Passmorebx5im003.tif  

per email from Martin Rush 27/7/2020: "(1) HEIR 36492 (above) shows the rather tidied-up result of excavations at the south gateway of Aesica/Great Chesters fort on Hadrian's Wall.
The gateway had two towers with the roadway passing in between: the east tower (closest to the camera) and west tower (remains across the roadway). The HEIR image seems to have been taken from the eastern edge of the east tower, looking across the tower to the west. ...

The road you can see runs out of the fort southwards (left) and down to the Stanegate. About 100 yards outside the fort it passes the Aesica "villa" (Baths with hypocaust?) seen in HEIR 41064, discovered in 1897.

Location of monument and photographers : (middle of the road between the east and west guard-chambers) : 54.99446,-2.46401

(2) Why might this image be of interest? One reason is that most of the excavation has been backfilled and what is visible today does not look terribly coherent. Another reason is that the West Tower was the find spot for the Aesica Hoard (discovered 1894), and in particular the Aesica Gold Brooch, of which HEIR holds three images:

HEIR 62286 - AESICA BROOCH (3)" "XY.j. 227"
HEIR 62293 - AESICA (Gr. Chesters) GOLD BROOCH" "BR. ISLES" "NORTHUMBERLAND" "Gold. Aesica - brooch" "940"
HEIR 62294 - AESICA (Gr. Chesters) GOLD BROOCH

... The scene here in HEIR 36492 is really rather neat and tidy, and unlike other more messy images in HEIR which show excavations in progress. At the near right there are what look like neat rectangles of turf laid on the slope. All this might suggest that the photo was taken some time after the original September 1894 excavation."

per email from Martin Rush 31/05/2021: "HEIR 36492 - "South Gateway Aesica from East"

We have looked at this image before, but at the moment the HEIR image is still credited to "Unknown".

I have just noticed a rather sharp Postcard for sale on Ebay published by Gibson which seems to match the Heir 36492 exactly ... . Would this, together with the fact that Gibson carried out several excavations at Aesica, support a suggestion of credit to Gibson?"