barrack blocks are divided into twelve huts of more or less uniform size and character, and the centurion's dwelling is absent.
Unfortunately, the remains of the Newstead huts gave no clue to their internal arrangements. It is, however, probable that they were to some extent divided by partitions. This was the case in the legionary forts, and apparently also in the barrack blocks at Housesteads. At Novaesium each hut is divided into two unequal portions. In the inner and larger room lay the men, and in the outer one were stored the arms and baggage, while it has been suggested that, following the Hyginian plan, the beasts of burden were haltered below the verandah. At Lambaesis and at Lauriacum the internal arrangements of the barrack huts are revealed still more clearly. In both of these fortresses we have the large inner room for the men, while the outer room is divided into an entrance passage and a small room, partitioned off for the arms and stores. There can be little doubt that a somewhat similar arrangement must have obtained in a permanent fort such as Newstead. Whether the animals were tethered in front of the huts is more doubtful. We have no trace of the covered verandah, which would be almost essential for this purpose in the rigours of a Caledonian winter, and it may well be that, in the comparative security of a walled fort, the animals were no longer tied by the tent-doors, but were housed more suitably elsewhere.
In the Retentura of the fort there are two classes of structure to be dealt with—long narrow buildings which are obviously barracks, and others whose identification presents greater difficulties.
The Retentura
Block XVII, measuring 198 feet by 37 feet, lay in the rear of the courtyard house. The walls were two feet in thickness, and in places they were still standing to a height of two feet, showing four courses of hammer-dressed masonry. A single buttress was noted supporting the wall on the east side. The building was probably entered at the south-east end from the Via Quintana. A corridor, nine feet wide, ran along the west side, giving access to the various rooms. At the north end it was crossed by a number of dwarf walls set apart at irregular intervals, with air passages between, intended no doubt to keep the building dry, or perhaps to heat it. There were, however, none of the usual signs of a hypocaust. This building has perhaps a parallel in Block XI at Housesteads which occupied much the same position. At Housesteads one of the rooms contained an apsidal structure, possibly the remains of a bath, which helped, along with other features, to differentiate the block from the ordinary
68