DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22272#0063
THE ANTONINE WALL REPORT.
45
division between the layers of soil. The layers separated by
these lines are sometimes 4 or 5 inches thick, but average nearly
3 inches. In the descriptions, we have, whenever it was possible
to give the number of layers observed, indicated this by counting
the dark lines. As each line has a concurrent layer, it will be
understood that the mention of any number of dark lines
implies the existence of a similar number of these concurrent
layers of lighter-coloured earths. These lines have breaks and
flaws and irregularities very often, but their constancy, their
continuity across the vallum, and their general steady parallelism,
are vitally characteristic of them. It was suspected, from the
time that Mr. Jolly drew attention to the layers in the soil of
the earliest sections, that in them and in the dark lines there
was written a fuller and truer version of the wall's structural
history than any modern author had penned.
What we have, in the descriptions, referred to as the "limits
of debris " is the point to which, on each side of the kerbstones,
the fallen substance of the vallum has spread and now slopes
down from the crown of the vallum, undistinguishable from the
vallum itself until viewed from the interior. The limit extends
usually to about 12 feet beyond the kerbs on each side. The
material between the edge of the kerbs and the limits of debris
on each side is always of much the same character as that above
the stone foundation, with the single fundamental difference
that, whilst occasional faint irregular traces of something like
lamination can be detected, these are rare. It may be stated
in general terms, that the material beyond the kerbs but within
the limits of debris has scarcely ever any real lamination, and
that only in one or two exceptional instances are the layers in
the vallum protracted more than 6 inches beyond the line of
the kerbs. This material therefore is, normally, not stratified.
45
division between the layers of soil. The layers separated by
these lines are sometimes 4 or 5 inches thick, but average nearly
3 inches. In the descriptions, we have, whenever it was possible
to give the number of layers observed, indicated this by counting
the dark lines. As each line has a concurrent layer, it will be
understood that the mention of any number of dark lines
implies the existence of a similar number of these concurrent
layers of lighter-coloured earths. These lines have breaks and
flaws and irregularities very often, but their constancy, their
continuity across the vallum, and their general steady parallelism,
are vitally characteristic of them. It was suspected, from the
time that Mr. Jolly drew attention to the layers in the soil of
the earliest sections, that in them and in the dark lines there
was written a fuller and truer version of the wall's structural
history than any modern author had penned.
What we have, in the descriptions, referred to as the "limits
of debris " is the point to which, on each side of the kerbstones,
the fallen substance of the vallum has spread and now slopes
down from the crown of the vallum, undistinguishable from the
vallum itself until viewed from the interior. The limit extends
usually to about 12 feet beyond the kerbs on each side. The
material between the edge of the kerbs and the limits of debris
on each side is always of much the same character as that above
the stone foundation, with the single fundamental difference
that, whilst occasional faint irregular traces of something like
lamination can be detected, these are rare. It may be stated
in general terms, that the material beyond the kerbs but within
the limits of debris has scarcely ever any real lamination, and
that only in one or two exceptional instances are the layers in
the vallum protracted more than 6 inches beyond the line of
the kerbs. This material therefore is, normally, not stratified.