Archæological Reconnaissance in Roman Scotland

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ALTHOUGH by this time the value of the aeroplane in archæological investigation stands in little need of further testimony, a record of recent discovery in Roman Scotland not only renews, as it were, the wonder at its achievement, but also affords striking evidence of how its use, and intensive examination of a terrain from the ground itself, combine with and supplement one another. The occasion of the demonstration was a survey from the air made in June last by Mr. O. G. S. Crawford, editor of Antiquity and archæological officer of the Ordnance Survey, to” supplement previous work in preparation for archæological maps of Roman Scotland to be published by his department. The survey from the air was amply justified. It solved a number of knotty problems standing over from previous investigation, even after intensive field work, and in addition it added fresh data in the form of previously unrecorded native and Roman forts and fortlets, as well as a number of other discoveries of interest along the lines of the Roman roads in Annandale. Flying farther afield to the north, Mr. Crawford identified a Roman fort farther north of the Antonine Wall than any previously recorded, and on the return the modern method of reconnaissance was able to authenticate a site that has long been on record. Not only was it possible to make out the remains of rampart and road, both by observation and photograph, but also it can now be stated with complete certainty that it is a Roman fort, and further that a Roman road ran north-east from the gate in the rampart on that side of the fort—a fact of which certain implications for Roman dispositions in Scotland are made the subject of preliminary discussion in Antiquity of Septembar by Mr. Crawford in his account of the reconnaissance.