Documents

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The legal document available for download below constitutes the formal designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The additional details provided on this page are provided for information purposes only and do not form part of the designation. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within this additional information.

• Type

  Legal Documents

  Title

  SM11980_Legal Doc

  Download(https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/document/600014140)

Summary

Description

The monument comprises a Roman altar stone, surviving as a rectangular carved stone pillar within a cultivated field, currently under improved pasture. Altar stones are religious monuments dating to the Roman occupation of this part of northern Britain, between the 1st and the 4th century AD. The monument is earthfast and is no longer in its original setting. It sits on a low south-facing ridge, overlooking the eastern Solway Firth and occupies a locally prominent position at approximately 15 m above sea level.

The altar stone, which takes the form of a column with a capital, is approximately 1.1 m high and 0.7 wide (across the capital) and 0.5 m deep. It is positioned in the ground using a socket and packing-stone arrangement and now has a westwards lean. The column is plain and rectangular in section, with cattle-eroded edges. On one side are the very faint remains of incisions, probably modern and the carvings seen by the RCAHMS during fieldwork in 1912 and described as a figure resembling a benchmark beneath what appear to be the letters L L placed back to back and separated by a square compartment containing a cross. The top of the altar has a central concavity with bolsters on either side. There is no visible evidence for the base.

The area to be scheduled is circular on plan, centred on the stone, to include the remains described and an area around for the support and preservation of the altar stone, as shown in red on the accompanying map.

Statement of National Importance

Cultural Significance

The monument's archaeological significance can be expressed as follows:

Intrinsic characteristics

The altar retains a significant portion of its original shape and extent. It therefore has the potential to tell us about the nature of sculpting and stonemasonry during the Roman occupation of SW Scotland, as well as the general nature of worship and religious activity. Its relocation reflects the subsequent reuse and different significances placed upon such monuments by later peoples. In this case, the altar apparently became a landscape feature.

Contextual characteristics

Altars were very much a part of Roman military life for those stationed at the northern extremes of the Empire. They were part of an expression of religious belief and worship that was central to the lives of military troops stationed in what is now Scotland. The progress of military campaigns northwards across the Solway Firth to as far north as Aberdeenshire is reflected in visible remains such as forts, marching camps, the road network and smaller, religious monuments such as this sacrificial altar. Sacrificial altars were places where individuals and groups could gather to watch or participate in votive gestures, believing they would prompt good luck or recognition from a particular god or goddess or reflecting back on some success or prosperity. Each altar honoured a specific deity and would normally be formed and inscribed with a pedestal, column and capital, imitating architectural features. A number of camps and forts to the north of Westhills still survive. At an unknown point in time, someone almost certainly moved the altar at Westhills from one of these forts. We know of around 50 altars that survive among the totality of Roman carving in Scotland (including gravestones, statuettes, slab decorations and inscribed stones). Most are in collections, virtually none survives in their original location and only very few survive in a later, unrelated landscape context. They are limited geographically to the broad areas of garrison and military works of the various Roman campaigns in Scotland. Their distribution is broadly to the north and north-east of the Solway Firth, the Clyde-Forth corridor, Perthshire and the north-east of Scotland.

Associative characteristics

We can speculate that someone deliberately moved this stone from its original location, possibly from the Roman forts at Birrens or Burnswark. Large-scale clearance of stone material in the early 19th century, or the later antiquarian excavation at Birrens in 1856, may have uncovered the altar stone and prompted its relocation to Westhills. We know two further altars moved from Birrens to nearby estates and properties. First Edition Ordnance Survey mapping also suggests that its surveyors used the stone as a benchmark or trig point by the late 19th to early 20th centuries. That one of the carvings found on one face of the column looks very similar to a benchmark tends to support this view.

National Importance

The monument is of national importance because it has an inherent potential to make a significant addition to the understanding of the past, in particular the nature of religious worship during the Roman military occupation of Scotland. Both the inherent characteristics of this altar, and its later reuse as a landscape marker, signify a wider national importance. It is a relatively uncommon and well-preserved example of carved Roman stonework surviving as a field monument. The loss of this monument would impede our ability to understand the practice of religious worship and the skills of Roman stonemasonry.

References

Bibliography

About Scheduled Monuments

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Scheduling is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for monuments and archaeological sites of national importance as set out in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.

We schedule sites and monuments that are found to be of national importance using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Scheduled monument records provide an indication of the national importance of the scheduled monument which has been identified by the description and map. The description and map (see ‘legal documents’ above) showing the scheduled area is the designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The statement of national importance and additional information provided are supplementary and provided for general information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within the statement of national importance or additional information. These records are not definitive historical or archaeological accounts or a complete description of the monument(s).

The format of scheduled monument records has changed over time. Earlier records will usually be brief. Some information will not have been recorded and the map will not be to current standards. Even if what is described and what is mapped has changed, the monument is still scheduled.

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Find out more about scheduling and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.