The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

Roman Britain: military dimension
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Figure 8.6 Site plans: fortlet and towers: a. Barburgh Mill; b. Westerton; c. Filey. The plans in the boxed
inserts are at the same scale as Figures 8.4 and 8.5.
Barburgh Mill, Dumfriesshire
Dating to the period of the Antonine occupation of south-west Scotland, the fortlet at Barburgh
Mill is the most completely excavated example of its type (Breeze 1974). The fortlet, which
enclosed an area of less than 0.1 ha, contained two small timber barrack blocks, sufficient to
house a single century (about 80) of infantry troops (Figure 8.6a). Its occupation relates to the
close control of south-west Scotland in the early Antonine period, and did not continue beyond
the late 150s or early 160s AD.
Richborough, Kent
Possibly one of the landing sites on the east coast of Kent for the Claudian invasion of AD
43. Richborough became a military supply base immediately thereafter. An irregular enclosure
was filled with timber-built granaries, though this function seems to have been short-lived.
The association of the site with the original conquest seems to have been reaffirmed in the
Flavian period with the construction of a monumental triumphal arch later in the first century
AD. After a period of urban development, the site was reoccupied by the military in the midthird
century, with the apparent conversion of the monumental arch into a watchtower
surrounded by triple ditches. Later in that century this was levelled and a new fort built,
enclosed by massive stone walls over 3 m thick and at least 7 m high with projecting bastions,
constituting one of a series of coastal defences that made up the Saxon Shore frontier
(Maxfield 1989) (Figure 8.5d). Unfortunately, little is known of its internal buildings, which
seem to have been mainly of timber. The well-preserved remains of the Late Roman defences,
the base of the triumphal arch and elements of the ditch system of the earlier supply base
are on public display.