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+--- Thread: Lets build a Roman watch tower! (/showthread.php?tid=13311)
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Lets build a Roman watch tower! - texascavtrooper - 08-03-2008
Ok, as the title says I want to build a Roman watch tower. I have some land in south-east Texas that has a lot of trees and flat ground. So I think this would be a good place to do it. What I need is any plans, dimensions, pictures and photos of any towers that have been built or dug up. Any help would be great.
Thanks,
Bryan
Re: Lets build a Roman watch tower! - D B Campbell - 08-03-2008
Quote:What I need is any plans, dimensions, pictures and photos of any towers that have been built or dug up.I presume you're thinking of the timber watchtowers on Trajan's Column, Bryan? Like this one (courtesy of Jona's Livius website).
![[Image: rainau-schwabsberg_watchtower1_s.JPG]](http://www.livius.org/a/germany/rainau/rainau-schwabsberg_watchtower1_s.JPG)
Or do you fancy tackling their stone-built successors, like the turrets on Hadrian's Wall? Or this free-standing example from the Upper German limes?
![[Image: istockphoto_2649096_roman_watchtower_lim...ermany.jpg]](http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/2649096/2/istockphoto_2649096_roman_watchtower_limes_in_germany.jpg)
Re: Lets build a Roman watch tower! - M. Demetrius - 08-03-2008
It's obvious that the balcony floor is supported by cantilevered joists, but which are the continuous ones, the corners, making an X under the floor, or the right angled ones, making the corner joists end at their vertex, and the floor supported by a "tic tac toe" shape?
Do these joists interlock under the deck, or are they attached at their inside ends?
Roman watchtower - D B Campbell - 08-03-2008
I guess Robert could answer that question. It's his timber tower pictured above and below!
Unfortunately, his construction photo-diary omits the crucial stage!
![[Image: 2004torenbouw4.jpg]](http://www.fectio.org.uk/groep/2004torenbouw4.jpg)
Help, Robert. :!:
Re: Lets build a Roman watch tower! - Gaius Julius Caesar - 08-03-2008
Now the stone one would be interesting.
the timber would be viable in Canada, unless there was a ready source of sandstone....or granite!
Re: Lets build a Roman watch tower! - Tarbicus - 08-03-2008
Does this hold a clue?
![[Image: 2004torenbouw28.jpg]](http://www.fectio.org.uk/groep/2004torenbouw28.jpg)
Re: Lets build a Roman watch tower! - texascavtrooper - 08-03-2008
What about limestone? There is a lot of it in Texas as well as pine trees.
I had planned on building a timber watch tower. I think stone would be a little out of my price range. Who knows I might hit the lottery
)
Re: Lets build a Roman watch tower! - Gaius Julius Caesar - 08-03-2008
Or lime stone....
Robert will hopefully have dimensions!
My guess is the floor supports would interlink some how, but I could be
overcomplicating things....
Re: Lets build a Roman watch tower! - texascavtrooper - 08-03-2008
We have lots of lime stone. I just think it would take to long to build out of lime stone.
I was looking at the one built in Holland and saw that it's 10.5m high, but how wide? I hope he dose and will share that info. It would be great if there was a set of plans for the tower.
Re: Lets build a Roman watch tower! - Robert - 08-03-2008
Greats All!
I can also offer a very nifty fortress large enough for housing a centuri. It is associated with a vexillatio building the road at Alphen Praetorium Agrippinae. It is far easier to build then the tower (but you need large roofing slate, it was not done in tiles) as there is no height.
The fortress is in Romeinen in Valkenburg ISBN-10 9080853445 . Because of copyright I can't just bang a picture on RAT, but they did also send me a detailed description and a excavation floor plan. PM me you mail address.
Re: Lets build a Roman watch tower! - Casmin - 08-03-2008
![[Image: dd828b8b-a52f-446e-bc66-1ad4c8fa570a.jpg]](http://img.groundspeak.com/waymarking/display/dd828b8b-a52f-446e-bc66-1ad4c8fa570a.jpg)
![[Image: tower.JPG]](http://www.livius.org/a/holland/vechten/tower.JPG)
This one is a large jpg so I'll just give the link.
http://www.ulmfamily.de/castles/P1030037.JPG
You might be able to scrounge some data from this .pdf. http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata ... 99_519.pdf The excavation minutae might reveal some info. Probably more useful to you is the appendix which lists the dimensions of various watchtowers.
Re: Lets build a Roman watch tower! - Robert - 08-03-2008
Please note the door to a watchtower is NOT at ground floor level, as in the picture of the reconstruction. It is on the first floor, with a ladder which could be pulled up and in. Then you are secure to drop things onto the nasties and there are firing slots in the ground floor wall. Have a good look at the drawing I posted.
On stone; the Romans fitted rough cut limestone into the walls with mortar and then plastered the whole thing smooth. No need to dress each stone to an even surface. The inner part of the lower supporting wall was usualy filled in with rubble and mortar (or cement), so it is just a matter of fitting blocks to in and outside and working your way up.
Dimensions of ground level are typicly 3.5 by 3.5 or 4 bij 4, but there is a lot of variation. For a good solid tower, I would recommend the 4 by 4 floorplan (outside measurement).
You could build the small fortress with breeze blocks as walls for the U shaped housing part, after the plastering no one can tell whether you used dough and wattle or breezeblocks anyway. Gate and pallisade on earthen wall are timber. The roof is timbers, the rooms are 4.4 meters by 3.8 meters, so there are no major roofing timbers needed, just enough to support the weight of the shales (or tiles if you want). Another option is using oak shingles for roofing, this is also historicly correct.
Re: Lets build a Roman watch tower! - D B Campbell - 08-03-2008
Quote:You might be able to scrounge some data from this .pdf. http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata ... 99_519.pdf The excavation minutae might reveal some info. Probably more useful to you is the appendix which lists the dimensions of various watchtowers.Thanks, Casmin: this is the excavation report of the watchtower at Westerton (Perthshire, Scotland).
Bryan: I can save you some labour. There's an easy-to-assemble kit for this one!! :lol:
Re: Lets build a Roman watch tower! - Casmin - 08-03-2008
Quote:Bryan: I can save you some labour. There's an easy-to-assemble kit for this one!! :lol:
Nice site! I'll probably purchase from them in the future. Kudos to you sir.
Re: Lets build a Roman watch tower! - Robert - 08-05-2008
Here is a very nice inside view of one, which, if you look closely, should give you a lot of pointers in building one. Good luck!