07-02-2010, 08:14 PM
A recent UK TV program about the Severan campaign in Scotland (thread here), included a brief interview with Andrew Birley, Director of Excavations at Vindolanda and latest of the Birley archaeological dynasty. He was talking about the collection of unusual round hut foundations discovered at the site back in 1931, usually dated to the Severan period: he said that one interpretation of their purpose ('which we favour here at Vindolanda') is that the huts were intended as accomodation for an irregular North African cavalry unit - a numerus, presumably. He claimed that the design of the huts was unique in Britain, but resembled traditional Libyan structures.
Does anyone know more about this theory? Andrew's father, Robin Birley, when he was Director, proposed that these huts comprised a prisoner-of-war camp (or more sensationally a 'concentration camp') for Britons captured during the Severan invasion:
"Back-to-back rows of native-style circular stone huts have been found in the south-western corner of the fort, adding to earlier, similar discoveries in the centre and north. Excavators now assume that the huts covered the whole fort area, which was flattened to make way for the new buildings. If so, about 300 huts could have existed, housing up to 2,000 prisoners. According to Robin Birley, Director of the Vindolanda Trust, the huts probably date to the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus, who brought an imperial force to quell a native uprising in northern Britain... The hut rows are unparalleled at any fort elsewhere in the Empire. Many contain hearths, but they are otherwise devoid of finds as they were regularly swept clean in antiquity." (British Archaeology, August 2000)
Patricia Birley, Andrew's mother and Deputy Director at the time, claimed back in 2000 when the 'PoW camp' theory was proposed that the huts 'were built in the style of local homes' (Daily Telegraph Aug 2000). So where did this 'African horsemen' idea come from? Is there any more evidence for them? Surely the reputable Mr Birley didn't just come up with the idea off the top of his head?
- Nathan
Does anyone know more about this theory? Andrew's father, Robin Birley, when he was Director, proposed that these huts comprised a prisoner-of-war camp (or more sensationally a 'concentration camp') for Britons captured during the Severan invasion:
"Back-to-back rows of native-style circular stone huts have been found in the south-western corner of the fort, adding to earlier, similar discoveries in the centre and north. Excavators now assume that the huts covered the whole fort area, which was flattened to make way for the new buildings. If so, about 300 huts could have existed, housing up to 2,000 prisoners. According to Robin Birley, Director of the Vindolanda Trust, the huts probably date to the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus, who brought an imperial force to quell a native uprising in northern Britain... The hut rows are unparalleled at any fort elsewhere in the Empire. Many contain hearths, but they are otherwise devoid of finds as they were regularly swept clean in antiquity." (British Archaeology, August 2000)
Patricia Birley, Andrew's mother and Deputy Director at the time, claimed back in 2000 when the 'PoW camp' theory was proposed that the huts 'were built in the style of local homes' (Daily Telegraph Aug 2000). So where did this 'African horsemen' idea come from? Is there any more evidence for them? Surely the reputable Mr Birley didn't just come up with the idea off the top of his head?
- Nathan
Nathan Ross
