08-26-2018, 05:53 PM
(08-26-2018, 10:35 AM)MonsGraupius Wrote:(08-15-2018, 10:53 AM)D B Campbell Wrote: ...derived from an original Latin medio, we should surely ask "middle of what?"...Balmuildy happens to be the middle of the western section of Antonine wall - and except for a small extension on the eastern end, it is only in this section that has distance slabs. This may indicate that this section was built at a different time and Balmuildy was literally the "middle of the (new) wall". It also means that those same a "pace" was two paces got it wrong.
My goodness -- I had no idea this thread was still running. My email stopped alerting me last week.
In case the original poster thinks we are being unreasonable, I thought it might be illuminating to refer to the "official" interpretation of these ancient names: http://www.antoninewall.co.uk/history_an...part2.html (see right-hand sidebar).
I wonder -- if we accept that Saint Patrick was born near Alcluith (Dumbarton Rock), as seems to have been believed (on no clear authority) in the Middle Ages, I wonder where his grandfather lived? And, given that in the fifth century any settlements in the Central Lowlands of Scotland must have been rather ephemeral, perhaps Alcluith was the only sensible landmark in the area, so that, if Patrick was born somewhere along the line of the Antonine Wall, they would have said that it was "near Dumbarton".
P.S. If you want an ancient placename scholar, you could try Andrew Breeze.
And what is "Turner 1890" that keeps getting cited?
