhere by the author: S. Winterbottom, ‘The sheet leather objects’, in McCarthy, op. cit. (note 1), Fascicule 3, 245–51, figs 220–1.
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79 One corner panel from inside the Flavian fort still had a knotted thong threaded through the eyelet: S. Winterbottom, ‘Leather’, in Caruana, op. cit. (note 1), C31. A corner appliqué from Vindolanda is similar.
80 ibid., C31; also L164 in forthcoming report by Winterbottom on leather from the Tullie House extension site. A general discussion of tent roof slopes appears in van Driel-Murray, op. cit. (note 77), 114.
81 van Driel-Murray, op. cit. (note 77), 116.
82 The presence of 8 at such a junction can be explained by the fact that the roof/side wall seam is a ‘special case’, being a junction of major tent sections rather than individual panels.
83 FIG. 15, insets ii and i respectively. The two methods are discussed in more detail in Winterbottom, op. cit. (note 76), 248 and fig. 219.
84 cf. van Driel-Murray, op. cit. (note 77), fig. 10: V9. Two further panels from this position have been found at Carlisle and they are also large trapezia with no internal divisions.
85 van Driel-Murray, op. cit. (note 77), 114 and fig. 4.
86 By contrast, the base of 2 need not have coincided with that of 3, as implied in FIG. 16B.
87 Winterbottom, op. cit. (note 79), C56; op. cit. (note 76), 287, No. 1134.
88 Ropes running in both directions are shown at the corners of the reconstructed Vindolanda tent: van Driel-Murray, op. cit. (note 77), 119, fig. 6.
89 This shows the outside of the tent and the view of the panels is consequently the reverse of that shown elsewhere.
90 The width of the tent, assuming six gable panels of 46-47 cm, would be a maximum of nine and a half Roman feet: cf. van Driel-Murray, op. cit. (note 77), 109 on the ‘normal' width of ten feet.
91 P. Connolly, ‘The Roman saddle' in M. Dawson (ed.), Roman Military Equipment: The Accoutrements of War, BAR Int. Ser. 336 (1987), 7–27.
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93 Caruana, op. cit. (note 1), chapter 40.
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99 I am grateful to C. van Driel-Murray for supplying detailed information about the Vechten finds, which include at least three of the objects.
100 Size differences of this order are of little significance. One of the Vechten drums is 12 per cent larger than the other. The Carlisle pieces were measured when wet, those from Vechten after drying out. The former shrank by around 5 per cent during conservation.
101 Some seams employed a beading strip but no binding and in these cases thread impressions appear on the flesh side of the pieces joined.
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122 See note 4.
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132 Tomlin elsewhere in this volume (p. 154) has offered the attractive suggestion that the settlement date for the repayment of the loan was 7 January 84. A looser dating framework than that proposed here is stratigraphically possible, if the argument that all the finds were thrown in the upper ditch fillings at the same time is rejected. The time-span for the various losses could reasonably extend to several years, say 83–85, but certainly not back before A.D. 77/8 taking account of the tree-ring dates. The tablet, from Phase 4, could have been lost some years after A.D. 84 but there are no other finds dated later than c. 85.
133 Based on Caruana, op. cit. (note 1).
134 Based on McCarthy, op. cit. (note 1).
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136 Winterbottom, op. cit. (note 76), fig. 218.
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142 McCarthy, op. cit. (note 1), Fascicule 1, 21–26.
143 Ferguson, op. cit. (note 3).
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146 The weight of comparative and interpretative superstructure is out of proportion to the observed data: the recording of observations takes only 2.5 pages out 21 pages of text in the 1893 article, with a further 7.5 pages describing finds. One reason – lack of time – for the limited observations is suggested in another paper where the report is given second-hand as the author was busy at the Quarter Sessions when the discoveries were made: Ferguson, R.S., ‘A grave cover of tiles at Carlisle’, Trans. Cumb. West. Antiq. Arch. Soc. O.S. xiii (1895), 251–2. The obituary (see note 144) also mentions illness which might also have limited opportunities for site visits (pp. xi, xix).Google Scholar
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149 Charlesworth, op. cit. (note 3), 115–16.
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