Remains Of The Roman Invasion Of Ayrshire Are Founded

According to a report by The Herald, evidence has been found of a Roman army marching camp at a construction site in southwestern Scotland. Archaeologist Iraia Arabaolaza said the camp could be dated back to the 1st century AD and the victory of Agricola, the Roman governor of Great Britain, on an army of Caledonians in the battle of Mons Graupius. Previously it had been thought that the Romans only traveled one route further east for the invasion. This camp, explained Arabaolaza, would have been strategically located just a day's march from other Roman camps in the region. It is believed that the fire wells distributed evenly on the site were used to bake bread. "The location of the furnace was recognized by the abrasion of the base of the subsoil, the stone slabs and the fragments of burnt clay, some with wooden footprints and with dome moldings," said Arabaolaza. Most of the camp has been destroyed by construction and landscaping projects over the years, he added.

The Roman march camps have been described as the temporary bases of a field campaign army. While most Roman camps are usually recognized by the regular linear ditches that enclose them, the landscape or the plow on the site of the Ayr Academy seems to have destroyed such remains.

The camp at the Ayr Academy, however, shares other similarities with the Roman camps in Scotland, which have also revealed similar formations of fire pits or camp furnaces.

Ms. Arabaolaza said: "The Roman characteristics comprised 26 large, often double, fire wells that were evenly distributed in two parallel rows separated by 30 m. The arrangement and uniformity of these characteristics implies an organized design and the evidence suggests that all were used for cooking bread.

"The location of the kiln was recognized by the abrasion of the base of the subsoil, the stone slabs and the fragments of burnt clay, some with wooden footprints and dome moldings. The ash holes were identified at the opposite end to the kilns within this figure of eight characteristics, filled with burnt earth and rich in charcoal that includes the raked material of kilns with clay dome ".

It is also possible that the archaeological remains represent only a part of the camp, which may have extended to the flat land to the north, where the modern racecourse is located.

Archaeologists said that the Romans were not the first people to occupy the site. The traces of the local population of the Iron Age recovered during the excavation, including a fragment of a shale bracelet, along with later pits and holes dating from much earlier times.

Evidence of the ritual activity of the Bronze Age of the late third and second millennium BC, a Neolithic settlement of the fourth millennium BC and a Mesolithic hunter / gatherer camp of the sixth millennium BC was also discovered, revealing that the area is one of the oldest and most complex prehistoric sites in this part of the west coast of Scotland.

This indicates that the first occupation of the Ayr Academy site dates back to around 5200 BC, about twice the age of the Roman camp of March.

By: Preeti Narula

Content: https://www.archaeology.org/news/7678-190524-scotland-army-camp