DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22272#0081
THE ANTONINE WALL REPORT.
63
and after exposure portions of it fell away, but the remainder of
the stone is in perfect preservation. It is of the type of volcanic
stone known as Andernach, of which several examples have been
obtained at different places along the wall. This has been
thought to point to the inference that the Roman soldiers
carried with them from their continental homes1 the querns
they used for grinding their corn. The grooving is the same
as shown in another quern pictured in Stuart's " Caledonia
Romana," plate XIII.
At this part a new condition of things has begun in the relations
of the vallum to the fosse. About 46 yards west of the western
stone dyke at Croy Houses, where the wall boldly climbs the
height, the ditch swerves sharply to the north so as to take a
lower part of the hill, not, however, round the foot of it, but about
midway in its descent. The vallum occupies the very crown of
the ridge, and the hillside northward slopes at first gradually,
then more abruptly and steeply, into the ditch. The berm, there-
fore, if berm it can here be called, quite differs from previous
examples; as it is a broad downward slope which, opposite the
section, is no less than 112 feet wide. Its terminal point at the
edge of the fosse is a rough, steep, rocky face, which is only partly
natural. This rock face would appear to have been, for probably
the greater part of its height, laid bare by the Romans, so as to
give to the ditch a very strong and rugged scarp, a natural
revetment of bare rock. The ditch here, and for a considerable
distance onward, is, as it were, a notch cut into the rocky slope at
a kind of ledge in the descent. In rounding the second ridge of
Croy generally it is cut very well up the rock face, with a very
rapid descent to the northward immediately beyond. The slope
sometimes falls more rapidly below the ditch than above it. It is
thus apparent that the ditch was cut midway on a steep
descending slope.
In rounding this part of the hill also, where there is a dam in
the basin not far below the ditch, the berm (still using that term
1 Some doubts have recently been expressed as to the alleged continental origin
of these so-called Andernach quern stones, which are found far more frequently
in Britain than on the Continent. It has been suggested that a more thorough
search of British quarries might prove the type of stone to be native.
63
and after exposure portions of it fell away, but the remainder of
the stone is in perfect preservation. It is of the type of volcanic
stone known as Andernach, of which several examples have been
obtained at different places along the wall. This has been
thought to point to the inference that the Roman soldiers
carried with them from their continental homes1 the querns
they used for grinding their corn. The grooving is the same
as shown in another quern pictured in Stuart's " Caledonia
Romana," plate XIII.
At this part a new condition of things has begun in the relations
of the vallum to the fosse. About 46 yards west of the western
stone dyke at Croy Houses, where the wall boldly climbs the
height, the ditch swerves sharply to the north so as to take a
lower part of the hill, not, however, round the foot of it, but about
midway in its descent. The vallum occupies the very crown of
the ridge, and the hillside northward slopes at first gradually,
then more abruptly and steeply, into the ditch. The berm, there-
fore, if berm it can here be called, quite differs from previous
examples; as it is a broad downward slope which, opposite the
section, is no less than 112 feet wide. Its terminal point at the
edge of the fosse is a rough, steep, rocky face, which is only partly
natural. This rock face would appear to have been, for probably
the greater part of its height, laid bare by the Romans, so as to
give to the ditch a very strong and rugged scarp, a natural
revetment of bare rock. The ditch here, and for a considerable
distance onward, is, as it were, a notch cut into the rocky slope at
a kind of ledge in the descent. In rounding the second ridge of
Croy generally it is cut very well up the rock face, with a very
rapid descent to the northward immediately beyond. The slope
sometimes falls more rapidly below the ditch than above it. It is
thus apparent that the ditch was cut midway on a steep
descending slope.
In rounding this part of the hill also, where there is a dam in
the basin not far below the ditch, the berm (still using that term
1 Some doubts have recently been expressed as to the alleged continental origin
of these so-called Andernach quern stones, which are found far more frequently
in Britain than on the Continent. It has been suggested that a more thorough
search of British quarries might prove the type of stone to be native.