Moselle, and from Anon in Belgium,[1] which have preserved to us many representations of the carts, the waggons and the lighter vehicles of the native population—a people over which the Roman civilisation had doubtless to some extent laid its veneer. That such carts were employed for transport is shown by the reliefs on the Trajan column.[2] Perhaps, then, the clearest inferences we can draw are that there was wheeled transport with the force at Newstead, and that, as early as the first occupation, the roads which the army followed admitted of its use.
Two types of wheels were noted at Bar Hill, and the same types occurred again at Newstead. At the bottom of Pit LXX, which, from its pottery, had evidently belonged to the later period, lay the remains of a large wheel. It had been, on the whole, coarser and heavier than the wheels found in Pit XXIII, and it was also less well preserved. The hub was broken in two and most of the spokes had been displaced. Enough remained, however, to indicate clearly that it had resembled the wheel found in the outer ditch at Bar Hill. When complete it must have had a diameter of about 3 feet 5 inches. No iron mountings were found with it. The nave measured 16 inches in length, and had a diameter of 9 inches in the centre. The spokes, which must have been twelve in number, were nearly square. At the point of junction with the hub they measured 2½ by 2¼ inches, tapering slightly towards the felloe. They were 12 inches long, and were fixed into the hub with a square tenon, while the outer ends passed right through the felloe. Whether they had originally projected a little beyond the felloe was difficult to say, but the extremities were worn as though they had not been covered by any protecting rim. Unlike the felloes of the wheels from Pit XXIII, the felloe of this ruder wheel was made in six sections, on treads attached to one another by wooden dowels. The length of each tread was 1 foot 10 inches and the thickness 3¼ inches, tapering to 1½ inches where it touched the ground. The projecting dowel measured 1¼ by 7⁄8 inches.
Linch Pins
Another attribute of wheeled vehicles, several obvious specimens of which came to light, was the linch pin, which was used for preventing the wheel slipping from the axle (Plate LXX., Figs. 1, 3, 6 and 8). These are made of iron, and are commonly about 6 inches long. At the upper end they are hammered out into a flat plate rudely oval or circular in form, in the centre of which projects a loop through which there was probably
1 Sibenaler, Guide illustré du Musée d'Arlon.
2 Cichorius, Die Trajanssäule, Taf. lxxviii.
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