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Note
Date 9 December 1992
Event ID 746999
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/746999
NO13NW 5.10 from 1253 3926 to 1291 3942.
On the very edge of the SE escarpment of the plateau (to the S of the fortress NO13NW 5.00) there appears to have been a third linear defence-line. It was identified during the excavations of 1952-65 and comprised a timber 'breastwork' (possibly a revetment to a low upcast bank) supported on posts (set 1.83m part) and with an external ditch (1.4m broad and 0.6m deep). The ditch underlay (and thus pre-dated) the temporary compound pf the senior officers, and its course was traced for about 430m (not 615m, as published by Pitts and St Joseph). It terminates on the E in a bull-end at a point overlooking the approach to the SE gate of the fortress, but its course to the W of the compound remains to be established.
This feature clearly falls relatively early in the defensive sequence, and must have been a dry tactical defence which was apparently intended to secure the southern flank of the labour force in the initial stages of the occupation of the plateau. Its position on the edge of the escarpment, however, may well indicate that an extensive defensive perimeter was laid out when Agricola's army first arrived.
Information from RCAHMS (JRS) 9 December 1992.
L F Pitts and J K St Joseph 1985.
