Vindolanda 'Refuge' Huts

[Melvadius]

Around the 17 June 2011 several on-line news services including the BBC started reporting on the discovery of what have been described as 'refuge' huts.

 

Archaeologists at the Roman Vindolanda Fort & Museum have unearthed dozens of circular huts which they believe could have been used as temporary refuges.

 

The excavation at the site in Hexham, Northumberland, has unearthed various finds from Roman Britain including letters, murder victims and shoes.

 

It is thought the huts were built during the invasion of Scotland under Emperor Septimius Severus (AD 208-211).

 

Dr Andrew Birley described them as "remarkable structures".

 

An earlier fort at Vindolanda was completely levelled for the construction of the buildings, which could number into the hundreds.

 

...continued

Now call me an old cynic if you like but as far as I can see from what has so far been reported this is not a 'new' report. The presence of circular huts probably dating from the time of Septimus Severus had long been known about as this report from the Herald Scotland dating from August 1997 makes abundently clear.

 

Riddle of Vindolanda fort

By CHRIS STARRS

 

Share 2 Aug 1997

 

 

ANCIENT Scots fighting for freedom from invaders could have been held as hostages in the Roman Empire's only concentration camp, according to evidence announced yesterday. The original occupants of building remains in Northumberland which have long puzzled archaeologists may have been rounded up during an uprising aimed at keeping what later became Scotland out of the Roman Empire almost 1800 years ago. It was in 1931 that the first remnants were discovered by Professor Eric Birley at Vindolanda fort and on Hadrian's Wall, stretching 70 miles from the Cumbrian coast to Tyneside. After the discovery of more since the 1980s, his son Robin, director of the Vindolanda Trust, based near Haltwhistle, Northumberland, believes they are the relics of a concentration camp where hostages were held. He said: ''In my father's day, they couldn't understand their existence. No other Roman fort has circular buildings like these....continued

 

I suppose that it is just possible that the Vindolanda Trust as their excavation season runs from March to September they may have run into more of these structures and decided to report on them but if so they are not currently advertising the fact on their website.

[Northern Neil]

Hmm, I would like to see a plan of these buildings and their relationship with the rest of the remains at Vindolanda. Even academics ( with some help from journalists!) can sometimes make wild hypotheses about structures, some of which have persisted for decades! Are we really to believe that Romans built detention huts in the style of those of the people they captured? Maybe it is part of the civil settlement, and the house owners preferred the local building style? This would in itself be very interesting without the speculation.

[Melvadius]

I am certain that the plans of the previously know round houses appear in several of the reports and publications from Vindolanda.

 

As a 'Friend of Vindolanda' I have sent an email enquiry to them and asked if they could let us know what their Press Release should have said, rather than what has been reported.

 

If they do not respond directly to UNRV I will pass on any response I get from them.

[Northern Neil]

Ahh, yes - on closer inspection of my 'Handbook to the Roman Wall' the round huts are clearly shown, although it seems that the North wall of the Severan fort is built over them. Funny - because I never associate round huts with Roman structures, I've overlooked these until now.

[Melvadius]

The Appleby Archaeology Group visited Vindolanda back in Nov 2007 and reported on their site the current theory of the day:

 

Two hundred and fifty circular huts were built on the fort platform

between 200-212AD. These would have housed up to two thousand people and may have been

built to house soldiers and their followers during the Emperor Severus