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Trial Trench

Date 1967

Event ID 551435

Category Recording

Type Trial Trench

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/551435

Excavation trenches across the enclosure ditch of a Roman Temporary Camp at Bellie by J K St Joseph. Manuscripts from the Barri Jones collection.

(Area: NJ 355 613) A probable Roman, V-shaped ditch, extending 975' on a straight N-S alignment was excavated in 1967. It was 7' wide and 3' deep where best preserved, had been cut in loose gravel and the east side was consistently steeper than the west. The filling showed that the ditch had lain open until silt and earth accummulated to the angle of rest. The silt was overlaid by 2' of plough-soil, presumbably post 18th century. Since bottle fragments dated to between 1770 and 1780 lay between the separate layers. No gate was found. The ditch is well-sited to from the east side of a defended enclosure, centred on the area NJ 355 613, and and possibly as large as 900' by 1200' if allowance is made for river erosion. It would be protected on the west by the Spey and on the east by a marshy hollow formerly a morass. Position and profile of ditch suggest strongly that the site is Roman, in which case it would be 'a Flavian camp, either Stracathro-type or '30 acre'.

J K St Joseph 1969.

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