CURLE CENTENARY, 1905-10 to 2005-10,
ON OUR MARKS!
A photo of the young James Curle; a small group at the launch by Mrs
Linehan (Barbara Curle) of 'Curle on the internet’ at
www.curlesnewstead.org; the Trust outing squad at Birrens fort; the
‘Three Brethren’ at Burnswark; the Young Archaeologists’ Club, with
friends, after a tour of Ancrum village.
These give some clues to what we have been doing in 2004, on the brink
of the centenary of James Curle’s excavation at Trimontium. He says in
his Preface to his 1911 Report : 'The excavations were begun on 13th
February, 1905, and .. (were) finally brought to a close in the middle of
September, 1910 ”. At the beginning of the work" I little dreamt how
large an undertaking lay before me, and into how many byways of
archaeology it was to lead”. We would hope to hold a fitting series of
celebrations to mark the man and the 100th anniversary.
ANNUS TURRITUS, AD 2004
The Year of the Tower
The second phase of the Tweed Rivers (sic)
Interpretation Project was into its second year (it
finishes in 2005) and with a 50% grant from the
Heritage Lottery Fund through Tweed Forum and
SBC’s Landfill Tax Scheme, we managed, with the
permission of the landowner, Ravenswood Estate
(Col. Younger has been a Trustee from the
beginning); planning permission from Scottish
Borders Council; and permission also from Historic
Scotland (provided we didn’t damage the
archaeology in the field across the gully from the
embankment) to erect a simple timber tower, with
steps, plus a stretch of timber battlement in front,
on the old railway embankment to the South of the
Leaderfoot Viaduct. The idea was to give a little more ‘ambience’ to the
site, and in due course, by sowing grass, to try to make the sides of the
embankment more like the clean (and green) lines of the slope of a
Roman ditch.
We imagined passers-by admiring the structure on the skyline and some
of the younger Trimontium Walkers perhaps climbing the dozen steps.
The passers-by seem to want to reach it, however, and, in an entirely
unrelated project Border Paths have erected a set of steps since New Year
on the W side of the viaduct from the closed road to the field level (the E
annexe) and begun clearing a wider walkway along the old railway line
towards Broomhill.
The last three information boards have been erected down the S side of
the site and we hope to unveil these, and the tower, on Saturday 3
September, 2005.
THE ORMISTON
The Exhibition/Heritage Centre was open from 1 April to 31 October,
seven days per week. The magnificent Duncan retired; Kay (Vice
Chairman and an ever-present on Weds for many years) had her sentence
commuted to servitude in Peebles; the gilded youth of Earlston High
spurned work at weekends. O tempora! O mores! ( What a life!)
An appeal to members and arm-twisting of friends saved the day. Brian
Ashby (replaced occasionally by brother-in-law Keith Allbeson, both
travelling from Yetholm) did Mondays; the busy Isobel (who would like to
stand down if a volunteer could be found) did Tuesdays with the stalwart
Ian Skinner; Paul Wilson, this year’s Pooh Bah (21-26 Feb), manfully did
Weds till lunchtime and Liz Ellis womanfully the afternoon and even
Sunday morning; John Hawkins did Thursdays usually (with Nancy at
lunchtime) plus Saturdays and Sunday afternoon, and fitted in elsewhere
if at all possible; and Sylvia Payne, a former guide at Paxton newly come
to live in Newstead took charge of Friday, with Anne Wilkie at lunchtime
when available. Remember the theatre manager in the film Shakespeare
in Love? When asked how it all worked out when disaster was missed by a
hairsbreadth, he said, every time, ‘It’s a miracle’. We know.
To all of them - and in-fillers like Bill and Ian - we are indebted. Cross
fingers for 2005, which runs from 18 March to 30 October.
Putting up with us daily and often saving our bacon are John and Alan,
the caretakers. Well done, men!
THE WALKS
It wasn’t a great summer, weather-wise but the
occasional small numbers were balanced by better
days and by special walks like the one asked for by
Blue Guides and taken by Ian Brown. He, Bill Lonie
and the Hon Sec were the guides and enjoyed
themselves. Bill, who was also involved with
writing up - and digging - Dere Street, has had to
take things easy and we are very grateful to him
for all his work for the Trust.
Tea at the Village Hall was again kindly supplied by
the Teams - Ishbel, Win, Isobel, Irene, Rita, Liz
and Jean.
THE LECTURES
'Piecing it together' was the collective title of the three Spring 2004
lectures on mosaics (Dr Janet Huskinson), pottery (Colin Wallace) and
facial reconstruction (Dr Caroline Wilkinson) and in the Autumn Linda
Farrar’s splendidly-attended talk on Roman Gardens on 9 September was
followed by Duncan Campbell on Burnswark, which the outing had visited,
and Geoff Bailey on the Antonine Wall.
PRESS and PRINT
The Border Telegraph regularly allows us to keep the local public aware of
what we are doing and spares the sub-editing pen. Meigle Printers do our
leaflets, Crescent Info. deliver them and Reiver Industries at Tweedbank
cope with most of our photocopying.
TRUST MEMBERS
Local members - even as far as Edinburgh and Gullane - are able to
attend lectures, the Walk occasionally and the outing. People farther
afield receive the Newsletter once a year. We wish we could do more and
if you have any comments in that direction please let us know. We are
very grateful for your ongoing interest, support, letters, postcards,
continued subscriptions, signed Gift Aid forms where possible, new
memberships, and helpful contributions by way of reports, informative
notes, loaned books etc. Thanks to all, including the Trustees, Hon
Treasurer and Hon Auditor!
HOME DECORATION
Spring 2004 Lecture Series Lecture I
Sorry, no mosaics here. YAC drawing
Melrose Abbey tiles, Jan. 2004
It was a full house and a double-first for
the Trust in the Corn Exchange on
Thursday 4 March, 2004. Dr John Reid,
the new Chairman was presiding for the
first time over the first Celebrity Lecture of
the Spring season and Dr Janet Huskinson
of the Open University was speaking on a topic new to Melrose audiences
, that of ‘Mosaics and the decoration of houses’. House decoration, which
was much in the news and on television these days, had been subject,
through the ages, to changes in fashion, and had been a means of
displaying one’s wealth. Despite changing fashions, some wall and floor
illustrations from mythology had remained popular for centuries eg the
hero Bellephoron, mounted on the winged horse Pegasus and slaying the
dragon.
We are familiar with the small cubes of coloured stone that make up the
well-known Roman mosaics, but Greek mosaic pavements start with
designs of light natural pebbles silhouetted on a dark ground, and then go
on to the use of shaped stones, not simply cubes but ovals and other
shapes that fit plant and abstract designs. The speaker pointed out how
the decoration of the Corn Exchange itself, with its rectangular panels of
differing colours and sizes, was reminiscent of the ‘first style’ of house
decoration at Pompeii.
'like wall to wall carpeting'
Many mosaics seem to have been copies of paintings eg of a seated
theatrical group (using tiny worm-like stones) and showed depth of field,
with shadows, steps and colonnades receding into vanishing points in the
distance.
Floor mosaics were subject to wear and tear but were used like wall to
wall carpeting, the design being extended to include yet another row of
roundels if space allowed. Dining rooms had a mosaic floor centrepiece
around which the three couches were grouped in a U formation, and could
include illustrations of food or well-known contemporary celebrities who,
you liked to feel, were dining with you.
Local stone was handiest to use but there were occasional examples of
unbelievable luxury, particularly in wall mosaics, with lapis lazuli for the
sky and brilliantly-coloured miniature Egyptian figures on a mosaic
designed to look like a curtain drape.
The wealthy liked their interests - in religion, learning and leisure - to be
illustrated. Triumphant gods are depicted, as well as the labours of
Hercules, the seasons and their fruits, huntsmen, hunting and wild
beasts, farming, circuses, gladiatorial shows - and philosophers. Power,
status and mythology form a common thread in the images.
The vote of thanks was proposed by Marnet Hargreave, who had been
creating wall mosaics, for permanent display, with pupils in Jedburgh, and
who had a personal and professional interest in calling for the audience’s
appreciation of the art and lifestyle attitudes that the speaker had so
modestly and tellingly described.
MELROSE OPEN UNIVERSITY DAY
The Corn Exchange, Saturday 11 June 2005
Back at base in Cambridge Dr Huskinson made the Trust an offer it
couldn’t refuse. There is usually a Day Meeting for OU students each
summer at an interesting venue, such as the Roman baths at Bath.
Melrose isn’t quite Aquae Sulis (though there’s been some aqua this
winter) but would the Trust like to host the 2005 Day in the Corn
Exchange and invite its members to join in as well?
We jumped at the idea. There was a deal of e-mailing between Janet, the
Hon Sec and our old friend and Trustee Prof Lawrence Keppie of Glasgow
(who happens to be the OU external examiner) and the framework is as
follows.
On Saturday 11 June, 2005 the Corn Exchange will be open from 9am to
allow students (who would never meet otherwise) to gather and chat over
coffee and be joined by Trust members. The business of the ‘Frontier Day’
would begin at 10 am, the main speakers (c 40 mins each with a decent
break) being Prof Keppie himself on ‘The Roman Frontier in Scotland’ and
another old friend of the Trust Dr Fraser Hunter (to be congratulated on
his recent Ph.D) on ‘Caledonians and Romans’. Before the close about
12.20 pm a few slides would be shown about Trimontium itself, since a
shortened afternoon Walk would be offered round the site from the
Newstead Millennium Milestone at 1.30pm and 2pm (depending on
takers) with tea at Newstead Village Hall at 3pm and 3.30pm.
At lunch time people would be free to picnic in the Corn Exchange or
lunch at one of the 17 or so eating places in Melrose.
To defray expenses there would be a charge of £3 per head for everyone
(students, Trust members and friends) attending the morning session. OU
students taking the afternoon Walk, including tea, would be charged £2.
As usual, Trust members on the Walk would not be asked to pay.
Although there are hundreds of OU students taking Dr Huskinson’s
formidably-entitled course 'Culture, Identity and Power in the Roman
Empire' there is no guarantee that there will be many eager to come on
Saturday 11 June to hear about Roman Scotland. Trust members and
friends should not be deterred (nor feel pressurised), if they are free and
interested, from completing the booking form enclosed herewith. OU
students will also be asked to book and no doubt will want to get back
home pdq if they come from a distance. If we’re to be overwhelmed it’ll
be the first time. We hope for an enjoyable day and a feather in our cap.
See also Curle Centenary Celebrations. (We're 'in the repeat').
OH, TO BE A YOUNG ARCHAEOLOGIST
At the YAC meeting on 31 Jan 2004 we went to the Commendator’s House
in the grounds of Melrose Abbey. This was a last-minute arrangement as
the tour of Ancrum village was rained off (we went later, on 6 March). In
the cold and rain Mr Gordon took us to the warm House across Cloisters
Road and we had it to ourselves. There were some new faces at the
meeting as well as old, including Ben and Callum. Unfortunately Mr
Sumerling has left YACs and couldn’t join us today.
'an architect called John Morow'
Pencils and paper were given out for drawing later and we climbed to the
top floor of the house. Once up the stairs Mr Gordon told us some of the
history of the building. The door with the studs we had rushed through to
escape the rain was in fact mediaeval.
At the entrance to the room we saw an inscription. It was about an
architect called John Morow who designed the South Transept front. The
piece originally came from the far end of the Abbey in a place where only
monks were allowed. This was a great honour and he had worked on St
Andrews and Glasgow Cathedrals and Paisley Abbey, so he must have
been good at his job. The plaque also told us that he was born in Paris.
Morow Gardens, the flats across the road, were named after him.
We then went through into a small room with wall paintings. Many of
them were of the Abbots’ coats of arms but one was a map of all the
Abbeys that King David I founded.
Then we had the traditional juice and biscuits to give us energy for
drawing one of the pieces of stonework.
Once that was over we climbed down to the entrance hall which was full
of pieces of stone from the Abbey. We continued past what had once been
the Trimontium museum and into what is the Walter Scott museum. It
had lots of figures by local artist Anne Carrick. In the old Trimontium
room Mr Gordon showed us round the exhibits, which were very
interesting. The meeting then finished and we dashed back to our cars.’
Reporter, Graham Wilson
Peniel Heugh at the top (left)
Peniel Heugh at the bottom (right)
Lyne Fort - in the ditch (below)
The picture on p1 shows us at Ancrum on
Ba’ Day, which added to the fun. Seven
adults and a dozen youngsters followed
local historian, Trust member and good
friend John Rogerson as he pointed out
the highlights - Trowpenny and Castlehill
forts; the Mantle Walls site (would we like
to dig it?); the one house left with the projecting weaver’s stone shed;
the old school site; the magnificent War Memorial and the remains of the
Mercat Cross - all at the Green; the ‘clay biggin’ house style; the Rev Mr
Livingston’s inscription; the school clock; the glebe; the sundial from the
first church (down in the dell) now on the rear of the present church; and
the site of the Free Kirk. [And we saw two ‘hails’ of the Ba’ - one at each
end of the village]. More time, and we could have done more.
From Ancrum we could see Wellington’s ‘Piller’ on Peniel Heugh - and that
was our next goal on the afternoon of Sat. 3 April 2004. We were sixteen,
members and adults, and off we went, keys in hand from the Lothian
Estates Office (having signed the disclaimer) to find the dry weather
changing to wind, rain, hailstones and mist. We had the Garrett O’Brien
booklet and notes from the 1956 Inventory and sheltered on the lee side
of the tower, read about the two ancient forts around us, one of the Early
Iron Age and one nearer Roman times, that made use of the height and
the huge outcrops of grey rock for their defences and entrances.Then it
was round to the padlocked iron gate and on through the solid iron door
into the little gathering point at the bottom of the stone spiral staircase. A
late thought had provided us with battery torches, for the light came from
the occasional slit window as we climbed - an eerie experience - and then
we were pacing the blue-painted timber floor of the massive ‘crown’, the
octagonal eyrie built on to the top of the lighthouse structure, with halftimber, half-open wire mesh sides, giving a 360 gridded view of the
Borders countryside. How we wished we had the Smailholm Tower
indicators so as to recognise the features stretching out to the horizon on
all sides.
'Jacob’s struggle at Peniel'
Should we have our juice and biscuits on top - or down? The vote was for
‘down’ and the stairs experience was repeated , using the metal handrail
or wall rope, till we reached the lee side, out of the direct wind. In midrefreshment there appeared a couple of latecomers, desperate to do the
climb. Would anyone else like to do it again with them? Do birds fly? Up
went the YACers, but this time the report came down with them that the
mist, and a hailstone or two, was blotting out the view. By this time we
were old hands at locking up, remembering that this was the second
monument on the hilltop, the first, to commemorate the 1815 battle,
having fallen down not long after it was started.
As we sloshed our way to the transport we recalled not so much
Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow (though it was similarly drooking and
muddy) as Jacob’s struggle at the first Peniel, as recorded in the Old
Testament.
ROMAN LYNE-OUT
Rugby came into it, of course, but only to take out some YAC lads who
naturally couldn’t miss the Newtown continuation of the Crichton Cup
when it was switched to a Sunday afternoon, 9th May.
Half a dozen members, plus adults, managed to make their way to Lyne
Kirk, beyond Peebles, where there still sits, at the narrowest part of the
valley, above the Lyne Water, a standard Roman fort of the Antonine
occupation ie the mid 150s AD. We circled the site, walking in the outer
ditch, its original V-shape turning to a U as it has filled up over the
centuries. The four entrance causeways could be seen, and here and
there the earth rampart pile, with three ditch shapes in front. Unlike
Trimontium it has never been under the plough, and the ever-present
sheep keep the grass in trim and the features visible, though the rabbits
are having a go at the rampart. Following the guide book we looked ESE
and thought we could see the shape of the earlier Agricolan fort, one-third
of a mile away at Easter Happrew. If we put our minds to it, what a
wealth of all kinds of sites we could visit less than an hour’s drive from
home.
Spring Lecture Series - Lecture II
ROMAN POTTERY IN SCOTLAND
Colin Wallace
'Potting the Red' was the heading of the report in the Border Telegraph.
"It was fun to be actually handling something", said a lady member of the
audience on 11 March. Pottery expert Colin Wallace, who works in the
National Museums in Edinburgh, was handing out pieces to be passed
round and commented upon as well as using slides, turning the occasion
into a social as well as an informative event. Pottery is one of the most
durable materials found in archaeology, particularly the red 'Samian' - a
misleading 18th/19th century title because it was made anywhere but the
isle of Samos. The rest of Europe and America calls it terra sigillata. It
was introduced into Scotland by the Roman army, and, unlike the native
hand-made, poorly-fired and uncommon ware it was made on a potter’s
wheel and fired in a purpose-built kiln. It brought a new technology and a
new lifestyle, with vessels for preparing food, eating, drinking and
storage. Its types are well documented, and it can be shown that the
pottery brought in by the army came from sources nearer and nearer to
Britain and eventually from Britain itself. Even after the Roman army
withdrew from Scotland 'late' Roman pottery is still found here. This was
no ancient 'cottage' industry. Vessels could be produced in their hundreds
of thousands in 'factories' e.g. in the South of Gaul. It was necessary for
the potter to stamp his name on his wares to ensure that his consignment
into the kiln came back out to him. It was interesting to note that glaze
'slips' might make a pot acceptable, but not necessarily watertight.
Sherds of fine pottery are found in the remains of high status rooms like
dining and public rooms. Coarser ware comes from the kitchen areas. It is
cleaned, examined and labelled with its context and code. It is also drawn
in profile, the left side showing the inside of the pot (and its thickness)
and the right its outside, with any decoration. A new technique now can
show a colour photo of the pot reduced on to the drawing. All the different
types from a site are weighed and recorded (and the size of the individual
pots are estimated) so that, layer by layer, the pattern of pottery use on
the site over time can be discovered. It takes infinite time and patience,
but the information is the reward.
Mr Ian Brown of Galashiels proposed the vote of thanks and paid tribute
to the lecturer’s pacing of his talk in order to bring to the man and woman
in the Corn Exchange not only images of a fascinating subject but the
opportunity to touch and handle items like the little inkpot, used by
people sixty generations ago.
Mr Wallace had prepared and handed round to the
audience a detailed 30-page ‘Guide to the
Identification of Roman Pottery in Scotland,and
some notes on its Study’, compiled by himself and
including a bibliography. Interested members
should feel free to request a copy from the Hon
Sec. In relation to the Curle Centenary and our
quest for as much information as we can gather
from notebooks, letters etc it is interesting to note
Colin Wallace’s article in the Oxford Journal of
Archaeology vol 21, no.4, Nov.2002, pp 381-392.
He suggests that there is a need for a biographical
dictionary, to set figures in their contemporary
context and give an idea of their contacts. This should give us a grasp of
the development of the history of the discipline. Perhaps the Curle
Centenary Lecture series will be a step towards assessing Romano-British
archaeology and its leading lights in the 20th century.