Alan Richardson

The above-pictured carved stone can be found built into the walls of St. Edwin's church at High Conniscliffe, Darlington. It can be found inside the porch, on the north side of the building, but was originally in the outside south wall.

The stone has been subject of many conversations, much research and several documented theories about what it signifies. Dave Shires, a local resident and one of our enthusiastic supporters, has personally worked on this for over 20 years. In the April 1999 issue of our newsletter we published a much-researched explanation by Dorothy Beaufort. I would like to offer another potential explanation.

I have always been struck by the rare nature of certain features of the picture. The two figures appear to be (at first sight) primitive, but it may be that they are both clean-shaven and bald and this contributes to the strange appearance. The two figures appear to be wearing culottes or bell-bottom trousers and do seem out of place. To which historic period, or which group of people would these two characters belong? They each stand on a strange creature, which partly resembles a serpent and partly a crocodile, but has only fore legs. The creatures also have a short horn on the tip of the snout. The character on the left stands on the back of one creature, while the character on the right stands on the belly of the other, upturned creature.

If the picture is a crude early work, why is the inner circle so perfect? Inside the circle is a hobbled animal, thought by some to represent the Agnus Dei. Some have thought it to be a crude representation of a young bull. I have always been tempted to consider it to be a foal. There is a cross-headed and upright staff, apparently a hobbling tool, which gives further support to the Agnus Dei theorists.

An Agnus Dei The High Conniscliffe hobbled creature

I have remained uncomfortable with every explanation that I have heard so far, but recent reading has made me think of an entirely different possibility.

My interest has been drawn to details of nomadic tribes from the Eurasian Steppes. These tribal groups were amongst the first to use horses and were already renowned for their fighting and equestrian skills hundreds of years before the Roman Empire. They were nomadic by nature and their travels took them all around Eastern Europe and beyond. They traded, and then fought with the Chinese, indeed these were the very people that the Great Wall of China was built to keep out. They aligned themselves militarily with anyone they thought likely to win and also hired out their services.

Their emerging culture reflected the contacts they had made and the nature of their life and experiences. The men would wander for months at a time in search of honour and riches, leaving their wives and children behind. Horses were an essential basic element of their lives and became included in their religion. They also worshipped their war god through the physical presence of a sword. They would stick a sword into the ground, leaving it standing upright, in the form of a cross, and kneel in worship of their war god.

The Greeks often produced pictures of one such group, the Scythians, showing them in various daily activities such as skinning animals and hobbling horses. They also usually showed them as pairs of men. Although the Greeks artwork shows figures with typical Scythian headgear and beards, there were many later tribal sub groups, some of whom were clean shaven.

Their emerging culture drew upon the generations of journeys and other societies with whom they had contact. Another essential element of their beliefs was the dragon-serpent. They were the first to use the Draconarius, as first brought to our attention by Peter Dewart in an article some months ago. The Draconarius was a device involving a hollow receptacle fitted with reeds at the top of a pole. It was covered with an imitation dragon's head and a long cloth tail. Their cavalrymen carried it as they charged towards their enemy, the wind blowing through the reeds producing a frightening howling sound. The overall effect was intended to terrify their enemy. This device was later taken into use within the ranks of the Roman cavalry also.

This is an impression of a cavalryman carrying a Draconarius. This picture is from that very good book, "Arthur and the Lost Kingdoms", by Alistair Moffat.

This picture shows detail from a battle scene on the Arch of Galerius at Salonika.

This is from his campaign against the Persians at the end of the third century.

The picture shows Roman troops carrying a draco standard.

The nomads were subjected to great pressure of moving populations and gradually migrated westward, where they had increasing contact with European countries.

The Scythians were an early tribal grouping of Steppe nomads. There were many other names, but the Romans called them all Sarmatians. In AD 169 one other sub-group, the Iazyges, fought alongside their Germanic neighbours, the Marcomanni and the Quadi, in a planned invasion of Pannonia (today's' northern Croatia). After a tough campaign, the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius defeated them in AD 175.

Marcus Aurelius did not severely punish these tribes, as might have been expected, as he had greater needs. He demanded the supply of 8,000 fully equipped cavalry to the empire as tribute following their defeat. He immediately sent 5,500 of these heavy cavalry, along with their animals and equipment to Britain, which contained one of the most problematic trouble spots of the empire at that time, that being the tribal areas north of Hadrian's Wall.

It is well worth mentioning at this point, that when Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 54 BC he used 4,000 cavalry. Now we have 5,500 Sarmatian expert heavy cavalry, complete with their baggage trains, 15,000 tough steppe warhorses, stallions and mares with colts at their sides to provide a breeding pool at their destination. Howard Reid (Arthur the Dragon King) describes only too clearly for me. He describes a wonderful mental picture of such an enormous parade of men, animals and equipment, stretching across Europe, from Hungary to the shores of the Channel, before they were all ferried across to Britain. Similarly, they trekked north, along Dere Street, through Piercebridge and on to Hadrian's Wall and beyond. The numbers become particularly significant in other ways too. Normally, the ala, the cavalry wing attached to Roman legions of 5,000 infantry numbered only about 120 men. The Cohors Equitata, a cavalry cohort, numbered between 350 and 420 infantry mixed with 120 cavalry.

Circumstances suggest that these Sarmatians did not take their women and eventually settled without them in what is now Northumberland and the Scottish borders. They fought, in support of the Roman Empire, alongside the Votadini, a client tribe north of Hadrian's Wall. The Sarmatians would have spent many hours relaying tales of their experiences to their newfound friends. I am left wondering if this is the source of several strange images that appear in later Pictish artwork.

This portion of a Pictish stone from Perthshire shows a kneeling camel and coiled snarling beast with a crocodile style head and only a set of fore legs.

Where did the Picts see camels? The Iranian speaking Iazyges would have been familiar with camels and may even have taken some with them into Britain.

Now compare the Pictish 'dragon' with one of the two creatures at the foot of the High Conniscliffe tablet.

There are similarities. The 'crocodile' type head, with a small horn at the tip of the nose, fore-legs only and a long tail.

So far, I have looked at individual pieces of detail within the carved stone. What I will do now is point to similarities of overall format. The picture shows a general concept of two figures holding a circle. The next photograph is of a commemoration stone now in the museum at Arbeia, the fort at South Shields.

This stone has a wreath circle, with an inscription in the middle as opposed to an animal. The two primitive looking men are holding the circle in a similar fashion to the High Conniscliffe stone.

LEGIO SECUNDA AUGUSTA FECIT

The above stone was found at the considerable Roman Fort at Bemulie, beside the river Kelvin, in Scotland. It has a very common format, in that the inscription is contained within a corona supported by two victories, each standing on a cornucopia. This was erected as a monument marking a construction by the second legion.

LEGIO VECEFINA VALENS VICTRIX FECIT

The above dedication stone, found in County Durham, again shows a corona containing an inscription and supported by two victories. The boar within the picture was used by this Legion following victory over the Caledonians..

VICTORIAE AUGUSTORUM DOMINORUM NOSTRORUM

This further example, found in Cumbria, is also of identical format.

This format is quite common, but I wonder about the High Conniscliffe tablet as it may have been adapted to make the figures appear to be victories by the addition of poorly inscribed wings.

The top picture is of the figure on the left of the tablet. The wing feathers have rounded ends, whereas the other figure's wing feathers are open ended.

The wings are of a totally different style to each other and both appear to have been added after the stone was complete.

Where the wings may have been an attempt to make the figures appear as victories, they could similarly be mistaken for angels later.

I have inferred that the tablet is a re-used piece of Roman stonework, incorporated in the walls of this medieval church. There are other apparently re-used stones.

These photographs show two horned gods.

The one on the left can be seen in the north wall of St Edwin's church. The one on the right is from Bremenium (High Rochester) Roman Fort, which is also close to Dere Street.

The character on the right can be viewed in the Fulling Mill museum in Durham.

The top two photographs are re-used Roman civil engineering stones, built into the original northwest corner of St Edwin's church. Both have 'lewis' holes prominently displayed in a vertical surface. (When used as lewis holes, they would always have been on the upper surface as they were used for lifting)

The picture on the right is of a re-used window arch. It has the appearance of several stones, but is actually only one, but etched to look like several.

This photograph of St Edwin's church steeple in the trees was taken from Piercebridge and helps to illustrate the proximity to a major Roman military site on Dere Street. The church itself is on strategic high ground overlooking the river Tees, approximately 1 mile downstream of Piercebridge.

As a final thought, I am left wondering, if the High Conniscliffe tablet is a commemoration stone, from which event? Just as a possibility I will introduce another event from history.

I have already described how, in AD 175, Marcus Aurelius sent the 5,500 Sarmatian cavalry into Britain. They travelled north up Dere Street and beyond Hadrian's Wall, where they were stationed alongside the Votadini. They arrived in Britain during very turbulent times, indeed that is the very reason why they were sent.

The 12,000 infantry troops already garrisoning the wall manned the forts and milecastles. They did not patrol the top of the wall on foot, their job was to control the passage of civilians through the gates in the wall. Cavalry were deployed north of the wall to patrol and intercept invaders before they reached the wall. The Iazyges were given this job, under their own Roman commander, Lucius Artorius Castus.

The unsettled position continued after the arrival of the Iazyges, with continuous probing attacks from the north. In AD180 a large force of Marauders successfully breached the wall and travelled down Dere Street to York, where they killed the Roman governor and massacred an entire legion, then pillaged the town. The uprising was not fully suppressed until AD 184. In the following year, AD 185, the army in Britain mutinied. The Iazyges were pitched into battles across Britain, but would also have been directly involved with the AD 184 suppression. The High Conniscliffe tablet may be a commemoration stone from one such battle.

The Roman Aftermath

By

Peter Dewart

With reference to Tom Wright’s mention of a worldwide disaster, which happened shortly after the Romans withdrew from Britain, there was a book written recently, which was made into a television documentary. This propounded the theory that a massive volcanic eruption occurred in 535 AD.

The eruption caused layers of fine volcanic dust to be present in the upper atmosphere right around the world. These conditions persisted for years, leading to considerably reduced levels of sunlight, which in turn led to poor crop yields, even crop failures and famines. It also, significantly, lowered weather temperatures.

Rat fleas in the Middle East have the plague bacillus in their gut, but it only becomes active at lower temperatures. When this occurred, these fleas left the rats to attack human beings for food, so bubonic plague began to spread around the Mediterranean.

Earlier, back in Britain, Picts began sailing south to raid the southern parts of Britain because the south had no military defences after the Romans left. They by-passed the lands between the Roman Walls, Forth to Tyne, because these areas did have strong military defences, i.e. powerful Celtic cavalry regiments, a legacy of Roman rule. They had to be strong to protect themselves from the Picts and their allies to the north.

In desperation, the rulers of southern Britain appealed to the Angles and Saxons to come, settle in Britain and protect them from the Picts. However, the Anglo Saxons quickly realised they could take advantage of the situation and set about seizing and colonising the south. But when their colonists came into contact with the northern Celts, the Celtic cavalry routed any attempt at colonisation. An uneasy peace with no contact existed for many years.

Then the plague arrived in Cornwall from Western Europe, probably via the tin trade. It had not crossed the Alps into northern Europe, so the Anglo Saxons escaped the plague because their connections were back over the North Sea to northern Europe and Scandinavia.

However, the northern and western Celts, with their connections back to Rome and the Mediterranean, were decimated. In the epic Celtic poem “The Gododdin”, written in Edinburgh about 600 AD, historic conditions are described matching conditions resulting from the volcanic dust and the plague.

Eventually, the Anglo Saxons moved north and west into largely deserted countryside.

The Truth Will Out

Raymond Selkirk

At long last, a guidebook to the Roman Wall tells us that the seven niches in the Chesters (Cilurnum) bathhouse were for statues of gods rather than for the clothing of bathers, (the bath-house probably catered for hundreds of bathers rather than seven at a time). Perhaps historians have noticed that similar coffers in North African Roman buildings still house some of the original statues.

Next, let us consider the mysterious Vallum to the rear of Hadrian's Wall. How much longer do we have to put up with explanations that this south-facing tremendously expensive Vallum was?

a) A customs barrier,

b) A cattle fence, or

c) Marked a no-go area for local civilians:

All of which would have cost a trifling sum compared with the construction of the Vallum, which can be financially equated with the whole complex of Hitler's "West Wall" of the Normandy coast.

The Vallum earthworks must have cost the ancient equivalent of billions of pounds. It was neither "stripy-pole" customs checkpoint nor a cattle compound for which a wattle fence would have sufficed. Also, civilians would not have needed a "Maginot Line- type construction" to remind them of the dire consequences of trespassing on Roman army property; a few notices would have been sufficient.

What a modern general fears most is that an enemy armoured spearhead will break through his line, fan out behind and attack his undefended rear. A present-day general therefore positions many guns facing backwards in case enemy tanks do just this and attempt to destroy his soft-skinned logistics vehicles from behind.

When the Japanese army swarmed down the Malayan peninsula in 1941, the British military authorities were severely criticised because the large guns of Singapore Island pointed seawards and it was said that they could not turn towards the north to face the Japanese threat. This was not entirely true as some of the guns could turn through 360 degrees but only anti-ship armour-piercing ammunition was available and this was useless against infantry. At a later stage in the war, these guns were taken in the rear - the Japanese moved them to the Aleutians where American Marines came over the back of the island instead of the expected frontal beach landing. The Japanese had not learnt the lesson that they had taught the British.

Roman records tell us that a wall less than seventy feet high was bound to be breached from time to time, therefore they must have expected the fifteen-foot Hadrian's Wall to be crossed occasionally. The tremendously expensive rearward-facing Vallum would have been of great use at these times as the Wall plus Vallum would form an elongated fort, defendable from both north and south. There is a precedent for a Roman two-way-facing system - at the siege of Alesia; an encircling Roman inward-facing inner vallum prevented an enemy escape while a concentric outward-facing outer vallum prevented reinforcements or supplies getting to the besieged city. The multiple ditches of both inward and outward facing vallums contained fearsome obstacles such as poisoned sharpened stakes and a tangle of thorn branches.

Caesar clearly describes such double-facing systems as bicircumvallation. Hadrian's Wall is such a system merely straightened out.

Now let us consider the purpose of Hadrian's Wall; why are all the aqueducts and waterworks situated to the north of the Wall in supposed semi-hostile territory? During the trench warfare of the 1914-18 War, British and French troops dare not drink water from a stream, which originated in German-held territory. Likewise, the Germans would have been foolish to drink water from a source, which originated behind allied lines.

Recently discovered evidence shows a whole network of Roman military roads across Northumberland and southern Scotland. These roads are all parallel and are lined up on 250 degrees in Northumberland and 240 degrees further north. They occasionally transit a Roman outpost fort but in the main, they cross native Celtic hill forts. It looks as if mercenary native tribesmen in the pay of the Romans policed the area between the Tyne and Forth. If so, the Wall was not a front line but a rear stop-line in case of a Caledonian victory over the Romans' frontier zone defence force of mercenary allied Celtic tribesmen. The latter are mentioned at length in Dr David Breeze's various publications.

I was staggered to hear a lecturer once claim that Roman roads were straight because the front wheels of a Roman wagon couldn't pivot. That old wives' tale is dead forever because a complete Roman wagon has been excavated from a swamp in the Balkans, and its front axle was mounted on a turntable, which swivelled through forty degrees (Venedikov 1960, Trakijskate Kolesniza Sofia, Thracian Vehicle). We all (except a few members of the establishment) knew of steer-able Roman front wheels because in Diocletian's price edict, a spare part of a wagon labelled columella (vertical pillar) is mentioned. There is only one place on a wagon for such a part and that is on a swivelling front axle.

Incidentally, on the same wagon, a pair of small bronze horses about two inches high, decorated the sides above the front wheels. A similar horse, found at Vindolanda, has been on display in a Newcastle museum for many years, labelled: "Legionary standard." We always thought it was a bit small, rather like having a Union Jack the size of a pocket-handkerchief on the flagpole of the House of Commons. The Newcastle horse disappeared suddenly when details of the Roman wagon were published.

At Limestone Corner on Hadrian's Wall, a section of the north ditch is unfinished and the Ordnance Survey map of the Wall remarks: "ditch unfinished due to hardness of rock." A few yards to the south, the Romans have sliced the equally large ditch for the Vallum complex through the same outcrop of rock, as if the so-called "hard stone" had been warm butter.

When many historians discuss ancient ships, they immediately betray themselves to ex-navy men as hopeless landlubbers. Our "experts" tell us that seamen of the Classical period hugged the shores because of a lack of expertise in navigation. What rubbish! Ancient oared-warships could hug the coasts because they could manoeuvre against wind and tide but to stay near the coast in a sailing ship is suicidal. Most of the dangers of the sea are related to the coastlines and a true sailor breathes a sigh of relief when the land is left far behind and a routine can be established. Maybe the large crews of oared warships liked to wine and dine ashore whenever possible, but then as now, merchant ships relied on the delivery of cargoes for their upkeep and ploughed on for weeks on end. The Greek poet Aratus tells us about seamen's' knowledge of astro-navigation. Other references to guidance from the stars can be found in Ovid. Met. iii. 592, Lucan. viii.167, and Virgil. Aen. v. 161.176.

During my own service as a first mate on a sailing ship, I shudder to think what the crew's reactions would have been if we had hugged the coast and called all hands on deck every few minutes to trim the sails as we altered course around every headland, dreading a shift in the wind which would put us on the rocks. We always got away from the coast as quickly as possible.

This brings me to a related subject - our lubberly historians claim that square-rigged ships such as Roman merchantmen could only run before the wind - absolute nonsense. With a wind on the beam or even afore the beam, the trusses (which connect the yards to the mast) are eased and the yards swung round. Thus the angled sails deflect a beam-wind rearwards and the reaction, with suction on the front of the sail and high pressure behind, (similar to that of an aircraft's wing), drives the ship forward. This is essential for the zigzag progress to windward known as "tacking."

Now let us look as a few nautical words and phrases, which can be found in Roman literature:

Facere pedem = "to trim the foot-ropes" (of the sails) [Virgil, Aen. v. 830]

Obliquat laevo pede carbasca = "he turns the sails so as to catch the wind blowing from the right" [Lucan, v.428]

Currere utroque pede = "to sail with a wind right astern" [Catull.iv.21]

In contrarium navigare prolatis pedibus = "by tacking" [Pliny,ii.57]

Cymbulae onerariis adhoerescebant = "each ship towed a work-boat

The vast number of different types of Roman ships also tells us that contrary to popular opinion, the Romans were certainly not landlubbers. The various Roman regional war-fleets did however use many seamen from occupied countries such as Greece and Egypt and because of this, the Roman navy was organised as auxiliaries.

Navis longa = warship [Caes.B.G.iv.25]

Liburna = fast, light galley [Horat.Epod.i.1]

Navis praetoria = flagship

Naves onerariae = ships of burden [Caes.B.G.iv.20]

Navis mercatorius = merchant ship [Livy.xxiii.1]

Navis corbita (basket ship) = merchant ship (a basket at the masthead was the Roman insignia for a merchantmen. [Festus.Cic.Att.xvi.6]

Naves frumentaiae = corn ships [Livy.xxiii.1]

Naves vinariae = wine ships [Livy.xxiii.1]

Naves oleariae = oil ships [Livy.xxiii.1]

Naves piscatoriae = fishing boats [Livy.xxiii.1]

Naves speculatoriae = spy ships [Livy.xxx.10]

Naves exploratoriae = survey ships [Livy.xxx.10]

Naves piraticae or praedatoriae = pirate ships [Livy.xxxiv.32.36]

Naves hippagogae = horse transports [Livy.xliv.28]

Naves tabellariae = courier ships [Senec.Epist.77]

Naves vectoriae gravesque = heavy transport ships [Caes.B.G.v.7]

The Roman victories at sea over the great naval power of Carthage were secured by the use of a "secret weapon." Up to that time, the main tactic used by warships was to ram each other. Then the Romans invented the corvus (raven). This was a gangway suspended from the Roman ship's mast in an upright position. A large spike protruded from the underside of the outer end of the gangway. The technique was to go alongside an enemy ship and drop the gangway onto the enemy ship so that the spike stuck into the victim's deck. Dozens of Roman marines then boarded the enemy ship and cut the crew to pieces. The Romans had introduced land warfare to the high seas.

Roman marines served both at sea and on land. The Second and Sixth Legions, sometimes used in naval actions, were also no newcomers to the sea as they were recruited from merchant seamen. Insignia used by these legions were: anchors, capricorns (goats with fish-tails) and "Pegasus" (the winged horse which indicates the ability to strike behind enemy lines).

Roman sources tell us about huge ships. One built by Ptolemy was said to have been 420 feet long with a tonnage of 7182. Another was 300 feet, tonnage, 3197. According to Pliny (xvi.40 & 76), the ship which brought from Egypt the great obelisk that stood in the Circus of the Vatican in the time of Caligula, in addition to the obelisk itself, had 120,000 modii of lentils (about 1,138 tons) as ballast (saburra), which probably served as a bed for the giant stone in a similar manner to those horrible modern plastic packaging chips which blow all over the garden when a large postal parcel is opened.

The giant ship was later filled with rocks and concrete and purposely sunk to form part of the 2,500 feet long southern breakwater of the harbour of Portus, just north of Ostia. A lighthouse was built on top of the sunken ship. Modern historians have pooh-poohed Pliny's account but the silted up harbour, now inland, was excavated by Italian archaeologist, O. Testaguzza in 1963. The ship had six decks and was 600 feet long and its cubic capacity has been calculated at an amazing 7,400 tons, ("Port of Rome" in Archaeology Vol 17, No. 3 Sept 1964). Pliny was telling the truth when he said: "it took four men linking arms to encircle the ship's mainmast."

Several obvious navigation instruments have appeared in excavations and these have been labelled as portable sundials. An "expert" was most upset when I told him the instrument was a Roman sun-compass and could be set-up with the Royal Air Force checklist. Whereas the RAF instrument can be used with the Sun, Moon, stars and planets, the Roman astro-compass can be used only with the Sun.

The Vikings refer to a "sunstone" with which they used to take bearings of the Sun in overcast weather (Randulfs Pattr ok Sonum Hans). There is also a Roman reference by Pliny the Elder to a similar stone, which he calls Solis Gemma. The material is a calcite mineral called cordierite, and bearings of the obscured Sun can be taken even when it is up to seven degrees below the horizon. A modern airman's navigation aid called a "Kollsman's Sky Compass" uses the same principle.

If one knows the local time, (by sandglass or other device) the Moon also becomes a very useful direction-indicator. Julius Caesar refers to the Celtic sailors' abilities using the Moon thus. The magnetic compass is very useful for navigation, but not essential; the sky is full of compasses. Even when no astro-assistance is available, a course can be held for several hours merely by reference to the directions of the wind, seas or swell.

Orographic uplifted clouds betray the presence of coastlines many miles beyond visible horizons and isolated cumulus clouds caused by condensing water vapour at the top of thermals betray the presence of islands.

I knew an American yachtsman who often sailed from San Francisco to Hawaii and he carried no navigation aids whatsoever; he said: "I merely follow the vapour trails," (most trans-Pacific aircraft refuelled at Honolulu during that period). Ancient navigators often followed migrating birds so there is nothing new.

Recent excavators of the Roman "Car Dyke" canal have tried to say that the Romans didn't navigate it because it had a couple of uncut causeways across it. Pliny the Younger, Roman governor of Bythinia, in his letters to Trajan about a proposed canal from a lake in Nicomedia, in order to eliminate expensive wagon transport, assured Trajan that there would be no danger of the lake being accidentally drained because uncut causeways could be left as safety devices, and cargoes manhandled across these barriers from one barge to another.

Roman waterways "experts" in the Fens talk about the Romans diverting rivers into catch-water drains; surely it should have been the other way round? Much more research needs to be done but I trust, not by hopeless landlubbers.

1	17th Century Logistics	Brenda Ludvigsen
2	The High Conniscliffe Sarmatian Tablet	Alan Richardson
3	Pocklington Revisited	Brenda Ludvigsen
4	The Roman Aftermath	Peter Dewart
5	The Truth Will Out	Raymond Selkirk