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Preserving trig points
There are various ways of protecting trig points (‘Sherds’, CA 436). This example (below) sits within the Iron Age hillfort known as Castle Hill, close to the Roman fort of Bar Hill on the Antonine Wall in Scotland. It is protected by being part of a guardianship monument in the care of Historic Environment Scotland. It also lies within the Antonine Wall World Heritage Site.
This trig point is particularly poignant as it lies next to the Antonine Wall, ] which was surveyed by William Roy, founder of the Ordnance Survey, in ] 1755. Roy was a local lad, being born at Carluke about 20 miles (32km) to the south. He is the subject of a recent book by Humphrey Welfare, General William Roy 1726-1790, published by Edinburgh University Press in 2022.
David Breeze, Edinburgh
Cryptic Romans
The Romans used the scytale as a cryptographic tool, consisting of a wooden rod and a strip of leather or parchment. The sender would wrap the leather around the rod and write their message lengthwise. Once unwrapped, the letters appeared scrambled. The message could only be read if the recipient wrapped it around a rod of the same diameter.
I suggest that the purpose of the Roman dodecahedron (CA 429) was to act as a template indicating the size of rod to be used by the recipient of the message strip. Each strip could have been marked with a code related to the number and position of the rings around the holes of the dodecahedron. The correct rod size could then be selected and the message read.
Richard Durrant, Bridport, Dorset
What’s in a name?
The finding that the Berlanga Cup (CA 436) pre-dates the presence of Asturian cavalry at Chesters on Hadrian’s Wall seems to rule out one explanation favoured by historians for the name Cilurnum: namely, a connection with a people known as Cilurnigi in that part of Hispania. As the interesting article explains, like the Cup itself, the Celtiberi who were in Britannia in the early to mid-2nd century would have come from further east, in the hill country between the Tagus and the Ebro. An alternative possibility, the early Brittonic *cilurnon (Latinised cilurnum, modern Welsh celwrn), meaning ‘a cauldron’, might have referred either to a river pool in the North Tyne or to the Inglepool nearby.
Alan James, Gatehouse of Fleet, Kirkcudbrightshire
Edible archaeology
I recently achieved a certain age, and my wife Jill created this amazing carrot cake for my birthday. She made it and decorated it – complete with trench, ranging poles, a stone circle, and (hidden at the top right) a drone, representing my new hobby – in secret, so it was a complete surprise for me.
Dr Robert Bewley, Crosthwaite, Kendal, Cumbria
CA ONLINE: What you shared with us this month
Morrismummer @morrismummer.bsky.social
Really nice article in the new @currentarchaeology.bsky.social on Aubrey Burl, marking 50 years of his Stone Circles of the British Isles. I loved it, and his Rites of the Gods showed how archaeology could tell a story – and is still on my bookshelves. Bravo, Mr Burl, and thank you.
Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social
I am now seemingly talking to myself in the pages of @currentarchaeology.bsky.social
Christine Lowe @christinelowe.bsky.social
Go on! See if you can get this one in as well and it’ll be like one of those double mirror things.
Write to us at: CA Letters, Current Publishing, Office 120, 295 Chiswick High Road, London, W4 4HH, or by email to: letters@archaeology.co.uk
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