Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T15:58:44.060Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Recent Aerial Discoveries in Roman Scotland: Drumquhassle, Elginhaugh and Woodhead

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

G. S. Maxwell
G. S. Maxwell
Affiliation:
The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, 54 Melville Street, Edinburgh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The invaluable contribution of air photography to the study of Roman military remains in Scotland over the last five decades is already well known. From its earliest tentative beginnings in the hands of O. G. S. Crawford to the highly structured programmes directed by Professor J. K. St. Joseph and D. R. Wilson on behalf of the Cambridge University Committee for Aerial Photography, aerial reconnaissance has proved itself a stimulatingly fruitful tool – whether by its totally unexpected additions to the sum of knowledge or through its ability to find the one piece of the jigsaw-puzzle that turns surmise into certainty. In this process the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland has also had a part to play, although, for much of the time it has worked, perforce, within a more restricted frame of reference, scrutinizing the vast collections of RAF vertical photographs during its preparation of County Inventories, or in the course of the Survey of Marginal Lands in 1951–8. Nevertheless, the discovery of the forts at Bishopton, Broomholm, Easter Happrew, and Oakwood, as well as the fortlet at Lurg Moor and the watch-tower at Beattock Summit, mainly as a result of such scrutiny by K. A. Steer and R. W. Feachem, indicates that even this more passive form of involvement can be handsomely rewarding.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 14 , November 1983 , pp. 167 - 181
Copyright
Copyright © G. S. Maxwell 1983. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 For a recent summary of achievements see Glasgow Arch. Journ. iv (1976), 1–28.Google Scholar

2 Steer, K. A., Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot, lxxxiii (1948–1949), 28–32.Google Scholar

3 Feachem, R. W., Trans. Dumfries, and Galloway Natur. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. xxviii (1951), 188–9.Google Scholar

4 Steer, K. A., Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot, xc (1956–1957), 93–101.Google Scholar

5 Steer, K. A. and Feachem, R. W., Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot, lxxxvi (1951–1952), 81–105.Google Scholar

6 JRS xliii (1953), 107.Google Scholar

7 Britannia vii (1976), 33–8.Google Scholar

8 Maxwell, G. S. (ed.), The Impact of Aerial Reconnaissance on Archaeology, C.B.A. Research Report No 49 (1983).Google Scholar

9 Discovery and Excavation in Scotland 1976, 84; ibid. 1977, 53; ibid. 1978, 37; ibid. 1979, 49; ibid. 1980, 44; ibid. 1981, 52.

10 Britannia xi (1980), 43–50.Google Scholar

11 W. J. Watson, Celtic Place-names of Scotland (1926), 199, 223.

12 J. P. Gillam, Types of Roman Coarse Pottery Vessels in Northern Britain (1968), no. 2.

13 For recent discussion of the problem see the papers by Breeze, D. J. and Frere, S. S. in Scottish Arch, forum xii (1981), 14–24, 89–97.Google Scholar

14 From a commercial survey by B K S Surveys Ltd., Sortie 2277, prints 240–2; Central Register of Air Photography of Scotland catalogue no. A140.

15 Maxfield, V. A., Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot, cv (1972–1973), 141–50.Google Scholar

16 cf. The New Statistical Account of Scotland (1845), i, 258.

17 R.C.A.M.S./AP Nos. ML/3473–5, 3538–42.

18 The author is grateful to B. R. Hartley for his comments on this item.

19 The fabric was not distinctive enough to permit more than a generalized comment on its date and provenance, for which the author is grateful to Mrs K. F. Hartley.

20 Henshall, A. S., Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot, xcviii (1964–1965, 1965–6), 204–7, 209–10.Google Scholar

21 cf. I. D. Margary, Roman Roads in Britain (1973), 486–8.

22 op. cit. (note 14), prints 225–6.

23 G. S. Maxwell Proc. Scot. Antiq. Scot, forthcoming.

24 See Hanson, W. S., Scottish Arch. Forum xii (1981), 55–68.Google Scholar

25 Tatton-Brown, T. W. T., Britannia xi (1980), 340–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 See G. W. S. Barrow, Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland (1976), 178.

27 JRS xlviii (1958), 88Google Scholar; ibid., lix (1969), 107; ibid., lxiii (1973), 216.

28 See especially R.C.A.M.S./AP nos. ML/2557, 2900.

29 See Scottish Arch. Forum xii (1981), 29–35, pl. 2.Google Scholar

30 op. cit. (note 10), 43–4.

31 op. cit. (note 1), 7–11.

32 McCord, N. and Tait, J., Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot, cix (1977–1978), 368–72.Google Scholar

33 Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot, viii (1868–1870), 105–9Google Scholar; ibid. lix (1924–5), 94–5.

34 op. cit. (note 29), 44, pl. 7.

35 Hanson, W. S. and Macinnes, L., Scottish Arch. Forum xii (1981), 98–113.Google Scholar

36 D. M. Reynolds in D. W. Harding (ed.), Later Prehistoric Settlement in south-east Scotland (1982), 44–56.