Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-kl2l2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-24T02:52:09.879Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Roman Siege of Burnswark

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

D.B. Campbell
D.B. Campbell
Affiliation:
Bearsden, Glasgow
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The flat-topped hill of Burnswark broods over the surrounding landscape of southern Annandale. Its Iron Age defences enclose an area of 7 ha, modest when set against the hillforts of the neighbouring Tyne-Forth province, but without equal in Dumfriesshire. Its situation has often evoked comparison with the 10.5 ha site of Masada (Israel), but, even allowing for occasionally steep slopes rising some 70 m from its base, Burnswark's defences cannot match the formidable 250 m cliffs of the Judaean site.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 34 , November 2003 , pp. 19 - 33
Copyright
Copyright © D.B. Campbell 2003. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anonymous 1792: ‘Description of the encampments on the hill of Burnswork’, Trans. Soc. Antiq. Scot. 1, 124–9Google Scholar
Baatz, D. 1994: Bauten und Katapulte des römischen Heeres, StuttgartGoogle Scholar
Birley, E. 1939: ‘Burnswark', Archaeological Journal 96, 315–17Google Scholar
Birley, E. 1946/1947: ‘Dumfriesshire in Roman times’, Trans. Dumfriesshire & Galloway Nat. Hist. & Antiq. Soc. 25, 132–50Google Scholar
Campbell, D.B. 1984: ‘Ballistaria in first to mid-third century Britain: a reappraisal’, Britannia 15, 75–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, D.B. 2002: Aspects of Roman Siegecraft, unpub. Ph.D. thesis, University of GlasgowGoogle Scholar
Campbell, D.B. 2003: Greek and Roman Siege Machinery, 399 BC-AD 363, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Chalmers, G. 1807: Caledonia, or an Account, Historical and Topographic, of North Britain, vol. 1, LondonGoogle Scholar
Christison, D., Barbour, J., and Anderson, J. 1898/1899: ‘Account of the excavation of the camps and earthworks at Birrenswark Hill, in Annandale, undertaken by the Society in 1898’, Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot. 33, 198–249Google Scholar
Collingwood, R.G. 1925/1926: ‘Burnswark reconsidered’, Trans. Dumfriesshire & Galloway Nat. Hist. & Antiq. Soc. 13, 46–58Google Scholar
Collingwood, R.G., and Richmond, I.A. 1969: The Archaeology of Roman Britain, LondonGoogle Scholar
Collingwood, R.G., and Taylor, M.V. 1931: ‘Roman Britain in l930’, JRS 21, 215–50Google Scholar
Crawford, O.G.S. 1939: ‘Air reconnaissance of Roman Scotland’, Antiquity 13, 280–92Google Scholar
Davies, R.W. 1972: ‘The Romans at Burnswark’, Historia 21, 99–113Google Scholar
Davies, R.W. 1974: ‘Roman military training grounds’, in Birley, E., Dobson, B. and Jarrett, M. (eds), Roman Frontier Studies 1969, Cardiff, 20–6Google Scholar
Frere, S.S., and St Joseph, J.K.S. 1983: Roman Britain from the Air, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Gillam, J.P. 1958: ‘Roman and native, AD 122–197’, in Richmond, I.A. (ed.), Roman and Native in North Britain, London, 60–89Google Scholar
Gordon, A. 1726: Itinerarium Septentrionale, LondonGoogle Scholar
Halliday, S.P. 1982: ‘Later prehistoric farming in south-east Scotland’, in Harding, D.W. (ed.), Later Prehistoric Settlement in South-East Scotland, Edinburgh, 74–91Google Scholar
Haverfield, F. 1899: ‘Quarterly notes on Roman Britain’, The Antiquary 35, 70–2Google Scholar
Haverfield, F. 1915: Roman Britain in 1914, British Academy Supplemental Papers 3, LondonGoogle Scholar
Hawkes, C.F.C. 1929: ‘The Roman siege of Masada’, Antiquity 3, 195–213Google Scholar
Hawkes, C.F.C., and Richmond, I.A. 1934: review of Schulten 1933, JRS 24, 72–5Google Scholar
Jobey, G. 1977/1978: ‘Burnswark Hill, Dumfriesshire’, Trans. Dumfriesshire & Galloway Nat. Hist. & Antiq. Soc. 53, 57–99Google Scholar
Keppie, L. 1989: ‘Beyond the northern frontier: Roman and native in Scotland’, in Todd, M. (ed.), Research on Roman Britain: 1960–89, London, 61–73Google Scholar
Le Bohec, Y. 1989: L'armée romaine sous le haut-empire, ParisGoogle Scholar
Liebenam, W. 1909: ‘Festungskrieg (2)’, in Paulys Realencyclopädie 6.2, 2236–55Google Scholar
Macdonald, G. 1917/1918: ‘Roman coins found in Scotland’, Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot. 52, 203–76Google Scholar
Macdonald, G. 1920: ‘Fortifications, Birrenswark or Burnswork’, in R.C.A.H.M.S., , County of Dumfries, Edinburgh, 94–101Google Scholar
Macdonald, G. 1931: Roman Britain 1914–1928, British Academy Supplemental Papers 6. LondonGoogle Scholar
Maitland, W. 1757: The History and Antiquities of Scotland, vol. 1, LondonGoogle Scholar
Marsden, E.W. 1969: Greek and Roman Artillery. Historical Development, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Marsden, E.W. 1971: Greek and Roman Artillery. Technical Treatises, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Maxwell, G.S. 1998: A Gathering of Eagles. Scenes from Roman Scotland, EdinburghGoogle Scholar
R.C.A.H.M.S. 1997: Eastern Dumfriesshire: an Archaeological Landscape, EdinburghGoogle Scholar
Richmond, I.A. 1955: ‘Roman Britain and Roman military antiquities’, Proc. Brit. Acad. 41, 297–315Google Scholar
Roy, W. 1793: The Military Antiquities of the Romans in Britain, LondonGoogle Scholar
St Joseph, J.K. 1952: ‘From the Esk to Dalmakethar’, in Miller, S.N. (ed.), The Roman Occupation of South-Western Scotland, Glasgow, 95–103Google Scholar
Schulten, A. 1914: ‘Birrenswark. Ein britannisches Numantia’, Neue Jahrbücher für das klassische Altertum 17, 607–17Google Scholar
Schulten, A. 1927: Niimantia. Die Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen, 1905–1912. Band III. Die Lager des Scipio, MunichGoogle Scholar
Schulten, A. 1933: ‘Masada. Die Burg des Herodes und die römischen Lager’, Zeitschrift des deutschen Palästina-Vereins 56, 1–185Google Scholar
Steer, K.A. 1964: ‘John Horsley and the Antonine Wall’, Archaeologia Aeliana4 42, 1–39Google Scholar
Strobel, A. 1974: ‘Das römische Belagerungswerk Machärus. Topographische Untersuchungen’, Zeitschrift des deutschen Palästina-Vereins 90, 128–84Google Scholar
Stuart, R. 1845: Caledonia Romana: Descriptive Account of the Roman Antiquities of Scotland, LondonGoogle Scholar
Watson, G.R. 1969: The Roman Soldier, LondonGoogle Scholar
Winter, F.E. 1997: ‘The use of artillery in fourth-century and Hellenistic towers’, Echos du Monde Classique (Classical Views) 41, 247–92Google Scholar