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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
(01-25-2017, 11:13 PM)John1 Wrote: Just another quick one about fort corner angles from a few pages back courtesy of Exeter Uni and the Daily Mail  (hangs head) 

these Hadrianic corners work for me, nice and tight, almost no rounding, a good fit for Windridge and Water Newton?


from the original article here;
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/a...-Wall.html

A more respectable piece here;
http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/featurednew...47_en.html

Is there any published material that deals with the variations in radii dimensions of Fort corners? (thread has now officially made me a complete and utter geek!!)

ps thanks Deryk, you can come to the pub.....

167057

There's a book:"Roman camps in Britain by Rebecca Jones".
There's another "The Roman Wall in Scotland " (very old)
But a great one is the work of William Roy who somewhere on the web you'll find drawings on the main forts along the Antonine Wall (2nd century).
And obviously many many on Hadrians wall

However, the thing to be careful about is the distinction between a "Fort" and an "Encampment". A fort was a fixed fortification that was intended to be occupied ... I guess the big difference would be overwinter. An encampment was a temporary beast (Also something like those at Masada were occupied for considerable periods in the siege).

The best examples we have of encampments are in Northern Britain. These are thought to mainly date from 80s AD (Agricola) 140s (Antonine) and 210s (Severus)

They exhibit different features (gates), which have been thought to relate to different dates. But I suspect they are the personal choice of the particular camp commander. But otherwise they are rounded corner, single ditch and attempting to be rectangle with near 2:3 ratio (although often failing due to the ground).

Forts on the other hand, seem to come in various types (at least the bits that are still visible - which are usually banks and ditches). However, I can't think of an example with only a single ditch (at least in part of the defences).

HOWEVER ... HOWEVER ... HOWEVER!!!!

Where are all the encampments in England?

Indeed, where are all the encampments in Gaul (A quick check doesn't reveal any obvious website on aerial photos of French encampments).
I've never seen evidence - but the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence - however unless someone knows better it seems quite possible to me that, the initial invasion of Britain did not use the type of fortification that we see in Scotland. I can think of two good reasons:

  1. The English and French campaigns were earlier - and it's only later campaigns that used ditches for temporary camps.
  2. England and France are much drier in the summer campaigning season, so it may be much harder to dig ditches - so they didn't because of the climate and they did in Scotland because summers are wetter and/or cooler so the ground is damper.
And if you don't dig ditches, you won't have the earth for banks. So, my guess is that Julia Caesar and the early British campaigns used some kind of wooden fencing - which was only loosely dug into the ground at most.

Which might mean that the only evidence it would be possible to find of a Roman encampment (if we knew where to dig), might be a couple of Dozen hobnails lost from their boots and a few bread ovens.
Oh the grand oh Duke Suetonius, he had a Roman legion, he galloped rushed down to (a minor settlement called) Londinium then he galloped rushed back again. Londinium Bridge is falling down, falling down ... HOLD IT ... change of plans, we're leaving the bridge for Boudica and galloping rushing north.
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Messages In This Thread
Re: Calling all armchair generals! - by Ensifer - 03-11-2010, 03:13 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-18-2012, 06:26 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 12:02 AM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 02:50 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 05:40 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 11:26 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 05:11 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 09:42 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 10:10 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 03:11 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 03:25 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 08:36 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-26-2012, 02:57 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-27-2012, 01:50 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 08-05-2012, 02:24 PM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-07-2014, 02:18 PM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-08-2014, 01:50 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-11-2014, 02:03 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-18-2014, 07:54 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-20-2014, 02:37 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-25-2014, 08:29 AM
RE: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand. - by MonsGraupius - 02-02-2017, 09:29 AM

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