Bremenium Roman Fort 2026 - Day 23

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• DA

  @danpferguson3784 · 1 month ago (edited)

  How does the 'annexe' wall relate to the main fort, are the connections clear, & how much additional space did it give to the defended area? It appears to have been a very substantial structure that might be itself a main fort wall. Might it have been an extension, or reorganisation, of the original fort rather than an enclosure attached to the exterior ? Do the structures within the annexe look like the type of buildings expected in such annexes, the 'warehouse' looks more like those found within a forts main defences, rather than outside. A line of such 'strip' buildings were found in the Agricolan fort annexe at Elginhaugh, in Scotland, with their short ends facing on to the road that led out of the western gate of the fort. These were built on wooden beams, & had a fairly short life. This was indicated by an unworn coin of Domitian that was lost in one of the beam slots when the buildings were dismantled, & found by myself when I excavated the area in (I think, c.1982, but can't quite remember). The same beam slot had, upon its first digging, been cut through the remains of a furnace-like feature, & there were other similar hearth/oven like remains nearby. It became obvious that the annexe there had undergone at least one, & possibly more, rearrangements of buildings & uses within it, all within a fairly short period of use, estimated at possibly only a few years, depending on how long it may be estimated that the post-Domitian structures, & the fort itself. was occupied. However, the defences at Elginhaugh, neither fort or annexe, never received stone defences, but earth & timber ramparts only. Only one structure within the fort was actually constructed using a substantial amount of stone, & that was likely only for foundation walls, forming the 3 sides of a long, narrow, workshop building, showing evidence of metal working, set into the back of the rampart on the east side of the fort, by cutting away a large portion of of it. Presumably both Bremenium & Elginhaugh were originally constructed for Agricola during his campaigns through the northern parts of Britain, & his march into what is now Scotland, & the complicated series of buildings at both indicate the shifting nature of the Roman advance & occupation.

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