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Signalling and the Design of the Antonine Wall

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

D.J. Woolliscroft
D.J. Woolliscroft
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Manchester
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Extract

Surveys by the writer in Britain and Germany have recently revealed a consistent pattern of Roman frontier communications in which each system's minor installations were sited so as to be able to see, and thus to signal to, their nearest fort, whilst the forts themselves could be linked to form a unified chain. But, until recently, the Antonine Wall appeared so different that it seemed unlikely that it operated in the same way. Comparing the two British Walls, both share the basic framework of a rampart and ditch and the change from stone to turf construction, on the northern system, is mere detail, but differences in the garrison installations did seem to have been of operational importance. For example, the inter-fort spacings of the Antonine Wall were much shorter, varying from 1.56 to 3 Roman miles, as against 6 to 9 on Hadrian's Wall – producing 17 known (including Carriden) and several suspected forts in c. 40½ Roman miles, as opposed to 16 in 80 Roman miles on the southern Wall. Moreover, many Antonine Wall forts were too small to have held a full auxiliary unit and there seemed to be no sign of a fortlet and turret system.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 27 , November 1996 , pp. 153 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © D.J. Woolliscroft 1996. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Woolliscroft, D.J., ‘Signalling and the design of Hadrian's Wall’, Arch. Ael.5 xvii (1989), 5–205.Google ScholarWoolliscroft, D.J. and Hoffmann, B., ‘Zum Signalsystem und Aufbau des Wetterau Limes’, Fundberichte aus Baden-Württemburg xvi (1991), 531–44Google Scholar. Woolliscroft, D.J., ‘Signalling and the design of the Gask Ridge’, PSAS cxxiii (1993), 291–314.Google ScholarWoolliscroft, D.J., ‘Signalling and the design of the Cumberland Coast’, TCWAAS2 xciv (1994), 55–64.Google Scholar I am told by Professor N. Gudea that similar results are emerging in Dacia, see N. Gudea in Proceedings of the 16th International Congress of Frontier Studies (forthcoming).

2 The eastern terminus, and thus the length, of the Wall has recently become uncertain: Bailey, G.B. and Devereux, D.F., ‘The eastern terminus of the Antonine Wall: a review’, PSAS cxvii (1987), 93ff.Google Scholar

3 Gillam, J.P., ‘Possible changes in plan in the course of the construction of the Antonine Wall’, SAF vii (1976), 51ff.Google Scholar

4 For a more detailed methodology see Woolliscroft, op. cit. (note 1, 1989), 15f.

5 e.g. D.J. Breeze and B. Dobson, Hadrian's Wall (3rd edn, 1987), 99ff., favour Bar Hill, whilst W.S. Hanson and G. Maxwell, Rome's North West Frontier (1983), IIIf., and Keppie, L.J.F. and Walker, J.J., ‘Auchendavy Roman fort and settlement’, Britannia xvi (1985), 32Google Scholar, prefer Auchendavy.

6 An altar to Silvanus (RIB 2167) has come to light on the spot.

7 G. Macdonald and A. Park, The Roman Forts on the Bar Hill (1906), 11ff.; G. Macdonald, The Roman Wall in Scotland (2nd edn, 1934), 272f. and fig. 35; A.S. Robertson, M. Scott and L.J.F. Keppie, Bar Hill, a Roman Fort and its Finds (1975), 6ff.; Keppie, L.J.F., ‘Excavations at the Roman fort of Bar Hill 1978–82’, Glasgow Arch. Journ. xii (1985), 51ff.Google Scholar There is a similar structure under Croy fort.

8 R. Sibbald, Historical Inquiries (1707), 30.

9 J. Horsley, Britannia Romana (1732), 171.

10 W. Roy, Military Antiquities of the Romans in North Britain (1793), 161.

11 W. Maitland, History and Antiquities of Scotland (1757), 171.

12 Horsley, op. cit. (note 9), 159 and fifth map. The map puts the fort in an enclosed area, almost certainly the grounds of Kinneil House, and shows it lying close to a north–south depression, which is presumably the pond and stream near the fortlet.

13 Steer, K.A., ‘Excavations on the Antonine Wall in Polmont Park and at Dean House in 1960’, PSAS xciv (1961), 323f.Google Scholar and Hendry, T.A., ‘Antonine Wall excavations: Kinneil sector’, Glasgow Arch. Journ. ii (1971), 107ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar There have been no excavations under Kinneil House itself.

14 Goodburn, R., ‘Roman Britain in 1975’, Britannia vii (1976), 301.Google Scholar See also DES: (1972), 45; (1973), 59; (1974), 68.

15 Field-walking carried out by J.J. Walker who kindly allowed access to his findings.

16 Castlehill to Bearsden is c. 1.56 miles, Croy Hill to Bar Hill 1.75 miles and both Westerwood to Croy Hill and Auchendavy to Kirkintilloch are 1.8 miles.

17 Sibbald, op. cit. (note 8), 30.

18 Bailey and Devereux, op. cit. (note 2), 93ff.

19 A. Gordon, Itinerarium Septentrionale (1727), 60. Roy, op. cit. (note 10), 162. The New Statistical Account, parish of Carriden, (1845), cited in Bailey and Devereux, op. cit. (note 2), 101. The dissenting voices are Sibbald (op. cit. (note 8), 30f.), who has the Wall go via Bridgeness to Carriden, and Maitland (op. cit. (note 11), 171f. and 186), who sets the end of the Wall at Kinneil. Although occasional Roman finds had appeared, the fort was not found until the 1940s, so the antiquaries cannot be accused of trying to make their evidence fit a known site.

20 e.g. Keppie, L.J.F. and Walker, J.J., ‘Fortlets on the Antonine Wall at Seabegs Wood, Kinneil and Cleddans’, Britannia xii (1981), 161Google Scholar and Hanson and Maxwell, op. cit. (note 5), 122. My own list is closer to the former.

21 Macdonald, op. cit. (note 7), 127, 343ff. and pl. LVIII. See also Breeze, D.J., ‘Excavations on the Antonine Wall at Watling Lodge 1972–4’, PSAS cv (1972–1974), 166ff.Google Scholar

22 Perhaps significantly, the enclosure at Wilderness West does occupy the exact 3 mile position.

23 Woolliscroft, D.J., ‘Signalling and the design of Hadrian's Wall’, Arch. Ael5 xvii (1989), 8.Google Scholar

24 The site was discovered by I. Armit and A. Dunwell who kindly provided an interim report. See Frere, S.S., ‘Roman Britain in 1991’, Britannia xxiii (1992), 260–2.Google Scholar

25 T. Pont cited in Glasgow Archaeology Society, The Antonine Wall Report (1899), 35 and note 2. Sir Robert Sibbald, Directions (1697), published in Haverfield, F.J., ‘Sir Robert Sibbald's Directions for his Honoured Friend Mr Llwyd how to Trace and Remarke the Vestiges of the Roman Wall Betwixt Forth and Clyde’, PSAS xliv (1909–1910), 323.Google Scholar

26 Sibbald, op. cit. (note 8), 30.

27 Anon., Hist MSS Portland Papers II, 56, cited in Macdonald, op. cit. (note 7), 215.

28 A.S. Robertson, An Antonine Fort, Golden Hill Duntocher (1957), 16ff.

29 D.J. Woolliscroft and B. Hoffmann, ‘Sites on the Antonine Wall at Garnhall, Cumbernauld’ (forthcoming).

30 R. Sibbald, History and Description of Stirlingshire (1707), 15.

31 Sibbald, op. cit. (note 8), 29 and op. cit. (note 25), 325. He is vague as to its exact position, but a ditch seen from the air (CUCAP GN-59) c. 400 m west of the position given here (NS 771778) is that of a ring feature c. 50 m in diameter, which may be cut by the Wall. The best positions might be two small knolls on either side of the measured position, but resistivity surveys by the writer have, so far, proved negative.

32 A. Gordon, Additions and Corrections, by Way of Supplement to the Itinerarium Septentrionale (1732), 5f., but cf. Keppie and Walker, op. cit. (note 5), 34f.

33 Sibbald, op. cit. (note 25), 325. The site is described as ‘The new Kirk of Kirkpatrick down towards burn…… a fort’. The fort of Bearsden a few hundred metres further west is identified separately on p. 324, but a number of other sites are mentioned twice and the reference may still be to the fort.

34 ibid., 326.

35 Macdonald, op. cit. (note 7), 381ff. Gordon and Horsley both mention a possible fortification in Peel Glen (itself a suggestive name) but this was supposedly right in the Glen bottom, c. 120 m further to the south-west.

36 Keppie, L.J.F., ‘The Roman fort(s) on Castlehill Bearsden’, Glasgow Arch. Journ. vii (1980)Google Scholar, 80ff. Roy, op. cit. (note 10), pl. 34, shows a feature actually inside the fort.

37 The excavators of Cleddans (Keppie and Walker, op. cit. (note 20), 154) say that Cleddans is on the only point on the Wall able to see both Duntocher and Castlehill. This is partially true but there is quite a long sector around the fortlet from which both sites are visible.

38 Excavations at Carleith in 1980 found some remains of an as yet unidentified structure, probably not the fortlet (Keppie, L.J.F. and Breeze, D.J., ‘Some excavations on the line of the Antonine Wall 1957–80’, PSAS cxi (1980–1981), 235 and 242ff.)Google Scholar. The fortlet might also be looked for slightly further west from where it would have a better view to Old Kilpatrick.

39 If the Wall does go to Carriden a MF 0 will be needed c. 1/3 of a Roman mile to the east of the fort.

40 See inter alia Hanson and Maxwell, op. cit. (note 5), ch. 6; L.J.F. Keppie, ‘The building of the Antonine Wall: archaeological and epigraphic evidence’, PSAS cv (1972–4), 151 ff.; Macdonald, op. cit. (note 7), ch. 10; G.S. Maxwell, ‘The building of the Antonine Wall’, in D.M. Pippida (ed.), Actes du IXe Congrès international a'études sur les frontières Romaines (1974), 327ff.

41 Hanson and Maxwell, op. cit (note 5), 121ff.

42 It may or may not be relevant that the putative fortlets at Netherwood and Rough Castle are intervisible, so that thereafter the survey teams would often have been within sight of each other.

43 Breeze and Dobson, op. cit. (note 5), 131f.

44 See, inter alia L.J.F. Keppie, Roman Distance Slabs from the Line of the Antonine Wall (1979).

45 For Tollpark: Keppie and Breeze, op. cit. (note 38), 239.ff. For Garnhall: Woolliscroft and Hoffmann, op. cit. (note 29).

46 Glasgow Archaeology Society, op. cit. (note 25), Sections 11 and 12A, 71ff. and 80ff. Steer, K.A., ‘The nature and purpose of the expansions on the Antonine Wall’, PSAS xc (1956–1957), 161ff.Google Scholar

47 e.g. Macdonald, op. cit. (note 7), 353ff. and Steer, op. cit. (note 46), 166ff.

48 Steer, op. cit. (note 46), 168.

49 My thanks to G. Bailey for providing information.

50 Hanson, W.S. and Maxwell, G.S., ‘Minor enclosures on the Antonine Wall at Wilderness Plantation’, Britannia xiv (1983), 227ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

51 Breeze, D.J., ‘Roman Scotland during the reign of Antoninus Pius’, in Hanson, W.S. and Keppie, L.J.F. (eds), Roman Frontier Studies 1979, BAR 71 (1980), 1, 52.Google Scholar

52 T. Pont, cited in Glasgow Archaeology Society, op. cit. (note 25), 35f.

53 Bailey, G., ‘Frontiers of knowledge, another look at the eastern end of the Antonine Wall’, Glasgow Arch. Soc. Bull, xxviii (Spring 1992), 8.Google Scholar

54 Woolliscroft and Hoffmann, op. cit. (note 29).

55 Hanson and Maxwell, op. cit. (note 50), 229ff. Garnhall is also a very wet site.

56 Hanson and Maxwell, op. cit. (note 5), 122f.

57 RIB 2196.

58 Macdonald, op. cit. (note 7), 382.

59 The signalling diagrams have been schematised slightly by artificially displacing some of the drawn lines of sight from their true termini. This simply prevents lines from crossing or running on top of one another, in the interests of clarity.

60 Seabegs Wood would not have been able to see Camelon if sited any further west than its current position, which may be another explanation for its anomalous spacing.

61 The link is now blocked by modern Kirkintilloch.

62 Hanson and Maxwell, op. cit. (note 50), 234f.

63 L.J.F. Keppie, ‘Mile Fortlets on the Antonine Wall’, in Hanson and Keppie, op. cit. (note 51), 110 and Keppie, L.J.F., ‘The Antonine Wall 1960–1980’, Britannia xiii (1982), 101.Google Scholar

64 Wilkes, J.J., ‘The Antonine Wall fortlet at Wilderness Plantation, Lanarkshire’, Glasgow Arch. Journ. iii (1974), 57.Google Scholar

65 L.J.F. Keppie and J.J. Walker, ‘A Roman fortlet on the Antonine Wall at Seabegs Wood’, in D.J.Breeze (ed.), Roman Scotland. Some Recent Excavations (1979), 15f. and Keppie and Walker, op. cit. (note 20), 143ff.

66 Although it is possible that the gate towers remained in use as turrets.

67 The view is now blocked, even from tower height, by the buildings of modern Duntocher.

68 The view from Castlehill to Bearsden is now blocked by buildings.