190 ROMAN BROUGH : = ANAVIO. 



Roman type. It will possibly be found when the excavation 

 is completed that the praetorium wall was built later. The 

 other point is that the pit was not originally designed to have 

 steps : these were only made at some time by sacrificing a 

 portion of one side, some of the stones taken out of the upper 

 part were then arranged below as steps. 



The chamber itself is just over eight feet long by five feet 

 wide at its narrower end. It broadens in the other direction to 

 seven feet, and it was this end that was chosen for the stair- 

 way. The top of the wall was found, like all the other masonry 

 around, just below the surface of the ground, but it had been 

 higher: the stones fallen within it alone would have raised it 

 four courses. As it is, it goes down eleven courses of good 

 ashlar to a depth of eight feet. A smaller area than the base 

 had at some time been deepened in the shale bed to a further 

 depth of nearly two feet. The walls around had been built 

 stoutly to resist the pressure from without : the alternate courses 

 were bonded in regularly at the ends, and the face remains 

 quite true. The two opposite comer stones, c c, on the plan, 

 Fig. 6, alone project for some reason a little beyond the face. 



The topmost step — as found — was curiously chamfered in 

 its middle, on the near side, as shown in the plan and section 

 defined by the letter a in figure 6. It looked as though it had 

 been designed for the passing of a rope, but no use for it could 

 be assigned in its present position. The outer wall, as it was 

 preserved, stood about the same height as other walls of the 

 praetorium. The corner stone, b, on the right hand of the 

 descent was found to be moulded and inscribed with letters, 

 of which SCOPRAE are the best preserved (Plates VIII. and 

 IX.). During the excavation of the interior there were found, 

 at first, numerous building stones, fallen from off the walls 

 around, mingled with earth and debris, then a number of animal 

 bones, horns of the deer family and of oxen,* a few small coins 

 of the fourth century, three main fragments of a second century 

 tablet, two Roman altars, a broken column, a large stone vessel 

 (Fig. 7, No. 1), fragments of pottery, and other small objects, 



* See Professor Boyd Dawkins' paper, p. 203. 



