Fig. 12. Plan of the Fort of Borcovicium. (After Dickie and Bosanquet.)
(Reproduced, by permission, from Romano-British Buildings and Earthworks,
by John Ward, F.S.A.)
There is a large stone tank by the north gateway, the purpose of which is doubtful. Knives have been sharpened round the edges, giving it a scalloped appearance, as shown in the picture of this gateway which faces this page.
The so-called "amphitheatre" is seen on the left—a grassy hollow in the angle formed by the Wall and a field-boundary. The gateway in the Wall by the Knag Burn is also seen. In the distance are Sewingshields Crags with the Wall running along the ridge.
It is probable that it was found necessary to make the gateway in the Wall by the Knag Burn because, after the building of the Wall, the only access to the enemy side would otherwise have been by the almost impassable north gate.
Prior to the building of the Wall the east gate was the most available route.
The gateways have been all more or less filled up during some period of the Roman occupation, but the filling-up has been entirely removed. This was done in the dark ages of archæology over fifty years ago, and no records were kept at that time of the finds and the different floor-levels, by means of which it is alone possible to learn the period when the gates were blocked. At Rudchester they were filled up in the second century.