The Antonine Wall
BAR HILL AND CROY HILL
Map of the Antonine Wall, with Bar Hill and Croy Hill highlighted
The bath house on Bar Hill: as it appears today (above) and a cut-away view of it, showing the furnace and heated rooms on the left and the cold room, changing room and latrine on the right (below). Click on the image below to see a larger version.
The fort on Bar Hill is well worth visiting, as some of the excavated remains of its buildings can clearly be seen. One of the most interesting is the bath house (above), which had an under-floor heating system or hypocaust. The walls of the headquarters building (the principia) have also been left exposed here. The principia was a stone building with a tiled roof, with its rooms grouped around a courtyard. This contained a stone-lined well, which was excavated and found to be 13 metres deep. The well contained many artefacts that had been thrown into it when the fort was abandoned. These artefacts included coins, whetstones for sharpening tools, leather shoes, and evidence for cooking and diet.
The principia is where the clerks did their paperwork, keeping files on the soldiers' duties, wages and savings. one of the rooms served as a shrine. A statue of the Emperor was kept here, along with the unit's Standards.
The Antonine Wall was largely manned by soldiers recruited to the Roman army from outlying areas of the Roman Empire. Insribed altars and dedication slabs, found along the Wall, tell us much about them. The inscriptions show that Bar Hill was garrisoned by the First Cohort of Hamians, archers from Syria. Later, soldiers from the Rhineland garrisoned the fort. Often, civilian settlements developed near the forts, housing the soldiers' families and slaves, along with traders and friendly native people. Gaming counters found at Bar Hill are evidence that the soldiers liked to play board games in their free time.
The Antonine Wall passes to the north of the fort on Bar Hill, about half-way down the northern flank of the hill.
The Antonine Wall at Croy Hill
Croy Hill, near the modern village of Croy, is at the mid-point of the Antonine Wall. This is one of the best places to see the ditch that runs along the north side of the Wall. Here, the Wall snakes across the high ground, making good use of the terrain and giving excellent views northwards.
The ditch here had to be cut into hard volcanic rock (basalt). A fort stood on the east flank of Croy Hill, and although little can now be seen, excavations in the early 20th century revealed parts of the headquarters building and some inscribed stones. Some of these show that soldiers from the Sixth Legion worked here. More recent excavations have shown that there was another, smaller fort on the hill. This fortlet lies to the west of the fort and was replaced by it.
A plan showing the fort on Croy Hill, with the smaller fortlet to its west.
Reproduced by kind permission of Glasgow Archaeological Society and the Hunterian Museum
One of the artefacts found at Croy Hill is a copper alloy arm-purse (below). This would have contained coins like the ones shown in the photograph. Coins were used by the Roman army to pay for materials and for food. Roman coins bore an image of the head of the reigning Emperor on one side and often an image of a building, an event or an animal on the other side.
Arm-purse with coins. Click on the image to see a larger version
Among the other artefacts excavated at Croy Hill are a group of carved stone tablets. One of these is part of a gravestone (below), showing three legionaries, a bearded older man in the middle and a younger man on each side. Possibly this is the gravestone of a legionary who died during the building work on the fort, or of a centurion who commanded the fort's garrison.
Part of a gravestone excavated at Croy Hill
Photograph reproduced by kind permission of the Trustees of the National Museums of Scotland
The image below shows what the funeral of this man may have been like. Here, his cremated remains are buried in front of his gravestone on Croy Hill, with the Antonine Wall shown on the right. Soldiers of the Sixth Legion are gathered in the garrison cemetery to attend his funeral.
A funeral on Croy Hill
(drawing by Chris Brown)
