Archaeology Notes

Event ID 704153

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/704153

NS67SE 13 c.668 748.

'A': A Roman distance slab is said to have been found about 1740, a little W of Inchbelly Bridge (NS 668 749). It was donated to the Hunterian Museum about 1744. Its inscription reads: "IMP . CAESARI . T . AELIO . HADRIANO . ANTONINO . AVG . PIO . P . P . VEXILLA . LEG . VI . VIC . P . F . PER . M . P". It measures 5ft 2ins x 2ft 6ins.

'B': A second slab is said to have been found in 1789 in the centre of the Antonine ditch at Eastermains, close to where slab 'A' was found. Its inscription reads: "LEG . XX . V . V . FEC . M . P . IIICCC . IV". This is the only inscription from the wall from the wall which mentions not just a detachment, but the 20th legion as a whole. The fact that the slab was found lying in the ditch suggests that it was almost in situ. It measures 1ft 11 1/4ins x 1ft 5ins.

The slabs commemorate the completion of adjacent lengths of the wall by different sets of soldiers.

G Macdonald 1934

The precise provenance of these slabs is unknown, but from their inscriptions and description of find spots they would have come from approximately NS 668 748.

Information from A S Robertson, Hunterian Museum to OS, 10 January 1957.