Wally World.
Spent a good part of the day chasing a wall.
The barracks room we were in was constructed circa 213 AD. On top of a different barracks from 50 years earlier. Presumably nobody on the later construction crew had any idea what was underneath, so things were plotted out nice and neat....and then started sinking into earlier ditches, pits and assorted features. Here's an example of what can happen:
Yes, this is a wall. Or rather the top of one.
It dates to the Antonine stone fort, so lets say 140's or 150's. It looks like junk at this level but I'm told is actually pretty nice down another foot or so.
What we had to work with was without question an annoying bump in the floor to the guys who lived in this barracks room in later years. And I mean lots of later years. After the 213 build was completed the space was occupied through the end of the Roman era in the early 400's, and to some extent on into the Dark Ages. So, a couple hundred years of slumping floors, patching and replacing floor levels. And through it all the big ridge right down the center of the room was just....there...
You can actually see evidence of this buried wall all up and down the length of the barracks block....
That's a bit more "feature" talk than many will find of interest. So here's a sight from my morning walk up to the site. It's about forty minutes of up and down hills. At one point I go past a riding stable. I'm becoming friends with the horses who continue to expect me to produce an apple or carrot out of my pocket some day. I like the zebra style horse coat....
The Romans actually knew about zebras. They called them Hippotigris, which means horse-tiger. Once in a while a live specimen would be brought back from the coast of East Africa. They were rare novelties that were occasionally seen pulling chariots in the circus or being dispatched in the Colosseum.
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