Small fort Haltwhistle Burn

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Haltwhistle Burn Fort
limes Britain
section Stanegate
Dating (occupancy) Trajan,
105 - 122 AD
Type a) Numerus fort ?,
b) Street posts
unit unknown
size 64 × 51 meters
(0.32 ha)
Construction a) wood-earth,
b) stone
State of preservation rectangular system with rounded corners, visible above ground (raised ground).
place Haltwhistle (Northumberland)
Geographical location 54 ° 59 '20.4 "  N , 2 ° 26' 49.2"  W Coordinates: 54 ° 59 '20.4 "  N , 2 ° 26' 49.2"  W. hf
Previous Vindolanda (east)
Subsequently Magnis (west)
Upstream Aesica (Hadrian's Wall) (northwest)
Course of the Stanegate and Hadrian's Wall with locations of the forts
Coin portrait of Trajan
Excavation of the south gate (1907–1908)
Area of ​​the small fort
Findings sketch
Sketch of the location of the Roman fortifications

The Haltwhistle Burn small fort was a Roman fortification on the Stanegate border in northern Britain . It is located in the parish of Haltwhistle in County Northumberland , England . The fortification was built in the early 2nd century AD to protect a road bridge over the Haltwhistle Burn River and the northern border of Britain. Remnants of their fortifications and the outlines of some of their interior buildings are still visible today. The fort was partially excavated at the beginning of the 20th century. Findings indicated that it was abandoned around the time Hadrian's Wall was completed. The remains of temporary marching camps were also found in the vicinity of the small fort.

Location and function

The small town of Haltwhistle is about 10 miles east of Brampton on the Tyne. It is on the third leg of the Hadrian's Wall Path and borders Northumberland National Park to the north . About three kilometers north of the city are the remains of Hadrian's Wall. The Haltwhistle Burn is a small river that runs east of the city of the same name, the peat plains under the crest of the basalt cliffs of the Whin Sills and also crossed the military zone south of Hadrian's Wall ( Mile Fort 42 ). It flows near the southeast corner of the small fort, then turns west through a sandstone gorge and flows into the South Tyne on the eastern edge of Haltwhistle . In the late 2nd century the region belonged to the province of Britannia inferior , from the 4th century to the province of Britannia secunda .

The small fort was north of today's B6318 (originally an 18th century military road), northwest of the Milecastle Inn and east of Haltwhistle Burn, about 800 meters south of the Cawfields parking lot. Its remains are on a plateau on the east bank of the river, just north of the B6318 junction and each 5.6 km from its neighboring camps. This is roughly half the distance that normally had to be traveled between the castles in Wales and the Pennines , but comparable to the distances on the Gask Ridge in Scotland. Presumably, the army strategists hoped that this would give them better control over the north-south movements of the indigenous population, or it was due to the requirements of the area or the associated greater security risks along the Stanegate. The fort crew was supposed to secure the road bridge to a steeply sloping terrain cut by the watercourse, which reached south into the river valley of the Tyne.

Research history

The area around the fort was severely disturbed by drainage ditches and the lorry tracks of an iron ore mine from the 19th century about 400 meters away. In a quarry west of the fort, the antiquarian or antique collector and one of the founders of scientific archeology on Hadrian's Wall, John Clayton, came across an inscription from the Legio VI Victrix carved into a rock wall in 1844 . The quarry was put back into operation for a short time this year. The inscription was therefore destroyed soon after it was discovered. Clayton suspected that building materials to build Hadrian's Wall were originally broken there. From 1907 to 1908, JP Gibson and Frank Gerald Simpson excavated or examined the fortifications and some of the inner buildings of the small fort (and also the surrounding marching camps), including a barracks block and the officers' quarters; they can still be seen today as elevations. Ceramic shards from the Trajan period were also discovered, which made it possible to date this fort. It was previously assumed that the Roman name of the fortress could have been Gabaglanda ( Tabula Peutingeriana ) . However, this assumption is rejected by current research.

development

In 81 AD the then governor of Britain, Agricola, had the Stanegate, a road running from east to west between the camps of Carlisle ( Luguvalium ) and Corbridge ( Coriosopitum ), built. After the Romans withdrew from Scotland to the line between the rivers Tyne and Solway in 84 AD, the latter advanced to the northern border of the empire under Emperor Trajan. Numerous forts and small fortresses and watchtowers were built along the road to defend and monitor this Limes . The fort at Haltwhistle Burn may have been added around AD 105 or early Hadrian times, but this dating is uncertain. It was probably occupied until the construction of Hadrian's Wall (122 AD), when the wall and the cohort fort Aesica were completed, the fort was abandoned or systematically demolished. Hadrian's Wall remained the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire in Britain until the Roman army and administration gradually withdrew from the island from 400 AD.

Fort

The small fortress in Haltwhistle Burn and the neighboring fortification in Throp are the earliest known examples of a small fort in Britain. The camp was oriented to the SE and had the classic, in this case slightly shifted to the southeast, typical rectangular floor plan with rounded corners. It measured 64 × 51 meters and thus covered an area of ​​0.32 hectares. The western sector of the fort was damaged by erosion of the bank of the river bed and quarrying in the early 19th century.

A trench had been dug on three sides as an obstacle to the approach. Its north-east corner is already muddy today, the southern section is still 2.1 meters deep. The north trench uses a natural railing in parts and deepens towards its western end. At the southwest corner, the ditch swings to the northwest and ends at the edge of a quarry that has now been disused and extends to the western wall of the fort. The north side was additionally protected by a peat wall in front . Some elevations are still visible today, they mark the remains of the fortifications and the inner buildings, as well as the northern and southern weir ditches. A special feature of both the fort at Haltwhistle Burn and most of the other Stanegate camps is that they were made of stone from the beginning - or, as with the former - at least with an earth wall reinforced with masonry. So it was obviously planned to set up permanently at Stanegate.

The fence consisted of a peat / earth wall, which was reinforced with an outer stone wall. A ramp raised at the rear served as a battlement. The parapet on the top of the wall was possibly only made of wood. Both Haltwhistle Burn and Throp have a notable design feature. Instead of the arrangement of the four gates in the center of the opposing sides of the forts, which was customary in medieval camps, they only had a south and an east gate and a small hatch on the west wall. This was later bricked up again. The south gate was not in the center, but near the SE corner of the fort. The south and east gates had only one passage, about a meter wide, and were set back from the wall. This created a small forecourt or kennel that enabled the defenders to fire the attackers from three sides. This type of door was actually already out of date in the 2nd century. It is strongly reminiscent of the wood-and-earth gate systems from Augustan times, which also had a forecourt at their entrance.

The outlines of the six excavated inner buildings, including a barracks block and the officers' quarters, are still visible as elevations. During the excavation in 1908, remnants of the wall (building VI) were found in the center of the camp area, which may have belonged to the principia or commandant's house ( praetorium ) of the fort. Building IV stood immediately to the west of the south gate and could have served as a granary ( Horreum ), but the excavators could not confirm the findings beyond any doubt. But it would be used in other British street forts - such as B. in Castleshaw - proven warehouses fit. The arrangement of the two fort gates also made it easier for carts to move in and out for loading or unloading supplies. This could be proof that the Stanegate fort also played a logistical role and were not used exclusively for border security. Both camp streets (north-south, west-east) show traces of paving. The southern camp road connected the fort with the Stanegate, but its route is now disturbed by a ravine.

Stanegate

The route of the Stanegate lay between the fort and today's motor road . You can still clearly see an arched elevation with drainage ditches on both sides, on which the ancient road - past the south gate of the Roman fortress - ran to the river. At Haltwhistle Burn, the street was thoroughly examined. It was found that the road surface consisted of cobblestones and several layers of gravel. Without the trenches, the ancient road is about 8 meters wide. At the small fort she changes direction to the southwest in order to negotiate the steep and narrow valley of the Haltwhistle Burn. It crosses the river in the SW of the small fort and can also be clearly seen on its west bank. There it runs directly behind the Fell End Farm and continues to the Carvoran fort. The route between Carvoran and Gilsland could also be documented, but little of it can be seen there. The road embankment is visible again as soon as it crosses the Greenhead – Gilsland road and is then marked by pasture fences in the direction of Gap, roughly parallel to the Vallum of Hadrian's Wall. It reappears a short distance east of Upper Denton, where its route crosses a field. After that, it will likely follow today's road to Chapelburn. There are no traces of her until Naworth Park. Here a series of deep cuts and embankments run down to the banks of the Irthing, they mark the course of the road to Boothby, west of Naworth Park.

Road connections existed:

garrison

The fort offered space for a garrison of one centurion (approx. 100 men) of infantry. It is not known which units were stationed in the fort due to the lack of relevant finds. Legionnaires may also have stayed in the camp temporarily. They were usually not assigned to garrison service at the border, but sent special forces for the more demanding construction projects in the border regions. Perhaps members of the Legio VI Victrix were involved in the construction of the fort, as the inscription discovered in 1844 suggests. At the beginning of the second century, the generally 500-strong auxiliary troop cohorts of Britain began to be split up into smaller units and relocated to several bases. The camp in which the house of the commanding officer was located was also the headquarters of the troops. The small border fortifications were mostly manned by number units . Haltwhistle Burn could have been the headquarters and half of the crew of a Numerus , as well as its administrative staff. The second sub-unit was probably located in the small fort Throp further to the west .

Marching camp

So far, a total of ten provisional marching camps have been identified around Haltwhistle. In addition to the four camps near Stanegate Fort, there were two in this region on the west side of Caw Burn in Markham Cottage, one on the south side of Stanegate, southeast of Milestone House and three north of Hadrian's Wall at Cawfields and to the northwest at Burnhead and Chesters Pike has been created. Of these, the marching camp at Markham Cottage is the largest with almost 17 hectares and Sunny Rigg III is one of the smallest with just 284 square meters.

Between the southern moat of Hadrian's Wall ( Vallum ) and the small fort stood three temporary marching camps, one of which was later reduced to half its original size. When these were erected is unknown. They consisted only of simple earth or peat walls that could be thrown up in a short time to protect the soldiers' tent camp from surprise attacks. The wall was possibly still surmounted by a wooden palisade as a parapet. It could be that these were used as accommodation by the troops involved in building the wall. Some were probably also set up for training purposes during the military training of the recruits. The occupation of these camps was usually short-lived.

camp description
Haltwhistle Burn I The wood-earth camp stood about 40 meters north of the small fort, on the slope of a north-facing, 190-meter-high ridge that extends in the west to Haltwhistle Burn. This position ensured good all-round visibility. The highest point of its interior is in the southeast, about 6 meters above the north-west corner. Its main axis was oriented to the east and had a rectangular floor plan with a length of 147 meters from east to west and 84 meters from north to south. It covered an area of ​​1.2 hectares. The SO wall was best preserved and still reaches a height of 0.1 meters. Its outer embankment is 0.7 meters above the bottom of the encircling weir ditch, which is 0.2 m deep on average. It was removed by seasonal water ingress in its northern section and the creation of a ravine destroyed part of the moat on the southwest corner. It is completely leveled to the northeast on either side of the current Burnhead and Cawfields road. Excavations at the south-east corner between 1907 and 1908 revealed that the trench was originally 1.2 meters wide and 0.6 meters deep. The width of the berm was 2.4 meters. The earth material and the turf tiles from the trench excavation had been used for the foundation of the camp wall and for its external covering. The northern half of the moat in this area is completely leveled today. The camp wall was broken through by two gates. The west gate had been badly damaged by mining in the 19th century and by lorry tracks. It is still preserved up to a height of 0.2 meters. The south gate was a little better preserved. An exploratory trench pulled through this gate indicated that it was built in the same way as the camp wall. The earth wall is still 0.4 meters high, the moat was leveled over the centuries by a former watercourse. A car road crosses the camp walls in the north and east, its route probably runs through the former camp gates. Apart from traces of modern drainage channels that extend down the slope, the interior of the camp is without any archaeologically relevant features.
Haltwhistle Burn II and III Marschlager II and III are at almost the same height, 30 meters from the NE corner of Marschlager 1 and 3.5 meters below its highest point in the southeast. Camp II had a square floor plan, a diameter of 94 meters and covered an area of ​​0.8 hectares. At a later date, it was divided into two halves by a new wall and moat, which extended along its east-west axis . The newly created camp, camp III, took up the northern half of the previous building and an area of ​​only 0.3 hectares. During the excavations at the beginning of the 20th century, the walls were no more than 0.3 meters high. The outer weir ditch was 0.3 meters deep. Camp II had three entrances that were centrally located on the north and east side. The remains of the moat crossings could still be seen near them. The two gates were washed out over time by seasonal floods. The east gate of camp II was later overlaid by the south-east corner of camp III. A consecration altar was discovered northwest of Camp III in 1848 at a spring that has now dried up. Donated to the god Apollo by Melonius Senilis, a duplicarius who came from the province of Upper Germany.
Haltwhistle Burn IV The earthworks of Camp IV are still clearly visible on aerial photographs. It was relatively small and is located 20 meters southeast of Hadrian's Wall, on a hill about 180 meters above a shallow valley cut. It is the deepest and least drained area in the Haltwhistle Burn group. The location offered a good view to the east and west. Only small traces of its ramparts can be seen on the ground, as they are usually no higher than 0.1 meters and extend over a width of about 3 meters at the base. They enclosed a square area of ​​approx. 19 meters (east to west) by 16 meters (north to south). The weir ditch, which is now completely silted up, can still be seen in places - about 0.1 meters to 0.2 meters deep. The camp had an east and a west gate, both about 3.5 meters wide. No traces of ditch crossings or protective walls ( clavicles ) in front of the gates could be detected.

literature

  • Ancient Frontiers. Exploring the geology and landscape of the Hadrian's Wall Area, British Geological Survey, 2006. ISBN 0-85272-541-8 .
  • Colin Scrutton (Ed.): Northumbrian Rocks and Landscape; a field guide. Yorkshire Geological Society, 1995. ISBN 1-873551-11-8 .
  • Eric Birley: Research on Hadrian's Wall, Kendal, 1961.
  • J. Pattison Gibson, Frank Gerald Simpson: The Roman Fort on the Stanegate at Haltwhistle Burn, Archaeologia Aeliana, Series 3, 1909.
  • David Breeze, Brian Dobson: Roman military deployment in North England, Britannia: a journal of Romano-British and kindred studies, No. 16, 1985.
  • David Breeze, Brian Dobson: Hadrian's Wall, Penguin, London 2000.
  • Michel Reddé: Les fortins du désert Oriental d'Égypte et l'architecture militaire romaine, in H. Cuvigny: La route de Myos Hormos, L'armée romaine dans le désert Oriental d'Égypte, volume 1, Cairo: Institut Français d ' archeology orientale 2006.
  • Paul Bidwell, Nick Hodgson: The Roman Army in Northern England. Arbeia Society, Newcastle upon Tyne 2009.
  • DR Wilson: Defensive outworks of Roman forts in Britain [classified]. Britannia: a journal of Romano-British and kindred studies, No. 15, 1984.
  • Humphrey Welfare, Vivien Swan: Roman camps in England: the field archeology, HMSO, London, 1995.
  • John Kenneth Sinclair St. Joseph: Society for Promotion of Roman Studies. The journal of Roman studies, No. 59, 1969.
  • John Kenneth Sinclair St. Joseph, Shepard Frere: Roman Britain from the Air. 1983, plate 31.
  • WS Hanson, Lawrence Keppie: Roman Frontier Studies, plate 11.2.
  • GDB Jones: Hadrian's Wall from the Air. Plate 20.
  • M. Bowden, D. Mackay, P. Topping: From Cornwall to Caithness. Oxford 1989, p. 156.
  • Matthew Symonds: Protecting the Roman Empire: Fortlets, Frontiers, and the Quest for Post-Conquest Security. Cambridge University Press, 2018.
  • ID Margary: Roman Roads in Britain. London 1973.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Symonds 2018, p. 100.
  2. ↑ Geogr. Rav. 431, 10
  3. ↑ Birley 1961 pp. 145-146, Gibson / Simpson 1909, pp. 213-85, Breeze / Dobson 1985, pp. 1-19
  4. ↑ Birley 1961, pp. 145-146, Wilson 1984, pp. 51-61
  5. ↑ Gibson / Simpson 1909, pp. 252-255; see. Breeze / Dobson 2000, p. 18, Dobson 1986, pp. 4–5, Reddé 2006, p. 250, Bidwell / Hodgson 2009, p. 73.
  6. ^ Gibson / Simpson, 1909, pp. 213-285, Margary 1973, pp. 443-448.
  7. ↑ Jones / Woolliscroft 2,001th
  8. ↑ Gibson / Simpson 1909, pp. 259-260, Part IV, Welfare / Swan 1995, pp. 107-110.
  9. ^ Gibson / Simpson, 5, 1909, pp. 260-261, RIB 1665 .
  10. ↑ Welfare / Swan 1995, pp. 107–110, St. Joseph, 1969, p. 105.

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