I have just returned from another photo recce on Hadrian's Wall . This time I moved from the Western extremity of Luguvallum (Carlisle) to meet up with the images already posted for Vindolanda and Vircovicium.

http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?act=mo...&cmd=si&img=436

Bana is the first major survival to the east of Brampton (eight miles east of Carlisle). It is the present day museum of Birdoswald , housed in an old water mill attached to an austere victorian house. This is the only fort in britain to have a positivley identified training gymnasium (basilica exorcitatoria) for mock combat indoors, given the driving sleet in early April the use of such a facility is hardly surprising. As usual attempts have been made to identify site buildings and mark out the overall fort area. The museum is much smaller than Vindolanda with few exibits of note.

I posted a shot of the site of Bana, http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?act=mo...&cmd=si&img=652

hardly surprising that it was utilised given its elevation.

I moved along to milecastle 41, the best preserved of all the milecastles.I will be adding shots of this soon.

Camboglanna has no real excavated remains but is the site of the "Roman Army Museum" , again a reasonable museum but not on the scale of Vindolanda .Camboglanna links us to the Steel Rigg photos previously posted.The fort is unusual as having been the home of a Cohort of Syrian archers A Dacian and Tungrian Cohort are also attested.

http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?act=mo...&cmd=si&img=438

Procolita lies a few miles East of Vircovicium but behind the Wall as opposed to on it. Only the Mithraic cult ruins survive. By the time I had photographed the cult ruins the hail was so bad I was forced to retreat to the car.The finding of the Mithraium is another accident of survival , in 1949 Britain had a very dry summer-the upper parts of the surviving walls showed above ground in the dessicated earth -nearly two millenia after this solemn building fell into ruin.

Viggen is ,despite much other important work , fashioning a report format for the previous Vindolanda journey, once this is built I will endeavour to guide members through the various photographs in sequence.

I acquired the Vindolanda "Band of brothers" book , and another on roman remains in NW Britain.

Bulk upload of Madame Pertinax's Roman Forum pics-click my profile and head for my blog on msn

(look for Gallery "Forum Romanii").

A bulk file exists for Vindolanda as well showing many additional small scale exhibits

Bana is in but unedited as yet, the Mithraic temple ruins are shown.

Also my posting on the Brigantes brings some tribal context to this area.

http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?showto...t=0entry30946