I is for Inchtuthil
Theme: Ancient Roman Scotland during the Flavian era
Inchtuthil, the only legionary base
in Scotland
However, some experts are unsure if the course of the River Tay followed its present route in Flavian times. It's possible the river may have coursed around the northern side rather than its present southern location. There are even theories that the River Tay may have split around the area forming an island plateau, which presents even more interesting questions for archaeologists to solve when thinking of the logistics that Roman engineers would have had to think about.
The site on the River Tay is also a strategic place for a possible incursion into the higher terrain of the Caledonian Mountains.
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| River Tay at Dunkeld- copyright Nancy Jardine |
As well as being the only
fortress built during the Flavian Caledonian campaign, Inchtuthil is also the
only installation built in Scotland during this era which had any kind of stone
used in the fortifications. On the front side, currently facing the River Tay, a modification
had been made where a 1.5 metre-thick stone wall had been inserted.
For such a massive wooden
installation, enormous amounts of wood would have been felled to create the
fort exterior and for the interior wooden buildings. Some 16,000 cubic metres
(650,000 cubic feet) has been estimated. The numbers are meaningless, to me,
except to declare that a huge amount of man-power was needed to fell the timber
(material), dress the posts, haul the
wood to the building site and then for the actual insertion into already created
post holes. A hive of industry, indeed!
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| Site of Inchtuthil Roman Fort - Geography Project |
Click HERE to see a plan of the site. (I haven't yet made my own copy but will someday!)
Four out of a possible six houses
were built for the tribunes and/or
the camp prefect (Praefectus Castrorum) but
there is space for a good number more which could have been built. The main
barrack blocks are built in neat groups of 6, representing those needed for a
cohort, but there are also five larger blocks which are the possible evidence
for the 1st Cohort double-centuries. Near the larger 1st Cohort blocks are
substantial centurion quarters and the house for the main command centurion of
the legion, the Primus Pilus.
It's thought that the Inchtuthil fortress was at some point garrisoned by the Legio XX Valeria Victrix.
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| Nancy Jardine |
The workshop (fabrica) is a common feature in forts
though the one at Inchtuthil is much larger than normal. The fabrica had a courtyard structure with
an aisled walkway around three sides, with a range of rooms along the fourth
side fronted by a timber colonnade.
The finds in this area were hugely
significant. Furnaces; iron wheel-tyres; and other iron objects had been buried
when the fortress was abandoned but the most incredible find was close to one million iron nails of varying sizes. On retreat, the norm across the Roman Empire seems to have been to dismantle the fort as much as possible and to remove all items of future use. This meant that little was left for the enemy to use, or refashion if it was made of metal.
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| Nancy Jardine- taken in National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. Nails from Inchtuthil |
That such a quantity of iron nails were buried begs a number of questions. Was the fortress abandoned too quickly to have the hoard transported to the south? Was there a possibility that Roman forces might return in the relatively near future and could dig them up and use them for new fort building? Was it because there weren't any extra carts or waggons available to transport the weight?
The size of the fabrica structure and the evidence within showed that the workshop
at Inchtuthil was intended as a major manufacturing centre, built to supply all
metals needs for a protracted invasion and settlement of northern Caledonia.
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| tools of a doctor (medicus) found at Pompeii |
Another very large building is thought
to be a hospital building (valetudinarium)
though there’s no actual evidence to be sure. It consists of two concentric
rectangles of many small rooms, separated by a corridor, and with a central
courtyard to the interior. The design of this valetudinarium is seen in other installations in Britannia, in
locations where its use is better attested.
As far as I know, none of the tools as seen in this image of instruments were found at Inchtuthil but they would have been really great evidence to prove it was a hospital!
The construction of the hospital (?) area,
before the legate’s quarters (praetorium) was built, perhaps indicates
that the hospital may have had priority status. There’s no evidence of any buildings
for the legate, the most senior commanding
officer (praetorium), the central space
adequate for this but left empty.
Other unusual features of the fortress
interior are the unusually small and offset headquarters building (principia), the thinking being that it
was intended for a very temporary use before a larger one would be built to
take up the expected central space of the fortress. If so, the small temporary principia could have been easily
dismantled with no break in the operations of the fortress.
There’s evidence for six
granaries, with typical beam laid foundations but space left available for
building the same again should the fort become fully garrisoned and the need
for grain much greater.
The plan of Inchtuthil lends
itself to many other questions as to the use of areas and the order in which
those that were constructed were actually built... but that would need a further
post! The area on
the plateau surrounding the wooden fortress gives evidence of a large temporary
camp construction, perhaps labour accommodation for during the massive construction
process. There’s also a further smaller temporary camp and some other areas
which may have been officer accommodations during the construction phase. The stone bath house that is thought to date to late Flavian period is another site of conjecture. It's far too small to be for the main garrison use and excavators differ in opinion if it was even ever used by the officers at the fortress.
Inchtuthil was a massive project
but, for me, the most amazing thing is that only a few years after it was
begun, and before it was actually completed, the fortress was stripped out and
abandoned c. 87 or 88.
Why? We may never know. By early A.D. 85 General Gnaeus Iulius Agricola
had been recalled back to Rome Dacia
As an author of this era, in the
Caledonian context, I’m desperate for new evidence to be uncovered which would
provide some more clarity. Till then my imagination can soar- when it’s my
fiction that I'm writing!
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