highest point of the ground down to the Berwickshire railway, was also cleared out. This yielded a few fragments of red Roman pottery, unfortunately so much decayed as to render impossible any attempt to fix the exact period to which they had belonged. But its excavation led to a discovery which is calculated to throw an interesting sidelight on the question of chronology. Two Roman burials were found in it. These appeared to be entirely isolated. There were no traces of other interments around them. As a matter of fact, they were the only graves encountered in the whole course of the excavations, though there can be little doubt that somewhere in the outskirts of the fort the cemetery is still to be found.
The burials, both of which were of cremated bodies, were placed one above the other in the ditch after it had been filled up. The ashes in both cases had been deposited in urns of a somewhat coarse greyish-brown pottery, ornamented with a broad band of lattice work pattern, the type of urn being one commonly found with Roman interments in Britain. The two urns had evidently been originally of the same size. But the one which was uppermost was only eight inches below the surface, so close to it indeed that the upper part had entirely disappeared, worn down no doubt by the plough passing over it. There was no trace of any protecting cist. Immediately beneath, at a depth of four feet nine inches, lay the second burial. The urn was resting on a sandstone slab, and four other slabs of sandstone two feet in height placed against each other, one on each side, formed a tent-like shelter over it. Similar grave-coverings, formed of large, flat roofing-tiles, have been found near many of the Roman military posts on the Rhine; the closest recorded Scottish parallel, which is from Cramond, appears to have had a less elaborate form of protection.[1] The urn was nine inches in height, and had an opening of four and a half inches in diameter at the mouth. A circular cover of sandstone, seven-eighths of an inch in thickness, had been fitted to it. The bones which the urns contained were in too fragmentary a state to make it possible to ascertain the age or sex of either individual. The discovery, however, gives us a valuable indication of date. It proves that the great camp had been abandoned before the burials took place. It proves, too, that a considerable length of time had elapsed since the abandonment, for in the interval the ditch had been almost entirely filled up. The complete urn, as well as the stone setting after its removal, are illustrated in Plate IV.
1 Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland vol. xxxi p. 244 ff.
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