Ardoch Castle

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Ardoch (Scotland)
Ardoch
Ardoch
Localization of Scotland in United Kingdom
Location of the Ardoch Roman Fort in Scotland

Ardoch Castle is a Roman military camp near Braco , Perthshire / Perth and Kinross , Scotland . It dates from the late 1st century. AD. Until Severan period is one and the Gask Ridge , the northernmost border system of the Roman Empire . The facility is characterized by its good state of preservation.

topography

Ardoch is located northeast of Braco on a hill on the Knaik River and can be recognized with the naked eye by its distinctive system of rifts . The modern road to Crieff runs west of the ground monument . In the south, the terrain slopes down to an artificial lake. Ardoch is about eight kilometers as the crow flies from the first highlands of the Highlands .

Ardoch (Perth and Kinross)
Ardoch
Ardoch
Location of Ardoch Roman Fort in Perth and Kinross

Research history

Ardoch was regularly mentioned in publications by local intellectuals from the 17th to 19th centuries. James Drummond, 4th Earl of Perth , described the Roman complex for the first time in a letter in 1672, and his personal physician Robert Sibbald made his first drawing six years later. This and the following documentation are mostly very schematic and contain incorrect descriptions, especially the ruins of the medieval chapel in the center of the fort was often misunderstood as a praetorium . The first correct description was published in 1793 by Rev. John Scott, parish priest of Muthill . About 50 years later, Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert visited the castle. The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland carried out the first planned excavations of the area in 1896/97. Methodologically very advanced for their time, the excavators not only paid attention to stone structures, but also documented wooden structures and post holes , so that the excavation plan is still valid today. In the 20th century, aerial archeology after the Second World War , the research excavations under David J. Woolliscroft and Birgitta Hoffmann and the use of geophysical prospecting methods since the 1990s made it possible to make more detailed statements about the Gask Ridge System and Ardoch in particular.

In March 2016, a German-Scottish team of archaeologists , led by Manuel Fernández-Götz from the University of Edinburgh and Felix Teichner from the Prehistory Department of the Philipps University of Marburg, joined the more than 400-year research tradition of Ardoch. With the financial support of the Carnegie Trust for Universities of Scotland , the team used non-destructive geophysical prospecting methods and drone-based digital terrain models and orthophotos ( Structure from Motion / SfM), which complement the excavation results so far and record the current state of preservation in the sense of monitoring endangered archaeological ground monuments .

The complex has been designated as a Scheduled Monument since 1936 and is therefore a listed building .

Historical context

After Emperor Claudius conquered southwest England in AD 43 and incorporated the region into the Roman Empire, further northward expansion was only a matter of time. With the appointment of Gnaeus Iulius Agricolas as governor of the province of Britain by Vespasian in 77/78 AD after the successful pacification of the Welsh tribes and the brigands in northern England, the conquest of Scotland was to begin. By 83/84 AD Agricola's armed forces advanced to what is now Aberdeenshire, where they are said to have fought the first legendary battle of Scottish historiography at Mons Graupius . Agricola's son-in-law Tacitus reports a devastating defeat of the native Caledonians with 10,000 dead. Despite this victory Agricola withdrew to the southern foothills of the Highlands to what is now Perth and Kinross and was recalled soon afterwards.

Gask Ridge

During Agricola's campaigns and after his retreat, about 20 km north of the Forth - Clyde - Isthmus , which was later fortified by the Antonine Wall in the middle of the 2nd century , a sophisticated Roman defensive and surveillance system emerged, extending from Loch Lomond stretched to the North Esk River. In addition to large camps such as Inchtuthil or the northernmost Roman military camp Stracathro , the so-called Roman Gask Ridge, made up of forts, small forts and wooden watchtowers, is an important element of the imperial occupation in Britain in the late 1st century AD The eponymous ridge along the gask ridge , starting with the small fort at Glenbank near Dunblane , through Fort Strageath to Fort Bertha north of Perth on the River Tay . New research from the long-term The Roman Gask Ridge Project shows a northern extension of the boundary line upstream of the Isla and possibly also south beyond Glenbank. The individual systems are each in visual contact with the directly neighboring structures, most of which are 0.8 to 1.5 kilometers apart. This enables a complete visual inspection of the transition from the Lowlands to the Highlands along the Roman road , which is occupied in the northwest from Glenbank to Bertha and is probably an extension of the north-south route at Camelon , Falkirk .

investment

Soil remains from the gate area of ​​the fort

Fort

Ardoch consists of an approximately square inner area around which up to five trenches have been dug, giving the complex a rectangular floor plan with rounded corners. The north and east gates are still visible in the area today. The typical structural elements of a fort in Ardoch were mostly made of wood.

The administration building (lat. Principia ) and the commander's living quarters (lat. Praetorium ) can be found next to the storage rooms (lat. Horrea ) in the center of the fort. In the north and south of the facility, wooden barracks, the accommodation of the soldiers and stables, could be detected. A hypocaust system was identified in three buildings . The craft areas (lat. Fabricae ) could not be detected so far in the excavations, but leaden cast residues can be on metalworking close. Almost in the center of the fort you can still see the foundations of a medieval chapel with a fence , which has an access path from the south, the edges of which were probably raised.

Marching camp

To the north and east of the fort there are at least five more irregularly rectangular marching camps , some of which are on top of each other and form a total area of ​​52 hectares. Directly north of the fort is a sixth camp. North of the Firth-Clyde border, more than 70 marching camps have been recorded that were built during the Scotland campaigns to provide overnight protection for soldiers. In the marshes of Ardoch, aerial photographs and the structures that can still be seen in the area prove that these are primarily tituli entrances (due to lack of time and material, the soldiers did not build gates, but left the entrances open and either dug a trench a few meters in front of them lat. tituli) or dug one or two curved trenches inwards and outwards (lat. claviculae) to create a pincer situation). These are not gates, but openings in the trenches that were secured with another trench in front. The Roman road to the west of the fort can also be followed for at least two to three kilometers and leads past the watchtowers at Blackwood Hill and Shielhill South and North , which are approximately 900 meters apart. Like their counterparts on the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes from the early 2nd century, the towers have a square floor plan and two to three floors, but were made entirely of wood due to a lack of stone. They are surrounded by one or two ditches and probably rose between seven and ten meters in height.

Dating

At least three different development phases can be proven for Ardoch. In the first phase in the Flavian period (2nd half of the 1st century AD) the fort had its greatest extension with approx. 3.5 hectares, the buildings consisted of wooden structures. In the Antonine period (138–161 AD) the complex gradually became smaller, first it encompassed 2.5 hectares, later only 2.25 hectares. This also results in the number of trenches: as the inner area became smaller, new trenches had to be dug in order to maintain the defensive structure of the fort. So the five trenches did not all exist at the same time. Up to three construction phases can be built on top of each other on the barracks, at least two on the principia and praetorium . The younger buildings were partly built of stone. The last traces of use point to the time of Septimius Severus, to the early 3rd century AD.

literature

  • JH Cunningham, D. Christison: Account of the excavation of the roman station at Ardoch, Perthshire, undertaken by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1896-1997. In: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 32, Edinburgh, 1897/98, pp. 399-476, ( online ).
  • David J. Woolliscroft / Birgitta Hoffmann: Rome's first frontier. The flavian occupation of Northern Scotland. Tempus Publishing, Stroud, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7524-3044-7 .
  • Manuel Fernández-Götz, Felix Teichner , Carmen Maria Stähler, Christoph Salzmann: Ardoch: Military posts on the edge of the empire. In: Archeology in Germany . Issue 5, 2018, pp. 40–43.

Web links

Commons : Ardoch Roman Fort  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David J. Woolliscroft, Birgitta Hoffmann: Rome's first frontier. The flavian occupation of Northern Scotland. Tempus Publishing, Stroud, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7524-3044-7 , p. 90.
  2. ^ JH Cunningham, D. Christison: Account of the excavation of the roman station at Ardoch, Perthshire, undertaken by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1896-1997. In: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 32, Edinburgh, 1897/98, pp. 400-412. ( online ).
  3. ^ Ian Mitchell: On the Trail of Queen Victoria in the Highlands. , Luath Press, 2000, ISBN 0-946487-79-0 , p. 135.
  4. ↑ David J. Woolliscroft, Birgitta Hoffmann: Rome's first frontier. The flavian occupation of Northern Scotland. Tempus Publishing, Stroud, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7524-3044-7 , pp. 90-92.
  5. ↑ David J. Woolliscroft, Birgitta Hoffmann: Rome's first frontier. The flavian occupation of Northern Scotland. Tempus Publishing, Stroud, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7524-3044-7 , pp. 14-18.
  6. ↑ Manuel Fernández-Götz, Felix Teichner, Carmen Maria Stähler, Christoph Salzmann: Ardoch: Military post on the edge of the realm. In: Archeology in Germany. Issue 5. 2018, pp. 40–43.
  7. ↑ David J. Woolliscroft, Birgitta Hoffmann: Rome's first frontier. The flavian occupation of Northern Scotland. Tempus Publishing, Stroud, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7524-3044-7 , pp. 175-177.
  8. ↑ according to DJ Woolliscroft: http://www.theromangaskproject.org/?page_id=314 Agricola: He came, he saw, but did he conquer? Roman Gask Project website. Retrieved November 16, 2017.
  9. ↑ David J. Woolliscroft, Birgitta Hoffmann: Rome's first frontier. The flavian occupation of Northern Scotland. Tempus Publishing, Stroud, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7524-3044-7 , pp. 34 and 234.
  10. ↑ after David. J. Woolliscroft, Birgitta Hoffmann: The Roman Gask Project: Annual Report 2010 Website of the Roman Gask Project. Retrieved November 20, 2017 .
  11. ↑ David J. Woollidcroft: Signaling and the design of the Roman Gask Ridge system. In: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 123, 1993, pp. 291-293 ( online ).
  12. ↑ David J. Woolliscroft, Birgitta Hoffmann: Rome's first frontier. The flavian occupation of Northern Scotland. Tempus Publishing, Stroud, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7524-3044-7 , p. 230.
  13. ↑ after David. J. Woolliscroft, Birgitta Hoffmann: The Roman Gask Project: Annual Report 2010 Website of the Roman Gask Project. Retrieved November 20, 2017 .
  14. ↑ David J. Woolliscroft, Birgitta Hoffmann: Rome's first frontier. The flavian occupation of Northern Scotland. Tempus Publishing, Stroud, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7524-3044-7 , pp. 90-92.
  15. ↑ Scott S. Stetkiewicz: Metallurgy in the Roman forts of Scotland: An Archaeological Analysis. (= History Honors Paper. 2010), Rhode Island College, Rhode Island, 2010, p. 18 ( PDF online ).
  16. ↑ Poster of the digital terrain model .
  17. ↑ Poster of the digital terrain model .
  18. ↑ David J. Woolliscroft, Birgitta Hoffmann: Rome's first frontier. The flavian occupation of Northern Scotland. Tempus Publishing, Stroud, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7524-3044-7 , pp. 31, 96.
  19. ^ BD Glendinning / AJ Dunwell: Excavations of the Gask Ridge Frontier Tower and Temporary Camp at Blackhill Wood, Ardoch, Perth and Kinross. In: Britannia. 31, 2010, pp. 31, 96.
  20. ↑ David J. Woolliscroft, Birgitta Hoffmann: Rome's first frontier. The flavian occupation of Northern Scotland. Tempus Publishing, Stroud, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7524-3044-7 , p. 29.
  21. ↑ David J. Woolliscroft, Birgitta Hoffmann: Rome's first frontier. The flavian occupation of Northern Scotland. Tempus Publishing, Stroud, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7524-3044-7 , pp. 92-93.

Coordinates: 56 ° 16 ′ 3 "  N , 3 ° 52 ′ 33"  W.