Small fort Throp

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Throp Castle
limes Britain
section Stanegate
Dating (occupancy) Trajanic / Hadrianic,
2nd - 4th century AD
Type a) Numerus fort ?,
b) Street posts
unit unknown
size 55 × 55 meters
(0.25 ha)
Construction Wood-earth on stone foundation
State of preservation Visible above ground (terrain deformation).
place Upper Denton (Cumbria)
Geographical location 54 ° 59 '9.6 "  N , 2 ° 34' 37.2"  W Coordinates: 54 ° 59 '9.6 "  N , 2 ° 34' 37.2"  W. hf
Previous Magnis Castle (east)
Subsequently Nether Denton Fort (west)
Upstream Banna (Hadrian's Wall) (northwest)
Course of the Stanegate and Hadrian's Wall with locations of the forts
Coin portrait of Trajan
View of the Throp Farm at Upper Denton
Findings sketch from 1910
Roman fortifications near Gilsland

The small fort Throp was a Roman fortification on the Stanegate border in northern Britain . It is located near the town of Gilsland , District Carlisle , in the parish of Upper Denton in County Cumbria , England .

The fortification was built in the early 2nd century AD to protect a road bridge and the northern border of Britain. In terms of area, the camp was the smallest fortification on Stanegate. Ceramic finds suggest it was used until the 4th century AD.

Location and function

The Roman fortress stood 90 meters north of Stanegate and 200 meters south of Hadrian's Wall ( Meilenkastell 48 ). It is located at the northeast end of a cross-country spur with a good view of the road, a small river, the Poltross Burn to the east, and to the northwest on a flat valley where the Stanegate crosses the Irthing River .

The camp near the Throp farm served to protect the bridge over the Poltross Burn, a tributary of the Irthing about 180 meters east of the fort. It is located near the point where the Poltross Burn emerges from a narrow gorge and flows into the Irthing. In the 2nd century the region belonged to the province of Britannia inferior , from the 4th century to the province of Britannia secunda .

Road connections existed via the Stanegate in

Research history

The fort was partially excavated in 1910 by Frank Gerald Simpson, a member of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society. He published his findings (complete excavation report, plans, photos) in the Society Transactions of 1913. As in the camps at Brampton (Old Church) and Haltwhistle Burn , ceramic shards from the Trajan period were discovered in this fort, which made it possible to date these fortifications . These ceramics not only testify to its early occupation, which went hand in hand with the construction of Hadrian's Wall, but also suggest that it was in use again for a short time in the 4th century. In 2017 the fort area was re-mapped. The moats, which have not yet been investigated, are likely to contain numerous artifacts that will make it possible to reconstruct the living conditions in this region at the time of the Romans.

development

The great military importance of the west-east Tyne-Solway route and its access via the Pennines was recognized by the Romans during their early campaigns through northern England and Scotland in the second half of the 1st century AD. In 81 AD, the then governor of Britain, Iulius Gnaeus Agricola , had the Stanegate , a road running from east to west between the camps of Carlisle ( Luguvalium ) and Corbridge ( Coriosopitum ), built. These were both also on important north-south routes. This military road stretched further west from Carlisle, perhaps to the Cumbrian coast. After the Romans withdrew from Scotland on the line between the rivers Tyne and Solway in 84 AD, this became the northern border line of the empire under Emperor Trajan . Numerous forts and small fortresses and watchtowers were built along the road to defend and monitor this Limes . Further fortifications to secure the northern border were built at the time of Trajan in Castle Hill, Newbrough, Magnis (Carvoran) and Brampton Old Church. During this time the small fort in Haltwhistle Burn and Throp could have been built. The aim of the Roman strategists was the expansion of the existing infrastructure and better monitoring by adding these smaller camps. The function of the forts expanded with the construction of Hadrian's Wall from 122 AD onwards to include a support and depot function for supplying the border troops. When the new border line was established, it largely lost its strategic importance and the smaller camps were abandoned. Hadrian's Wall remained the northernmost border of the Roman Empire until its army and administration withdrew from the island from 400 AD.

Fort

The small fort had an almost perfect square floor plan, measured 55 × 55 meters, enclosed an area of ​​around 0.25 hectares and was thus one of the smallest fortifications on Stanegate. The fence was constructed as Murus caespiticius , a wall made of lawn bricks. It essentially consisted of a 5 meter wide stone foundation, the peat / earth wall made of turf bricks with a battlement, crowned by a wooden parapet made of palisades or wattle. In addition, the camp was surrounded by a 5.5-meter-wide trench, which is now largely backfilled by erosion. The ramparts were almost completely leveled over the centuries by agricultural activity. In some places they are only preserved up to a height of 0.7 meters above the ground. Three sides of the camp are therefore still visible as prominent elevations in the ground, while the SW side is characterized by a severely mutilated cliff. But it probably no longer marks the original line of the wall. The remains of the moat can still be seen on the southern corner of the fort. The camp had two gates, one in the northeast and one in the southeast. The excavation of 1910 showed that the gates were probably made entirely of wood, each rested on six supporting pillars and at least part of their passages were paved. Some hearths were found on the north-west wall and an oven on the south-east wall. Although there - allegedly - several stone blocks had been plowed on the site, in contrast to the Haltwhistle Burn Fort, in which all the interior buildings were built in stone, no signs of such buildings were found in Throp.

garrison

It is not known by which unit the fort was occupied. At the beginning of the second century, the auxiliary troop cohorts were split up into smaller departments ( Numbers ) and distributed over several smaller camps. The camp in which the quarters of the commanding officer were located was both headquarters and administrative center. The headquarters of the unit stationed in Throp was probably the fort at Haltwhistle Burn .

Marching camp

So far, two provisional marching camps have been found in the vicinity of Fort Throp.

camp description
Willowford Only minor remains of this camp have survived. It was badly damaged by later agricultural activities, but can be clearly seen on aerial photographs taken by the Royal Air Force. You can still see an elevation in the ground and the weir ditch (width 3 to 4 meters). On the north side, part of the camp wall was destroyed by agricultural activity. The south-west corner and two thirds of the south side of the moat are also only faintly visible. The camp stood in a pasture, on a 155 meter high spur, 350 meters south of watchtower 48b (Hadrian's Wall). To the north a steep slope leads into the valley of the Irthing and to the south, into a somewhat flatter valley. The location offered a good all-round view, with the exception of the west-southwest, which is restricted by the terrain spur. The camp had a square, somewhat irregular floor plan, dimensions 90 × 70 meters. It was also surrounded by a shallow trench 0.3 meters deep. The only striking remnant of the camp wall is in the northwest and is still around 0.3 meters high. The east side curves slightly outwards, although there is no topographical reason for it. Fixed gates were not erected in such marshes. A titulum (moat) and an outer and inner clavicle (entrances) were usually created in front of the entrances to prevent the approach. The east gate is partially 0.1 meters high. The ditch in front of it can also be seen. A second gate may have been on the north side. On the south side, the camp wall ran along the ridge, but it drops off steeply so that there was probably no passage there. The only distinctive soil feature inside the camp is an Ice Age boulder , known as Greystone, which is located in the southeast corner of the camp.
Crooks This square camp, also still visible, stood on the northern edge of Thirlwall Common (height 190 meters) and 450 meters south of Crooks. Its long axis is aligned along a low ridge that extends from Wardoughan to NNE. This position is unusual because although it allows an open view to the south and east, it is severely restricted in the other direction. Above all, the moat of the camp is clearly recognizable. This is preserved to a depth of 0.7 meters. The camp walls, on the other hand, have been almost completely leveled over the centuries. Their small remains are no higher than 0.2 meters, best preserved near the northwest corner. The reason for this almost complete leveling is unclear, as the fort area was never used for agriculture. Its area measures 126 × 90 meters. The area enclosed by the moat is 0.9 hectares. There are four gates, each in the center on each side and secured by a clavicle . Apart from the north gate, which is badly disturbed by a drainage ditch, these bastions are still around 1.6 meters high, but their upstream trenches are nowhere deeper than 0.4 meters. The west gate seems to have been added later, for what purpose is unknown.

literature

  • Frank Gerald Simpson: The fort on the Stanegate at Throp. Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, NS 13, 1913.
  • John C. Bruce, Ian Archibald Richmond: Handbook to Roman Wall. 12th edition, Hill, Newcastle upon Tyne 1966.
  • Eric Birley: Research on Hadrian's Wall, Kendal, Wilson 1961.
  • Humphrey Welfare, Vivien Swan: Roman camps in England. The field archeology, HMSO, London 1995.
  • WS Hanson, Lawrence Keppie: Roman frontier studies 1979. Papers presented to the 12th International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies. BAR international series Bennett, Temporary camps along Hadrian's Wall, 1980.
  • Barry Jones, David Woolliscroft: Hadrian's Wall from the air. Tempus Stroud, 2001.
  • John Hunter, Ian Ralston: The Archeology of Britain. An Introduction from Earliest Times to the Twenty-First Century. 2nd Edition, Routledge, London 2009.
  • Matthew Symonds: Protecting the Roman Empire: Fortlets, Frontiers, and the Quest for Post-Conquest Security. Cambridge University Press 2018.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Symonds 2018, p. 100
  2. ↑ Simpson 1913, pp. 363-381.
  3. ↑ Hunter / Ralston 2009, therein: WS Hanson: Roman Britain: The military dimension, Chapter 8.
  4. ↑ Simpson 1913, pp. 363-381, Birley, 1961, Richmond 1966, p. 159
  5. ↑ Welfare / Swan 1995, pp. 51-52.
  6. ↑ Hanson / Keppie 1980, pp. 151–172, Welfare / Swan 1995, p. 92.

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