the south angle of the granary wall beside it. It rested upon hard impacted gravel without any trace of a special foundation. As no other columns were found in front of the building, it was at first thought that it was no longer in its original place, but had simply been left there in the demolition and removal of the buildings. This view must, however, be reconsidered in the light of the discovery in 1909 at Corbridge, in front of each of the granaries, of the bases of four pillars which had obviously supported a portico. In the case of the north building the foundations alone remained. These gave no satisfactory indication of the position of the doorway.
Masonry of the two Buildings
An interesting distinction was noticeable in the masonry of the two granaries. Both had the same strong cobble foundations. But the remaining masonry of the south building consisted of well-squared blocks of red sandstone showing no signs of alteration, while the north building had evidently been reconstructed. Its walls consisted of sandstone interspersed with blocks of blue greywacke from the river bed, and such old material as pieces of brick and quern stones. It seemed probable that it had been demolished during one of the periods of occupation, and again, at a later period, rebuilt on its old foundation.[1] Neither of the granaries just described can, however, have belonged to the Agricolan fort, for, as was mentioned above, the south building partly covered the remains of a large rectangular block occupying a space 80 feet in width and not less than 115 feet in length, and founded on sandstone chips, a feature which seemed to be characteristic of an early period. A human skeleton lay on the floor of the south building near the east end, and beside it were a denarius of Trajan and a second brass coin of Hadrian, a red veined marble bead, and a button. Probably these were relics of the final abandonment.
In all the British castella where stone buildings occur we find one or more of these buttressed storehouses, usually in close proximity to the Principia. We have several examples even in Germany, where buildings other than the Principia have rarely survived. A good instance is that at Weissenburg.[2] There the buttressed walls had two narrow slits for ventilation, a feature which was noted at Castlecary,[3] and at Rough Castle,[4] and also
1 Much the same feature was noted in 1909 at Corbridge as at any rate very probable.
2 Der Obergermanische-Raetische Limes, Lief. 26, Kastell Weissenburg, p. 14.
3 Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. xxxvii. p. 42.
4 Ibid. vol. xxxix p. 34.
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