Traffic control system discovered at Roman fort
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.BRITAIN'S earliest traffic control scheme has been detected by archaeologists excavating a Roman fort in southern Scotland, writes David Keys.
Survey work being carried out at Newstead, 50 miles north of Hadrian's Wall, has led to the discovery of what appears to have been a 60ft (18.28m) long, 12ft (3.65m) wide traffic island, just inside the entrance to the 1,900- year-old military base.
The discovery - by archaeologists from Bradford University funded by the National Museums of Scotland - suggests that traffic into and out of the fort was sufficiently heavy to warrant some mechanism to split it up into outgoing and incoming.
If there were indeed large numbers of carts, chariots and pack- horses leaving and entering the fort, then there would probably have been traffic chaos without some sort of road island or central reservation.
Newstead - known as Trimontium after the three hills that overlook it - became the largest Roman fort north of Hadrian's Wall.
In the second century the fort developed into a small town with up to 2,000 inhabitants.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments