Building with turf at Roman Vindolanda: Multi-scalar analysis of earthen materials, construction techniques, and landscape context

Ben Russell; Tanja Romankiewicz; Tom Gardner; Andrew Birley; Riley  Snyder; Christopher T. S. Beckett

doi:10.1080/00665983.2021.1949148

Building with turf at Roman Vindolanda: Multi-scalar analysis of earthen materials, construction techniques, and landscape context

Ben Russell, Tanja Romankiewicz, Tom Gardner, Andrew Birley, Riley Snyder, Christopher T. S. Beckett

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Turf was widely used as a building material in the Roman period, especially in military architecture. Despite this, few studies have investigated properties of turf in construction, and fewer still have applied micromorphology to ancient turf walls. This study details the methods and results from a combined macro- and micro-scale analysis, using samples from the well-preserved ramparts at Vindolanda, a fort associated with Hadrian’s Wall. Our work not only proposes a refined methodology for the wider geoarchaeological study of turf walls, but also provides new, deeper insight into the properties of turf as a building material.

Original language	English
Journal	The Archaeological Journal
Early online date	29 Sep 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/00665983.2021.1949148
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 29 Sep 2021

Keywords

turf walls
earth-based building materials
geoarchaeology
micromorphology
Roman military constructions
Hadrian's Wall

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10.1080/00665983.2021.1949148Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND)

RussellEtal2021AJBuildingWithTurfFinal published version, 40.3 MBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND)

1 Article

'Another wall of turf': Geoarchaeological analysis of the Antonine Wall at 72 Grahamsdyke Street, Laurieston, Falkirk
Romankiewicz, T., Russell, B., Bailey, G., Gardner, T., Snyder, J. R. & Beckett, C. T. S., 30 Nov 2022, In: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 151, p. 103-141 39 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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title = "Building with turf at Roman Vindolanda: Multi-scalar analysis of earthen materials, construction techniques, and landscape context",

abstract = "Turf was widely used as a building material in the Roman period, especially in military architecture. Despite this, few studies have investigated properties of turf in construction, and fewer still have applied micromorphology to ancient turf walls. This study details the methods and results from a combined macro- and micro-scale analysis, using samples from the well-preserved ramparts at Vindolanda, a fort associated with Hadrian{\textquoteright}s Wall. Our work not only proposes a refined methodology for the wider geoarchaeological study of turf walls, but also provides new, deeper insight into the properties of turf as a building material.",

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AU - Russell, Ben

AU - Romankiewicz, Tanja

AU - Gardner, Tom

AU - Birley, Andrew

AU - Snyder, Riley

AU - Beckett, Christopher T. S.

PY - 2021/9/29

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AB - Turf was widely used as a building material in the Roman period, especially in military architecture. Despite this, few studies have investigated properties of turf in construction, and fewer still have applied micromorphology to ancient turf walls. This study details the methods and results from a combined macro- and micro-scale analysis, using samples from the well-preserved ramparts at Vindolanda, a fort associated with Hadrian’s Wall. Our work not only proposes a refined methodology for the wider geoarchaeological study of turf walls, but also provides new, deeper insight into the properties of turf as a building material.

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KW - earth-based building materials

KW - geoarchaeology

KW - micromorphology

KW - Roman military constructions

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JF - The Archaeological Journal

SN - 0066-5983

ER -

Building with turf at Roman Vindolanda: Multi-scalar analysis of earthen materials, construction techniques, and landscape context

Abstract

Keywords

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Research output

'Another wall of turf': Geoarchaeological analysis of the Antonine Wall at 72 Grahamsdyke Street, Laurieston, Falkirk

Cite this