[pikilily]

Give us a call john, may be in aberdeen the weekend of the 20th, the weekend before may be sausage making, you are free to join in. Sample tasters all round, you catch us as you find us, always ready for a bit of distraction. you may even find my fencing dibber pole. I lost it last year....argh!! its only four foot long and is hugely heavy, but can i find it !!!!
Emma T

[ambriel]

Romans? In Scotland? Surely not?

[doganjo]

Romans? In Scotland? Surely not?

Mons Graupius - aka Grampian Mountains??? (the Romans defeated the inhabitants of Scotland at the Battle of Mons Graupius)

They got as far as an as yet unidentified battle site near Inverurie in Aberdeenshire with an expeditionary force.  My croft was 11 miles from Inverurie, not exactly far in Roman marching terms

[johnmac]

Sounds good Emma! I'll be in touch.

Romans in Scotland, hell yes!

At school you were often taught about hadrians wall being the limit of the roman empire. In actual fact there was an earlier frontier called the gask ridge which dates to around 70ad, 50yrs earlier than hadrians wall. It is the oldest frontier in the entire roman empire and runs from Stirling to Perth along the course of the modern A9. In total over forty forts, fortlets and camps all on the edge of the equivalent of a roman motorway.

At the centre of the gask ridge is Inchtuthil fortress near Meikleour in Perthshire. At it's height it was a camp for around 10,000 Roman soldiers and the base of the invasion north east.

Several scholars from the roman era describe the third century Severan occupation of Scotland as similar to america's Vietnam. With over 10,000 roman soldiers killed by scots in a three year occupation.

[doganjo]

Sounds good Emma! I'll be in touch.

Romans in Scotland, hell yes!

At school you were often taught about hadrians wall being the limit of the roman empire. In actual fact there was an earlier frontier called the gask ridge which dates to around 70ad, 50yrs earlier than hadrians wall. It is the oldest frontier in the entire roman empire and runs from Stirling to Perth along the course of the modern A9. In total over forty forts, fortlets and camps all on the edge of the equivalent of a roman motorway.

At the centre of the gask ridge is Inchtuthil fortress near Meikleour in Perthshire. At it's height it was a camp for around 10,000 Roman soldiers and the base of the invasion north east.

Several scholars from the roman era describe the third century Severan occupation of Scotland as similar to america's Vietnam. With over 10,000 roman soldiers killed by scots in a three year occupation.

Gosh, you know you're stuff!  Not an ex History teacher are you? 

[johnmac]

History teacher? Alas no! My dream job!

At 32, if I was to do open learning to be a history teacher, it'd probably take me until 40 to be fully qualified!
:-(

Much regret!

I know so much about Romans just through research and metal detecting! Its a good way to learn, assuming you can find something!

[geebee]

I have a few old coins that I'd love to know what they are. Everyone laughs & says they're not real. there's not much to see on them but maybe an expert like you would be able to tell me    Could I maybe e mail you a pic? I don't know how to put pics on here.

[johnmac]

Email away! I'm far from an expert, but I'll do my best! Any info you can tell me about the coins would help, ie where did they come from?

john@maceachen.fsworld.co.uk

If you don't mind I'll post any info on this page in case anyone else is interested? With site permission of course!?

[geebee]

Great, thanks! will look them out & photograph them later on, got to go earn a crust. And no prob posting them on here. I found them in my back garden, farm cottage with big area at the back which has been used as a dump in the past, thanks to the worms & hens things come to the surface, among the many socks!!

[johnmac]

Geebee, haven't received your pics yet? Just checking you hadn't sent them
And they'd gone missing... My Internet has been down for a week!

[johnmac]

Went out today on a field bear my house that's just been cropped. For anyone that's interested, this is an average sort of fields finds for an hours work... Don't give up my day job! But the good stuff keeps mengoing back, assuming I find any!



Large caliber lead bullet 1850 to 1930's?
Halfpenny of 1929
Small looped button circa 1900?
Silver plated 'livery' style button, date to be confirmed.

Oh well! I'll be in touch with interested people who fancy me paying their land a visit shortly!

[doganjo]

I find this absolutely fascinating.  Just like Time Team - I love that programme!

[Rosemary]

I love history - especially local stuff. I think it's great that all schools now have to teach Scottish history - wish it had been like that when I was at school. There's a big gap in my knowledge 

When they found the Iron Age skeletons in Alloa a few years ago, it made me think about these people thousands of years ago walking along the same riverbank as we did, probably with the same feelings, emotions and problems as we have now.

I must set aside some time to catch up on stuff like Time Team.

[johnmac]

Thankyou both! Glad I am stirring the imagination.

A follow up... The silver button to the right has been identified as a 'livery button' Georgian in date, so 1714 to 1820 in date. So oldest of the four finds! With some hard work it would be possible to trace the exact estate that the crest relates to and with it an exact date. Just think, 200 to 300yrs ago someone wearing their estate jacket lost a button whilst ploughing or harvesting and I'm the first person to pick it up since it was lost.

That's what keeps me going back, not the monetary value, but the history and info you can gleam from it!

;-)

[shearling]

too far for a visit but wondered what equipment you used - birthday coming up