Series: Scot Archaeol Forum

B Dobson examines Agricola's life and career (1-13), emphasizing the importance of A's early adherence to the Flavian cause, and concluding that he was not a great general. D J Breeze assesses the role of A the builder (14-24), suggesting that no innovations in design can be credited to him, and that A probably built no forts north of the Forth. G S Maxwell analyses the evidence of the temporary camps (25-54), re-examining the documentary and archaeological sources for the building and date of camps (tables of Flavian, probable and possible Flavian camps), and the evidence relating to the number of troops quartered in camps. W S Hanson considers A on the Forth-Clyde isthmus (55-68), offering a new pattern of spacing, and V A Maxfield (69-78) reports on her recent excavations at Camelon, during which a new Flavian fort, yielding terra nigra ware, was located. L J F Keppie (79-88) discusses the location of Mons Graupius, concluding that no site can be offered. S S Frere (89-97) examines the Flavian frontier in Scotland, preferring an Agricolan date for the forts north of the Forth and for the Gask Ridge-Ardoch towers. W S Hanson and L Macinnes discuss (98-113) the extent of woods and fields in N Britain in the Roman period and the timber requirements of the Iron Age peoples and the Roman army. R M Ogilvie (114) contributes an envoi. D J B

Five papers from the 1978 Forum. H Welfare indicates some of the problems of interpreting air photographs of later prehistoric sites in Scotland: difficulties of attributing date and function make the total picture fuzzy even as it fills out, and selective research excavations are needed to allow sensible interpretation. G Jobey analyses various features (internal and external) of unenclosed platforms and settlements of later 2nd millennium and reports some excavation results and 14C dates from Green Knowe, a nine-platform settlement contemporary with MBA/Deverel-Rimbury. The Green Castle (Grampian) has seen two seasons of examination by Ian Ralston, who discusses it in the context of the well sampled promontory forts of the area, including Cullykhan and Burghead, where Dark Age reoccupation of Iron Age sites is a recurrent feature. Nicholas Reynolds reviews the evidence for Dark Age timber halls, published and unpublished, as a reference frame for Balbridie which has subsequently produced a 14C date suggesting Neolithic use. L and E Alcock report work in progress on testing the evidence of Scandinavian settlement names in the Inner Hebrides (especially Islay) against fieldwork results, with the aim of more rigorous study than hitherto. Shorter contributions discussed how far air photos can be used in selecting and planning excavations (I A G Shepherd) and the restricting effect of current models for the Scottish Iron Age (D V Clarke).

A S Robertson (pp 1-12) traces the Flavian, and putatively Agricolan, evidence on Scottish sites. D R Wilson (13-30) discusses aerial reconnaissance in Britain, which has revealed since 1930 nearly 80 permanent military sites and 235 camps, as well as adding many new details of known sites; the value of continued resurveillance cannot be overstressed. Gavin Maxwell (31-49) discusses native pressures and their effect on Roman policy, dismissing the case for diplomatic relations between Orkney and Rome, and considering in detail the native organization in the islands of Strathclyde Region on the one hand, and in the Fife peninsula on the other. J P Gillam (51-6) puts the evidence for a possible change in plan while the Antonine Wall was under construction and suggests its major elements were the same as those for the second plan for Hadrian's Wall, but that the number of forts was increased. Recent recognition of milecastle-like fortlets suggest that timber watchtowers should now be sought on the Antonine line. L J F Keppie (57-65) treats the 18 distance slabs from the Antonine Wall; that so many have been recovered points to their deliberate concealment as part of a Roman withdrawal. D J Breeze (67-80), using all classes of evidence, prefers AD 163 as the date of abandonment of the Antonine Wall, though a military presence is evident in the area later in the century. Heavy occupation of the Lowlands in Antonine I (possibly to provide Antoninus Pius with military prestige) was replaced by a more normal pattern in Ant II. Probably central policy rather than native pressure caused abandonment of the Antonine system, and thereafter a patrolling system continued, with minor changes, to AD 367.