tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2357316514436369105.post6100747277509808171..comments2024-03-11T15:40:37.015+00:00Comments on Theoretical Structural Archaeology: #BlogArch Carnival; Most Significant post? Hadrian’s Timber WallGeoff Carterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01111820035762957610noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2357316514436369105.post-18757780912012439752014-04-05T17:55:33.342+01:002014-04-05T17:55:33.342+01:00Hi Austin,
SketchUp has changed the game for me [ ...Hi Austin,<br />SketchUp has changed the game for me [ that and my family buying me a better computer]; when I started using CAD, 24 years ago, it was unbelievably slow, complex and not user friendly - you interfaced mainly with command line. I had feared for my research when Newcastle University had no CAD, and subsequently, finding a technical partner to help, also looked a non starter. As it deductive reasoning, you have to make mistakes and discard models, so being self-sufficient in CAD is a great relief.<br /><br />Postholes SH & elsewhere; <br />Charcoal in a postholes is probably either, wood from the post - which could be charred to inhibit rot, or fragments of decayed wood - which looks just like charcoal.<br /><br />In general, "rubbish" in a posthole is likely to be residual [already in the topsoil, or got there after the post was removed or rotted away.<br /><br />Or if don't do metrics or engineering;<br />some British archaeologists seem to believe that our ancestors worshiped [posts] and made offerings to them, this explains anything found in posthole; see "Structured Deposition" / "Timber Circles".<br />[Caveat emptor].<br /><br />"Sacredness" [and monuments] have to monetised, this often entails specialized built environments - as in "<br />overturned the tables of the money changers " etc,<br />most religion involved killing animals, and even High priests have to take a bodily needs. <br /><br />No idea about stones; but please remember large postholes are thought to contain a stone because - they have stone chip[s] in the fill - QED!<br /> <br />Stone of Scone is an interesting piece of rock and worth thinking about.Geoff Carterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01111820035762957610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2357316514436369105.post-84768338629275563062014-04-05T13:51:51.285+01:002014-04-05T13:51:51.285+01:00Hi Geoff ,
This sketch up is stunning. I have igno...Hi Geoff ,<br />This sketch up is stunning. I have ignored it before as its after the period of British history I pour over . Having written records to research must have been a great help in honing the rampart and associated military layout .<br /><br />Is Navicula something to do with a fleet of Roman war ships? <br />'verum in mundo' as the Celts almost used to say.<br /><br />Around 2900ishBC I am currently thinking there were a number of smaller wooden structures on the SH site possibly used for different purposes and not just a single 'temple'type structure . One of the buildings could have a charnel house , inside the ditch and bank . <br /><br />Any idea why there would have been a sizeable stone at the centre of a neolithic building again around 2900BC?<br /><br />Mr W Hawley also found evidence of small fires within one of the sets of post holes.<br />Interestingly back to the Roman period he also found a number of coins and images of Tetricus and an amount of Romano British pottery and associated Roman items . The Roman occupation period of SH is a bit of a dark age in SH history as far as I am aware .Austin Kinsleyhttp://silent-earth.co.uknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2357316514436369105.post-56746048136790708522014-02-10T00:02:33.692+00:002014-02-10T00:02:33.692+00:00Hi Robert,
In this particular case it is because t...Hi Robert,<br />In this particular case it is because this rampart was only intended as a temporary measure, which would be dismantled once the Wall behind was complete. <br />Filling or building up the rampart with soil would have made this more difficult.<br /><br />More generally, there is also a school of thought that sees value in counterscarp banks, because they make it more difficult for an attacker to escape from the ditch; this is the killing zone, and you are most vulnerable when try to get out of it - if your back is towards the defenders. <br />[This is the strategy of the "Punic Ditch"].Geoff Carterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01111820035762957610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2357316514436369105.post-45469503041777754872014-02-09T23:44:44.644+00:002014-02-09T23:44:44.644+00:00Geoff
I don't understand why they would leave...Geoff<br /><br />I don't understand why they would leave a bank for the opposition forces?<br /><br />This gives then a tactical advantage to having no bank at all or building the their structure on top of the bank.<br /><br />Is this an earlier structure?<br /><br />RJL<br /><br />Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16886732338349957214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2357316514436369105.post-70258078101386140172014-01-22T21:59:30.591+00:002014-01-22T21:59:30.591+00:00Spoo- you foresaw my answer
I think I will tackle...<br />Spoo- you foresaw my answer<br /><br />I think I will tackle that in a future post, However, all the features are double postholes, and represent the same technology. [As I think we discussed there is no good plan of the Rough Castle stuff]. But I will try to model something similar. I've seen something similar in Germany]<br />Geoff Carterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01111820035762957610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2357316514436369105.post-36235001097065876212014-01-22T21:25:51.870+00:002014-01-22T21:25:51.870+00:00Hi - appreciate the sentiment - knowledge is remar...Hi - appreciate the sentiment - knowledge is remarkably political, and faith based in many respects - one of my colleagues was truly shocked that I would dare question an "Roman expert"; but its about posthole / timber engineering not simply Roma Military archaeology.<br /><br />But it's worse than that; in your part of the world and the other Wall there are 'defensive pits' on the berm, the "Scots" being so stupid they are going to small 'pits' spaced 6' apart. <br />And there is "Lilia", the lily shaped holes narrowing to a wooden spike, - also represented in Scotland by large double post pits - perhaps they had very feet in those days.<br /><br />I gave my paper on Prehistoric roof structures in front of a small group that included a professor of mechanical engineering, he seemed OK with it. <br />My work sense to Colleagues in the States who build reconstructions, because they can't get away with just imagining things. <br /><br />PS. I think I Know what Neolithic pit alignments were, so if you have a plan - I have a theory to test. Geoff Carterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01111820035762957610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2357316514436369105.post-81028184499231789782014-01-22T21:15:41.945+00:002014-01-22T21:15:41.945+00:00With the plan thing, I was thinking of the rows of...With the plan thing, I was thinking of the rows of holes at Rough Castle on the other Wall, claimed as "lilia". What did you make of them?dustbubblenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2357316514436369105.post-17855236307458554732014-01-22T20:41:11.188+00:002014-01-22T20:41:11.188+00:00What is in these people's heads, Geoff? I desp...What is in these people's heads, Geoff? I despair.<br /> If you're going to get your squaddies to howk out a load of holes for dimwitted, dyspraxic brittunculi to somehow blunder into en masse, in a kamikaze frontal assault on a vast military fortification which would have made "Saving Private Ryan" seem like "Mansfield Park", then you are sure as eggs not going to cut them <i>precisely</i> at those intervals, to those <i>exact</i> specifications, and with that curious, faintly bilobate plan. And personally I'd make them a fair bit deeper, like neo pit alignments (non-military, sure. I know what they do, and it ain't ritual, nor what for ex. Francis P. thinks either).<br /><br />Bottom line, ignorance is curable. Stupidity is not.<br />Just tell everybody else sensible, that's not a crippleheaded (can I say that in here?) uni archaeologist. How'd the engineers from that conference down south take your evidence in the end?dustbubblenoreply@blogger.com