|
- The
Roman Capital of South Scotland -
9. RE-OCCUPATION and REFURBISHMENT: TRIMONTIUM - FOURTH PHASE:
OUTPOST FORT
|
|
After twenty or even forty years' absence the earth rampart immediately
required an additional 'dump' of earth to strengthen it, and the fort ditches seem to have
been hurriedly recut, with the inclusion of branches as an easily available additional
deterrent. The buildings may have reverted to wooden construction in this 'precarious'
phase. Extra-mural settlement, with a market place, existed in the South Annexe. There was
capacity for 1,500 troops, not counting the South Annexe civilians. Like the initial first
century Agricolan phase this second century re-establishment was
probably brief.
|
 |
10. RE-ORGANISED and 'REDUCED' FORT: TRIMONTIUM - FIFTH PHASE:
|
| After the building of the Antonine Wall in the early 140s AD, Trimontium,
no longer an outpost beyond the front line, but a support fort in the rear, had its
garrison reduced and the fort rebuilt in stone for permanence, by men of the Twentieth
Legion. A 6' thick red sandstone (?) wall was built in front of the earth rampart, but the
size of the fort area was reduced to 10 acres by the building of a new stone West wall
(the 'Reducing' Wall) INSIDE the fort to the East of the existing West rampart, and
leaving the Western portion of the actual fort as a new Industrial Annexe. The 'Reducing
Wall' itself had no rampart or ditches - these still remained on the Western edge of the
new industrial area. Three relatively small, widely-spaced ditches enclosed the fort and
its new internal Industrial Annexe. The gateways were re-positioned, eg the new South
Gate - and a new second century road coming through the South Annexe to it - was
established 70m East of the previous gate and the first century road which led to it (and
still remained in use as a street). These can all be seen on the fort plan. The busy South
Annexe, with its marketplace, had a hundred 'stripe' buildings (up to a size of 100 sq.m
each) fronting on to these two roads - shop in front, with workshop and living quarters
behind that, and a rubbish dump out back. The East Gate was rebuilt in stone; the line of
the main road out was moved some ten yards further South; further settlement took place in
the East Annexe; the orientation of the fort was to Dere Street and the East. Apart from
the reconstruction of the bath-house, the Western annexe became a backwater, compared to
the South and East Annexes.
The garrison - 1,000 strong, housed in twelve barracks in the Eastern part of the fort
- was, for a time, a specialised cavalry unit, the ala Augusta Vocontiorum civium
Romanorum, a tribe originally from Spain and the South of France. The Vocontii were a
crack regiment and both horses and men were magnificently equipped. In the centre of the
fort stood the principia, the HQ building, with two granaries, horrea - one on either
side. The commander's house sat South of these buildings, and North of them another
'monumental' building, perhaps the the Deputy CO's house.
|
|
|
11. FRONT-LINE FIGHTING BASE: TRIMONTIUM - SIXTH PHASE: EXTENSION
|
| The Antonine Wall was in use for only twenty years or so, and may have
been given up for a few years within that period because of 'military difficulties'. The
repercussions were felt at Newstead; major changes took place in the arrangement of the
fort. The 'Reducing Wall' was demolished; the wall round the fort - the 'Curtain Wall' -
was extended round what had been the new internal Industrial Annexe; this area was now
given over to long narrow buildings with timber sills on stone foundations ie barracks, to
house a much bigger garrison. Outside the fort, in the Western annexe the emphasis was on
reduction and defence, as is shown by the building of an earth rampart round the
bathhouse, and the cutting of a ditch between the bathhouse and where the mansio had been.
The extra-mural population began to decline; Trimontium was now a front-line fighting
base, instead of a centre for industrial production and
distribution. |
|
|
12. COMING TO AN END: TRIMONTIUM - SEVENTH PHASE
|
| The final period of occupation at Trimontium lasted from the abandonment
of the Antonine Wall in the 160s AD until the army withdrew, probably about 185AD. The
major changes now included the demolition of many buildings in the Western area of the
fort and their replacement by small hut-like buildings; and the demolition of the HQ
building and its replacement by the so-called 'cross-hall ', which created , with the
granaries, an open courtyard facing West ie a new open-plan HQ perhaps facing in another
change of fort orientation. The barracks in the Eastern part of the fort seem to have
changed to 'chalet' form and may signify not only housing for each soldier and his family
but a massive reduction in troop numbers. The extra-mural population was now in
decline. The South Annexe may by now have been deserted, since field ditches are found in
what was a settlement area. Civilians may well have moved inside the fort defences.
Trimontium changed from an occupied stronghold to but another former 'frontier post',
where visiting troops in the buffer zone North of Hadrian's Wall might stop on a regular
tour of inspection.
Some thirty years later, Scotland was still important enough for the Emperor Septimius
Severus to invade it again in the campaign of 208-9 AD. He may well have encamped at
Trimontium on his way to Fife and the North, where he is thought to have fought the
Caledonians. After probably over-wintering at Cramond, he returned to York (Eburacum) and
died there in 210AD. Thereafter, his two sons, Geta and Caracalla reverted to the policy
of containment of Scotland by means of a buffer zone, in the Borders and Lothians, of
tribes paid to be friendly (note the Traprain Law, East Lothian, treasure of 'hack'
silver, given by the Romans to the chiefs of the Votadini - the same tribe as had occupied
Eildon Hill North - and found in 1919 by A O Curle, brother of
James Curle). |
|
|
13. BOOKS ON ROMAN SCOTLAND
|
|
- Scotland's Roman Remains - Lawrence Keppie - J Donald pub - £9.99) available at the Museum
- The Romans in Scotland - G S Maxwell - J Thin pub. 1989 - £16.99
- Roman Scotland - David Breeze - Batsford pub. 1996 - c £14
BOOK ON TRIMONTIUM
- A Roman Frontier Post and its People - James Curle, Glasgow University
Press 1911- collector's item - Inventory of the Ancient Monuments of Roxburghshire,
1956, 2 vols - Royal Commision on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland -
collector's item
- The Outpost Forts of Hadrian's Wall in the days of the Romans - Frank Graham, 1983
(illustrated by Ronald Embleton; available (c£2) from Vindolanda, Chesterholm, by Hexham.
- The Trimontium Story - J Walter Elliot - £1.50 - pub. The
Trimontium Trust available at the Museum
- Trimontium: A Roman Frontier Post and its Phases - Simon Clarke - £1 available at the Museum
- Newstead 1996: The Northern Vicus and the Amphitheatre - Simon Clarke - £1 available at the Museum
|
|
|
14. PROFESSOR J K S St JOSEPH, CBE
|
|
EMERITUS(ie retired) PROFESSOR OF AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY, CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY d 1994 Excerpt from report to First Public Inquiry, 1989
"The position of the fort will have been chosen following Agricola's third
campaign, when much of Southern Scotland was overrun. The site commands the crossing of
the Tweed by Dere Street, the main Roman road to the North, and affords a long view of the
valley upstream. Other roads diverge from Newstead; Westwards along the valley;
Southwestwards to Raeburnfoot and the Annan; and, in all probability, Eastwards down the
Tweed. The fort thus lies at the hub of a road system, planned in relation to tribal
territories. Dere Street has been traditionally regarded as separating the Votadini from
the Selgovae (though Breeze and Mann suggest the Selgovae lay further Southwest). No other
site is so well suited as Newstead to be both the military HQ in South Scotland, and an
administrative centre, for the only Roman milestone from Scotland, that from Ingliston,
shows that distances were reckoned from TRIMONTIUM.
One and a quarter miles to the Southwest of Newstead, the summit of North Eildon Hill
is crowned by a hillfort , 39 acres in extent. The juxtaposition of the largest hillfort
and the largest Roman fort known in Scotland, which can hardly be a matter of chance,
offers a unique opportunity of studying the impact of the Roman invasion on the indigenous
population. With the construction of the Roman fort, if the hillfort had not already been
abandoned its continued occupation by the natives would not have been tolerated, as is
shown by the presence of a Roman signal station inside the hillfort itself. Within a few
miles of North Eildon lie some 20 to 30 small, enclosed or fortified 'native settlements',
where excavation might reveal the response to the invasion, and also to the evacuation of
the hillfort. The potential for History of the Roman fort at Newstead, both in itself and
in relation to the archaeology of its neighbourhood is thus very
great". |
|
|
15. THE IMPORTANCE OF TRIMONTIUM: A 'SCOTSMAN'
LETTER , 1989 |
|
"Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland, 9 Atholl Crescent,
Edinburgh 26 May, 1989
Sir, - We have read with considerable interest William Chisholm's article "Digging
in to protect the relics of our Roman past" (25 May), which arose from the recent (ie
the first) public inquiry into the Borders Regional Council proposals for the final
stretch of the Melrose by-pass.
Whichever route is chosen must endanger areas of archaeological interest which lie
between Trimontium Roman fort on the lower slopes and Eildon prehistoric fort at the top
of the hill above Melrose.
It is rare for a short stretch of road proposed through the countryside to excite so
much public concern.
While it would be unwise to discuss matters which are in a sense sub-judice until the
Secretary of State has reached his conclusions, the article may inadvertently have given
some of your readers a wrong impression.
Dr Peter Addyman, director of the York Archaeological Trust, gave evidence not for the
objectors to Borders Region's proposals, nor indeed for Borders Region, but for the Royal
Fine Art Commission for Scotland.
In addition to Dr Addyman and Mr Robin Birley, other archaeologists gave evidence,
including Dr David Breeze, of the Scottish Development Department, and Mr Roger Mercer of
Edinburgh University, who spoke in favour of the Region's proposals.
J K St Joseph, a retired Cambridge professor who has spent a large proportion of his
professional life investigating Trimontium, objected to the Region's proposals and
favoured a route to the south which largely avoided the Roman encampments.
This Commission's task was to take a well-informed, objective and independent view on
all aspects of the proposals, and in this it was greatly helped by Dr Addyman's expert
advice on the likely archaeological damage which would be caused by the alternative
routes.
On balance, the Commission's views coincide with those of Professor St Joseph and Mr
Birley because of the proved significance and the potential public attraction of
Trimontium. |
|
|
|
|
|
