Artefact Recovery

Date 1865

Event ID 558649

Category Recording

Type Artefact Recovery

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/558649

NS57SW 11 c. 515 723.

A distance slab of the Twentieth Legion was found in the spring of 1865, 3' below the surface when trenching. Buchanan describes the find spot as on the southern slope of Hutcheson Hill, on the slope of the little hill about six yards S of the line of the Antonine Wall. It can be deduced that the "southern slope" of Hutcheson Hill can only mean that part which looks down on Cleddans, and the lower of the two fields lying on this slope is a fit subject for drainage operations such as those which led to the discovery of the slab (Macdonald 1934).

Measuring 2'10" x 2'2", its inscription, a duplicate of that on the slab described on NS 57 SW 2 reads: "IMP.C.T.AEL.HADRIANO.ANTONINO.AUG.PIO.P. P.VEX.LEG.XX.VV...FEC.P.P. III". Its design is comparable with one of the slabs found near the Dalnottar Burn (NS47SE 19). The slab was sent to the Chicago Museum, where it was destroyed in the fire of 1871. Only a cast (in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow) is preserved.

G Macdonald 1934; J Buchanan 1883; J Macdonald 1897.