Hadrians Wall

[D B Campbell]

Actually, the east gate and road run to the north of the bath house and the round thing.

[attachment=4675]Resistivity-plot-annotated.jpg[/attachment]
:wink:

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

OK, I stand corrected! 8-)
So, where is the roadway from the bridge?

[D B Campbell]

I just had a root around in some of the junk that I laughingly call a library, and pulled out Chesters and Carrawburgh in the days of the Romans (Frank Graham & Ronald Embleton, 1979). Amazingly, you can see a circular depression, almost exactly where the geophysics found the "gyrus". Except, Embleton painted this 25 years earlier! hock:
[attachment=4680]Embleton_1979_Chesters.jpg[/attachment]
Okay, it's a tad too far south, so as not to interfere with the path coming up from the bridge. Amazing, nonetheless!

[PhilusEstilius]

The tree that stands today above the bath house is on a huge mound and not a flat area at all, if there was anything there at all it has to possibly pre-date the fort I would think and gives every impression of having been a large Tumulus.
The road comes down off the bridge on a massive ramp put there in the Severan period then has to climb up the side of this mound to reach the porta Quintana that was the only eastern entrance to the fort in fact this ramp was so huge it travels past the north end of the bath house.
I cannot imagine there being anything that would be put between the Roman Military way and that gate for there is no other way that one could reach the fort from the bridge not even to the south gate of the fort.

[Vindex]

Here's part of the report by Barry C Burnham concerning Chesters from the reference Duncan gave. If you open the document and zoom in you can read it quite easily. It certainly refers to a gyrus.

And apologies Mods, for totally hijacking this thread!! hock:

[PhilusEstilius]

That report is too faded to be able to read but which ever way I have already said to put a gyrus there would not only be impossible it would prevent anything on wheels to be able to get to the fort.

For how in the world could anything get down off the ramp even to get to the aouth gate of the fort, it just could not be done so it would render the bridge defunked for even a rider could not come off the side of the ramp to the south for it is too steep.

[Vindex]

Brian

Attached again - is that any better?

I thought you expressed an interest in seeing it?!

[PhilusEstilius]

Thank you very much Moi and it does help to maybe explain just what the squares in the pic' that Duncan put up for there are also some within the area suggested.
However are these people aware that from the bridge one can't get to the main east gate direct from the bridge as it is north of the wall, apart from which both portals of the main east gate were indeed blocked and show no signs what ever of having had any wear use at all and as I have pointed out one could not come off the side of the ramp even to reach the south gate.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Thanks Brian, thats where I was heading in my thinking when asking about the road leaving the bridge!

Maybe they put an overpass in? :-P

[D B Campbell]

I cannot imagine there being anything that would be put between the Roman Military way and that gate for there is no other way that one could reach the fort from the bridge not even to the south gate of the fort.

Of course, we should remember that the "military way" was not a primary component of Hadrian's Wall. In its primary phase, the Chesters bridge was presumably designed simply to carry the Wall across the river. Only in its secondary phase was it required to carry the main lateral roadway.

Turning to the ring feature: as far as I am aware, there is no reason (yet) to assume that it is Roman. Or that it is a gyrus.

However, playing Devil's Advocate, we could postulate -- purely theoretically -- that the ring feature was a Roman gyrus associated with the primary phase, and that it was subsequently demolished to allow the new (secondary phase) "military way" to run up to the minor east gate. Problem solved? :?

[PhilusEstilius]

Duncan.
I do indeed understand what you mean about the different stages of Hadrian's Wall and the road that ran east/west behind it.
However if we consider the Hadrianic bridge at Chesters it was simply the means of crossing a major river and as far as it carrying Hadrian's Wall it was not big enough nor strong enough to support the wall for it was simply a wood structure on bridge piers and even the much larger complete stone Severan bridge also did not carry the wall over the river.
In refering to it as a military way that was simply to say that the track road or what ever we wish to call it coming from the bridge to the porta Quintana Destra was the only ever eastern entrance to the fort.
In having done this survey I would think that people may well have led themselves astray by discovering this circle and thinking II Asturia cavalry gyrus.

[PhilusEstilius]

What I do think might make a much better survey subject would be the bath house north of Hadrian's Wall and the branch line of the aquaduct that comes down all the way from the north gate aquaduct to supply it, then also the Vicus buildings that are within two feet of the south wall of the fort.

[PhilusEstilius]

The geophysical survey info' given by Moi makes a suggestion of re-routing of the road from the bridge to go through the main east gate which could not have been done.

However when excavations were being carried out on the west bridge abutment it was discovered that Hadrian's Wall stands at about six feet high where it meets the bridge, and this piece of wall is not too many meters long for there is a large gap in the wall that had small stones and river cobble going over the wall foundation.
This gave indication that there may have been another road leading from the top of the ramp going through the wall to the north, therefore there might have been a single portal gate taking this road north not only to this bath house to the north but also to the Roman Dam that was upstream of the Severan bridge.
This indicates there was re-routing of the road but not for the purpose suggested by the survey team.

[mcbishop]

What I do think might make a much better survey subject would be the bath house north of Hadrian's Wall

Where is this published, Brian? It doesn't appear to be mentioned in the Handbook.

Mike Bishop

[PhilusEstilius]

Mike.

It most certainly is not in any hand book but it is there for I have indeed been inside of it, however when one tried to explain this to the powers that be it was simply ignored as if I did not know what I was talking about.
This then prompted me to write an article on Chesters Fort covering so many things that I am sure will one day be revealed if more excavation were to be carried out in fact I must tidy up on this paper and then one day have it published.