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Aerial Photographic Interpretation
Date 11 January 1993
Event ID 682798
Category Recording
Type Aerial Photographic Interpretation
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/682798
NO13NW 5.01 1197 3945.
Cropmarks to the SW of the Roman legionary fortress (NO13NW 5.00) have revealed the presence of a two-period temporary camp which probably housed troops engaged in the construction work. Initially, the camp enclosed an area of 19.9ha and faced NE towards the main construction site; subsequently, however, it was reduced to 14ha, a new SW side being drawn across the rear portion or postica about 125m inside the original line. The positions of all four gates (of both periods) are known, and at none has additional protection in the form of traverse or clavicula been recorded.
The length of the construction-programme upon which the occupants were engaged has made it inevitable that they left more obvious traces of their stay than would be expected in a more transitory marching-camp. The wealth of evidence recorded by air photography within the interior makes it a unique source of evidence for reconstructing the internal layout of a temporary bivouac. Study of the air photographs, combined with the evidence of excavation, has enabled Frere to offer a plausible interpretation of the complex cropmarks, correcting earlier attempts based on the air photographs alone.
Two types of marking are particularly significant: those indicating the positions of ovens and cooking-places just behind the presumed rampart; and those of smaller size disposed in lines running parallel to one or other of the main axes of the camp, which were proved by excavation to be rubbish-disposal pits associated with the tent-lines of the encamped garrison. Of the latter, it was possible to identify two pairs of double-lines traversing the postica of each period, which appeared to define the course of roadways, and one or two double-lines delimiting shorter streets in the right praetentura.
From these identifications, which show beyond question that the via quintana was lacking in both periods, it is possible to specify the areas occupied by individual cohorts and to assess the strength of the force in bivouac. In its first phase, it is likely that the camp held the equivalent of some 30 cohorts (c.15,000 men); the reduction of the area by about a third in the second phase might thus represent the departure of ten cohorts (a complete legion), perhaps to take up occupation in the permanent fortress.
Information from RCAHMS (JRS) 11 January 1993.
G S Maxwell 1980; L F Pitts and J K St Joseph 1985.
