Animal footprints on Roman bricks from Newstead

Abstract

Describes recent finds of animal footprints on fragments of Roman bricks and tiles from the fort at Newstead, Roxburghshire. Since picking up a Roman stamped tile while field-walking at Newstead in 1985 (Elliot 1986), the writer has paid particular attention to the spread and variety of brick and tile on the site. The identifiable spread of brick and tile is on the west side of the fort with the heaviest concentration being in the bath-house/ma/mo area. Less dense concentrations were located in the centre of the fort around the headquarters building. There are no surface finds of brick and tile in the eastern section of the fort. Enough brick and roofing tiles were found in the south annexe to indicate that tile-roofed and at least partially brick-built buildings once stood in this area of the site. In the south-west corner of the fort, a concentration of fused bricks and distorted roofing tiles was noted and interpreted as the site of a kiln producing bricks and tiles. The numbers of vitrified fragments would suggest that it was a clamp kiln which has a poorly controllable temperature range.