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The Antonine Wall, 1934–1959*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2012
Extract
The publication in 1934 of the second edition of Sir George Macdonald's Roman Wall in Scotland marked the end of an era in the study of the Antonine Wall. The interest in systematic exploration aroused by the Glasgow Archaeological Society's investigations of 1890–3 gained momentum during the years that followed; and by 1934 the structural nature of the Wall had been determined and its course for the most part accurately mapped, while excavation, often on an elaborate scale, had been carried out in the majority of the known forts along its line. With much of this activity Macdonald was personally associated, and his masterly synthesis of the results will always be an indispensable reference-work for those who labour in the same field.
- Type
- Research Article
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- Copyright
- Copyright © K. A. Steer 1960. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
Footnotes
*
This paper was read to the Society in London on 12 January, 1960.
References
1 Macdonald, G., Roman Wall in Scotland, 2nd edn., 1934 (hereafter cited as RWS) 86–7Google Scholar; Proc. of Soc. Ant. of Scotland (hereafter cited as PSAS) XLIX, 120 ff.
2 PSAS LXXXIII, 167 ff.
3 Ibid. XC, 1 ff.; JRS XLVII, 229 f.
4 JRS XLI, 61.
5 PSAS LXXI, 32 ff.
6 Robertson, A. S., An Antonine Fort, Golden Hill, Duntocher (Glasgow University, 1957)Google Scholar.
7 The writer is indebted to Miss Robertson and to the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow University, under whose auspices the Duntocher excavations were conducted, for permission to reproduce this diagram.
8 RWS 394. For a detailed discussion of the question, see A. S. Robertson, o.c. 95 ff.
9 RWS 344–5 and fig. 51.
10 JRS XLI, 61.
11 Ibid. XLV, 86.
12 PSAS LXXXVI, 89 ff.
13 RWS 354.
14 PSAS XC, 161 ff.
15 The supposed Roman signal-station at West Plean, some 5 miles north of the Wall (RWS 358, n. 2), has proved on excavation to be a native home-stead (PSAS LXXXIX, 227 ff.).
16 For recent excavations on these two sites, see, JRS XXXVIII, 81 and pl. XII (Inveresk); ibid. XLVI, 122, XLVII, 200, XLVIII, 133, and XLIX, 104 (Cramond).
17 PSAS LXXXIII, 28 ff. For summaries of subsequent excavations, see JRS XL, 93; XLI, 120; XLII, 87; XLIII, 105; XLIV, 86; and XLVIII, 133.
18 JRS XLIII, 105 and fig. 25.
19 Information from Mr. Frank Newall.
20 Cumb. and Westm. Antiq. and Arch. Soc. Trans. 2 XXIX, 133 ff.; LIV, 28 ff.
21 PSAS LXXXIX, 329 ff.
22 JRS XLVIII, 88–9.
23 JRS XLIX, 136–7 and fig. 28.
24 Arch. Journ. CXV, 99 ff.
25 Agricola 23.
26 RWS 466.
27 The Flavian mortarium rim formerly attributed to Rough Castle (RWS 238) has evidently been wrongly labelled: it is undoubtedly part of the fragmentary mortarium stamped by Veranius, known to have come from Camelon, with which Macdonald compares it.
28 RWS figs. 32 (Croy Hill) and 36 (Bar Hill).
29 Macdonald, G. and Park, A., The Roman Forts on the Bar Hill (Glasgow, 1906), 14Google Scholar.
30 See Collingwood's strictures in JRS XXVI, 80 ff.; but note Richmond's dissenting opinion (ibid. 190 ff.). Collingwood's theory that the Lowlands were depopulated by Pius is contradicted not only by the strength of the Antonine garrisons in the area, but also by the wealth of early Antonine objects found on native sites between the two Walls (see Roman & Native in North Britain (ed. Richmond), 66 and map 5).
31 For the burning of forts by Roman troops, preparatory to withdrawal, see Tac., Hist. IV, 15.
32 LXXIII 8, 2: τῶν γὰρ ἐν τῇ νήσῳ ἐθνῶν ὑπερβεβηκότων τὸ τεῖχος τὸ διορίζον αὐτούς τε καὶ τὰ τῶν Ῥωμαίων στρατόπεδα, καὶ πολλὰ κακουργούντων, στρατηγόν τέ τινα μετὰ τῶν στρατιωτῶν οὓς εἶχε κατακοψάντων…
33 PSAS XC, 241–6.