Tile-Stamps of the Ninth Legion Found in BritainAuthor(s): R. P. WrightSource: Britannia, Vol. 9 (1978), pp. 379-382Published by: Society for the Promotion of Roman StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/525953 .

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Tile-Stamps of the Ninth Legion found in Britain By R. P. WRIGHT

HIS analysis' of the stamps of Legio IX (or VIIII) Hispana found at Lincoln, Templeborough, Old Winteringham

(Lincs), Malton, Aldborough and mainly York, or at Carlisle and its legionary tilery at Scales- ceugh forms a sequel to the present writer's article in Britannia vii (1976), 224-35 on 'Tile- Stamps of the Sixth Legion found in Britain'. It has been based on rubbings and squeezes made from the originals. Much of the earlier biblio- graphy has been omitted because stamps when published merely in printed capitals cannot be identified with specific dies. The die used for the one example2 known from Lincoln (Lindum) seems to have been taken north for use among others at one of the tileries, on sites not yet loca- ted, which supplied York (Eboracum). The rare examples from Aldborough (Isurium Brigantum), the capital of the canton fifteen miles north-west of York, match two of the dies from York. But in contrast one example, Type i, assigned3 with probability to Aldborough, has no parallel. The outlying post at Malton (Derventio) has produced two dies4 unmatched elsewhere, even at York.

To the west of the Pennines tiles of the Ninth Legion have been found in Carlisle (Luguvalium) and at the legionary tilery at Scalesceugh, five miles south-east of Carlisle beside the Roman road to Old Penrith (Voreda). The evidence for the tilery5 and pottery comes mainly from chance discoveries in building and draining operations in 1915 and

I92i. Stamps of the Twentieth Legion have been found, one from Scalesceugh cited in

1 Acknowledgement is here paid to the museum officials and directors of excavations who have sent the writer squeezes and rubbings or made their material available in the last three decades. It seems fair to mention the large group from the excavations of I967- 72 under York Minster, made available in 1967 by Mr

H. G. Ramm and thereafter by Mr A. D. Phillips and worked on by Miss L. G. Whalley. Secondly by leave of Mr P. V. Addyman, Mr J. A. Spriggs worked over the material from York Archaeological Trust. Mr L. P. Wenham sent information and material from his various excavations.

' Type 6 (below). For the transfer from Exeter to Caerleon of a mould for antefixes for use in a legionary tilery see Bidwell and Boon, Britannia vii (1976), 279. For debris dumped from tile kilns of LEG IX HISP east of the north-east angle of the Fortress at York see Addyman, Antiq. 7ourn. liv (I974), 213, 215, fig. 9.3.

3 The Philosophical and Literary Society of Leeds in

192I transferred its collections to Leeds City Museum. These included three stamped tiles from Slack and two Ninth Legion items, namely a brick of Type 1o, already known at Aldborough, and a tegula, Type I. As the Accession Books were lost in war-damage in 1941, the provenance of the legionary stamps remains uncertain, but has been assumed by the Museum officials to be Aldborough as the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society 37th Report, 1856-57, 23 records a gift by James Wardell of 'several fragments of pottery and other remains from Aldborough'.

' Corder, Defences of the Roman fort at Malton (Leeds 1929), 37, 39, fig. 7 No. 14. Type 15, with carefully mitred corners, comes from two fragmentary bricks which differ from Type 14, despite the connec- tion made in Corder's figure.

SHaverfield, Cumb. and Westm. 2nd ser. xvi (1916), 282, Hope ibid., 289, xxii (1922), 456 amending to Ninth Legion. Presumably the Ninth Legion which stamped two of the bricks also made the roofing tiles and water pipes which were found. In addition part of a brick [LEG] XX VV with the small Vs superimposed, unmatched at Chester (Deva) or its tilery at Holt, a definite waster from a kiln, indicates activity, which need not have been contemporary, by this other legion.

Many sherds of miscellaneous pottery were found and in 1961 Mr R. L. Bellhouse tested the area by a series of trial pits from which he secured wasters of tegulae, imbrices and voussoirs, and also a water pipe and parts of twelve pottery vessels (Cumb. and Westm. 2nd ser. lxxi (1971), 35). In 1970-71 Mr G. G. S. Richardson excavated a pottery kiln and from a mag- netometer survey estimated that the site has substan- tial remains of at least twenty-five kilns (ibid. lxiii (1973), 79 ff.).

379

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380 R. P. WRIGHT

1 11 .ECIXHISP

4LE G V S

12L

5 II3 00 ISP)H

iI.FI5(,HIU 14

8 15 FIG. I. Tile-stamps of Legion IX Hispana. Scale, 2: 5.

the note and two others6 from Carlisle. One of these seemed to belong to a tile tomb which in- cluded six tegulae of the Second Legion with a stamp unmatched at Caerleon. But these products need not be contemporary with those of the Ninth, and probably mark the presence of these two legions for building Hadrian's Wall. Mr B. R. Hartley7 records the drop in the stamped samian at York from about A.D. I0o and, to account for legionary tiling at Scalesceugh, suggests that a substantial portion of the Ninth Legion may have been stationed in or near Carlisle, perhaps as a key post when the Trajanic frontier was estab- lished along the Stanegate. From the three Types (3-5) found in the Carlisle area the complete example, LEG VIIII H, has the numeral expres-

sed by addition, not subtraction. Its discovery in 1921 enabled Hope8 to assign Types 3 and 4 to the Ninth and not to the Sixth, thus simplifying the legions to be accounted for. On the analogy of the mortarium stamp from de Holdeurn, to be

oPart of a tegula found in 1953 in the River Eden opposite Stanwix (Petriana) (JRS xliv (1954), 1o9, No. 32). Tegula (EE x, 1271c) found in 1894 in Brook Street, Carlisle, forming a tile tomb with six tegulae stamped LIIG II VG (EE ix, 1268b; Ferguson PSA 2nd ser. xv (1894), 261, Cumb. and Westm. Ist ser. xiii (1895), 25I).

'Hartley, in R. M. Butler (ed.), Soldier and civilian in Roman Yorkshire (Leicester, 1971), 6o-6r.

8L. E. Hope, then Curator of Carlisle Museum (Cumb. and Westm. 2nd ser. xxii (1922), 457), emen- ded EE ix 1269 (Type 4), and Cumb. and Westm. 2nd ser. xvi (I916), 282, 290 (Type 3).

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STAMPS OF THE NINTH LEGION 381

described below, it seems very probable that the tegula of Type I, probably from Aldborough, should be restored as the Ninth Legion. A simi- lar restoration should fit the imbrex of Type 2 from York Minster. If this be accepted it seems that the Scalesceugh practice of expressing the numeral by addition was also adopted at the tilery which supplied York and Aldborough.

When Legio VI Victrix was moved to York in, or shortly before, 122 it seems likely that the Ninth was transferred to Nijmegen (Novio- magus). Professor J. E. Bogaers9 in 1964 at the Sixth International Limeskongress described two recent discoveries which seem to indicate that the Ninth Legion was quartered at Nijmegen in that decade. Part of a tegula, LEG VIIII[ with some abbreviation of Hispana], had been found in 1959 on the surface above the level of occupation left by Legio X Gemina on the legionary site at Nij- megen. Secondly in 1962 his attention was drawn to the rim of a mortarium, then unpublished, found in 1938 in only a partial excavation of the industrial site at de Holdeurn, Groesbeek,

4"5 km

south-east of Nijmegen, stamped L(reversed)G VIIII HIS. Both discoveries indicate official pro- ducts for the legion'0 as a whole, or a substantial proportion of it.

CONSPECTUS OF TYPES

ABBREVIATIONS AND REFERENCES

CIL: Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. EE: Ephemeris Epigraphica. YRS: Journal of Roman Studies, quoted briefly by

volume, page and item number. RCHM : Royal Commission on Historical Monuments,

Eburacum (1962), fig. 8o (assigning num- bers I, 2 from the left on the too line).

VCH: Victoria County History. YAY: Yorkshire Archaeological Journal. Y Min.: objects stored by the York Minster Archaeo-

logical Unit. Y Mus.: Yorkchire Museum, York. Seven tile-tombs

on display in lower room of the Hospitium (here quoted as I-VII from west to east as set out in November, i955).

YT: objects stored by the York Archaeological Trust.

Types I. Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society,

37th Report 1856-7 (1857), 23 (1 tegula, in Leeds City Mus., see note 3 (above)).

2. Y Min. (fragment of imbrex found in 1967: H. G. Ramm sent squeeze and rubbing to R.P.W.).

3. Scalesceugh (brick found in 1915, now in Carlisle Mus. May and Hope, Cumb. and Westm. 2nd ser. xvii (1917), 196, pl. XVIII,2).

4. Carlisle (tegula (with letter N, 80 mm high, traced by a finger above the stamp); found in 1892 on the site of Tullie House) in Carlisle Mus. EE ix, 1269, amended to Ninth Legion by Hope, Cumb. and Westm. 2nd. ser. xxii (1922), 457).

5. (a) Carlisle (fragment of tegula found in I89o on the site of the Presbyterian Manse, Fisher Street. Haverfield, Arch. 7ourn. xlix (1892), I99 with pl.; Cumb. and Westm. Ist ser. xii (I893), 280; EE ix, 1270).

(b) Scalesceugh (brick found in 1921. Hope, Cumb. and Westm. 2nd ser. xxii (1922), 456). Both items in Carlisle Mus.

6. York. Traced from RCHM, fig. 8o,I. No example seen by R.P.W. (For the legend (i) tegulae from tomb found in 1768. Burton, Archaeologia ii (I773), 177, pl. x, 3. (ii) tegulae found in 1852 in Fetter Lane, York, RCHM, 52a). EE iii, p. 142, gives an incom- plete reading of Type Io (Hilly Wood, Northants.).

7. (a) Lincoln (flat tile found c. I85o in Lin- coln; bought from Stamford Mus. in 19go for Lincoln Mus.). (b) Old Winteringham, Lincs. (7RS lix (I969), 242, No. 35. Wright, in I. M. Stead

(ed.), Excavations... in North Lincolnshire (1976), 190, fig. 94,I; now in Department of the Environment). (c) York. Tolson Memorial Mus., Hudders- field (i brick; i tegula, though possibly from Slack).

9Bogaers to R.P.W., 28 July 1962; Numaga xii (1965), io ff.; Bonner Jahrbiicher, Beiheft 19, Studien zu den Militiirgrenzen Roms (K61n, 1967), (for tegula) 63, fig. 5, Taf. 5,3, (for mortarium) 64, fig. 6, Taf. 5,4; Frere, Britannia (1967), 139; Bogaers und Ruger, Die niedergermanische Limes (K61n, 1974), IS, 78.

10The date at which the Ninth Legion ceased to occupy Nijmegen has not yet been established. Profes- sor E. Birley in R. M. Butler (ed.), Soldier and civilian in Roman Yorkshire (Leicester, 1971), 74 ff., discusses the evidence for further stages in this legion's existence.

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382 R. P. WRIGHT

Mortimer Mus., Hull (i brick; I tegula (alter- natively from Aldborough), Newcastle Mus. Ant. (I tegula). Sheffield City Mus. (i brick found in 1845 in cutting the York to Scarborough Railway; i brick, I tegula). Y Mus (4 bricks. i tegula from Tile-tomb I, i tegula found in 1961 in Vicarage garden of St Mary Bishophill Junior, 7RS Iii, 197, No. 38, third example. Mail Coach Inn, St Sampson's Square (i flat tile, 3 voussoirs found in 1931, recorded there in 1941 by R.P.W. Corder, Yorks. Archit. & York Arch. Soc. Proc. i (1933), 15, 21, fig. 7, No. 28; YRS xxiii, 214, No. 9). Mr L. R, A. Grove (in 1940; in 1976 Curator of Maidstone Mus.) (brick fragment found in 1938 at Mount Vale, York. YRS xxx, 187, No. I8. YA7 xxxv, 8i). History Dept. of College of Ripon and St John, Gray's Court, Chapter House Street (2 tegulae found in 1962 near junction of Bishophill Junior and Prospect Terrace, JRS liii, 164, No. 31 (b) (c)). Y Min. (4 tegulae). YT (6 tegulae).

8. York (Y Mus. I tegula, Y Min. I imbrex, YT I tegula).

9. York (Y Mus. I tegula; I tegula found in 1961 in Vicarage garden of St Mary Bishop- hill Junior, YRS lii, I97, No. 38, first example. YT i imbrex, I tegula).

Io. (a) Aldborough (i brick, H. E. Smith, Rel. Isur., pl. xxvuiI, io, R.P.W. 1952; I brick, Leeds City Mus. (see note 3 for assigning it to this site). (b) Hilly Wood, Ashton, Northants (i vous- soir, Peterborough Mus., Trollope, Assoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. ix (1867), 156. Watkin, Arch. 7ourn. (1874), 356. EE iii, p. 142 (each with HIS incomplete). VCH Northants i, 214).

(c) Templeb(o)rough (x brick, Rotherham Museum, May, Templebrough, 123, pl. XXXVII M).

(d) York. British Mus. (0 tegula). Cambridge Arch. & Ethn. Mus. (Braybrooke Coll., 2 bricks; Ransom Coll., I brick).

Cardiff, Nat. Mus. Wales (i tegula). Chester, Grosvenor Mus. (tile, Cat, st ed. No. 213). Sheffield City Mus. (i imbrex found in 1845 in cutting the York to Scarborough Railway). Y Mus. (i imbrex, I tegula (Tomb I), I vous- soir (matching Hilly Wood) (Tomb IV) with rectangular box at end, found in 1874 in the Railway excavations, I tegula (available in

i94o). I tegula found in i96I in Vicarage garden of St Mary Bishophill Junior, YRS ii, 197, No. 38, second example. Gray's Court (see Type 7) (i brick found in 1962 near junction of Bishophill Junior and Prospect Terrace, YRS liii, 164, No. 31 (a)). Y Min. (I imbrex, 12 tegulae). YT (2 tegulae).

i i. (a)Aldborough (i imbrex, Mayer Coll., Liver- pool Mus.) (b) York (Y Mus. I brick, 2 tegulae. Y Min. I tegula. YT 2 imbrices, 2 others).

12. York (Mr L. P. Wenham, 4 Abbey Street, Clifton, York: 2 tegulae found in 197i out- side Fortress Interval Tower N.E.6, Britan- nia iii, 36I, No. 55 (b) (c)).

13. York (I tegula, J. Cook Coll., Sheffield City Mus.).

14. Malton (I tegula, Malton Mus. Corder, De- fences of the Roman fort at Malton (Leeds, 1929), 37, 39, fig. 7,14).

I5. Malton (2 bricks, Malton Mus. Corder, ibid.).

For a supposed LEG IX VIC brick see note.'

5 Victoria Terrace, Durham

11 Thoresby stated that a brick reading LEG-IX.VIC had been found in York (Phil. Trans. xxv (1706), 2195,

Ducatus Leodiensis (1715), 562), repeated by Drake, Eboracum (1736), 58, pl. viii, 7, and Stukeley, Memoirs iii 379 (26 June 174o). But Kenrick, Historical notices

of Ninth & Sixth Legions (York, 1867), Io, questioned the reading; Huebner, CIL vii, I224e regarded vic as an error for HISP, and Haverfield EE vii 1123 rejected Stukeley. Ramm, Yorks. Archit. & York Arch. Soc. Report 1953-54, 47, n. 75, suggests that in a stamp of LEG VI VIC the numeral might have been inverted and transposed.

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