Article on the L. IX Hispana (Factual????)

[mcbishop]

The much-discussed tile stamps can be turned on their figurative heads - the Ninth could have started stamping when on the continent and then brought the die(s) back to Britain and continued at Scalesceugh.

That is certainly true, although my understanding of the much beloved Occam's Razor, seeking the simplest interpretation, would suggest that one departure of the Ninth Legion from Britain is quite enough. If they came back again, we need to find some other mechanism to get rid of them again! :wink:

Actually, m'lud, I would submit that Occam's Razor would demand the simplest link be between the Scalesceugh and Nijmegen dies and requires that they be contemporary, near contemporary, or contiguous, particularly given the similarity in the form of the G of LEG in both cases. The meme of additive numbering (VIIII - Wright types 3 to 5) is unlikely to be used, discarded in favour of subtractive numbering (IX - Wright types 6 onwards), then re-adopted for a move from or to Nijmegen. Frere & Tomlin, in their introduction to the tile stamps of the Ninth (RIB 2462 in RIB II Fasc 4, 168) say

The legion did not start to stamp its tiles before the closing years of the first century.

so a Chattan war origin seems unlikely (F&T have the advantage over me that they have read Ian Betts' thesis on the brick/tile industry in York which includes scientific fabric analysis). The Carlisle Millennium report includes two possible 2462.16 stamps (which match a couple of others, unknown to Wright, from Annetwell Street - the other end of the Millennium barrack buildings - and these are also of the VIIII type).

Intriguingly (get that Razor ready) a VIIII stamp (2462.16.iii) comes from Stanwix which, of course, is a Hadrianic foundation (first in turf/timber then in stone); moreover, Ian Caruana reckons all of the Scalesceugh/Carlisle/Stanwix stamps are from the same die. Go figure...

The two tiles with the Ninth stamp from Scalesceugh were found in association with a tile of the Twentieth Legion, which might imply a small detatchment of both legions working together at this place.

A good point. The pairing of legions at both Carlisle and Corbridge is a recurrent theme for those two sites (and the XX stamp is of a type - 2463.2 and .3, with one V above the other - that is unique to the north-west with finds from Scalesceugh, Carlisle, Old Penrith and... wait for it... Stanwix!)

As for another mechanism, why has no-one mentioned alien abduction? hock:

Mike Bishop