Africans at Vindolanda?

[mcbishop]

On a 'if you like that you'll like this' basis, here's Khirbet-ad-Diyathe in Syria. Hang on, what are those to the north of it? ;-)

Mike Bishop

   

[John1]

On a 'if you like that you'll like this' basis, here's Khirbet-ad-Diyathe in Syria. Hang on, what are those to the north of it? ;-)

Mike Bishop

So were the Vindolanda circles all neat like Khirbet-ad-Diyathe or the more random/topographic like Guentis?

[mcbishop]

On a 'if you like that you'll like this' basis, here's Khirbet-ad-Diyathe in Syria. Hang on, what are those to the north of it? ;-)

Mike Bishop

So were the Vindolanda circles all neat like Khirbet-ad-Diyathe or the more random/topographic like Guentis?

You can judge for yourself.



Mike Bishop

[Nathan Ross]

the very same image appeared in the thread that cannot be named (post 1313)

So it did! I thought I'd seen it somewhere before...

Meanwhile - on this 'huts adjacent to (or in) forts' thing. I mentioned Ain Sinu above, a site just east of Jebel Sinjar in northern Iraq. The castellum there had another adjoining enclosure, containing what appears to be rows of barrack buildings:

   

Trouble is, the barrack blocks had 22 cells in each row, and there's no sign of officers' accommodation. So the excavators were faced with a similar problem as we have with the Vindolanda huts - was this a 'prisoner of war camp'? Was it used for housing new recruits? Was it temporary accomodation for labourers, or refugees?

The site at Ain Sinu appears to be Severan though, like the Vindolanda huts and those at Guentis. Could be some connection? (although Mike's Khirbet-ad-Diyathe looks Diocletianic to me - can't find any information about it; does it go by an alternative name?)

Ain Sinu: A Roman Frontier Post in Northern Iraq

[mcbishop]

The site at Ain Sinu appears to be Severan though, like the Vindolanda huts and those at Guentis. Could be some connection? (although Mike's Khirbet-ad-Diyathe looks Diocletianic to me - can't find any information about it; does it go by an alternative name?)

Beehive houses (as they're known) can still be found in Syria (I photographed some inhabited ones outside Aleppo in the 90s but can't find my slides at the moment) and date back well before the Roman period, so they are not specifically Diocletianic (nor is there any guarantee that the ones at Diyathe -- also Diyateh -- are contemporary with the fort). I went inside one (incorporated into an outbuilding) at Bagdad [sic] Cafe 66 on the Palmyra/Damascus road and they are indeed very cool even in the hottest weather. Essential in Northumberland, obviously ;-)



Mike Bishop

[Nathan Ross]

they are not specifically Diocletianic

I was thinking more of the fort itself! It looks rather similar to the bigger quadriburgium type forts, Qsar Bashir etc; I assume these to be Diocletianic (or thereabouts), but I've only started reading up on the near eastern limes in recent weeks...

Nice beehive huts though! They have a vaguely Malian air.