Roman nail

A large Roman door nail from the cache buried at Inchtuthil, Perthshire. One of some ten tonnes of iron nails, cartwheel rims and similar supplies buried by the Romans when the fort was abandoned.

Museum reference:
CUKDM-1984-22-1
Made by:
Imperial Roman Army
Place Made:
Perthshire
Associated with:
XX Legion Imperial Roman Army · Agricola, Julius, General · Inchtuthil Fort, Perthshire · 88 AD or before. This was the the 20th Legion's base fort on the northern frontier of the Roman Empire 83-87AD c. When the legion was pulled out to help quell an uprising on the Danube they were unable to take with them their stock of iron nails. This nail along with 875,000 others were buried in a 12ft deep pit in the corner of a store covered with 6ft of clean earth. The building was then demolished on top of this. The reason for this was that at this period iron was valued more than silver or gold by the indiginous inhabitants of the area. Inchtuthil Fort situated near Dunkeld was excavated between 1952 and 1965 and the nails were discovered in 1961. They were widely distributed to museums in Britain and elsewhere.
Dimensions:
height: 308mm
width: 38mm
depth: 35mm
Materials:
iron

User contributions

Thank you to everyone who has shared their knowledge about our online collections. Please note that these visitor submissions are the personal views of the individuals and not necessarily the views of North Lanarkshire Council.

By Roddy Fraser on March 3, 2025

Hi, The nails were discovered in the summer of 1960 (not 1961 your description). Regards. Roddy Fraser. Author of “Roman Nails” published 2018 revised 2022. ---Thank you for the message, we have now updated the date on these objects!

Contribute to this collection item

Thank you for providing a comment on an object record. Please note that visitor submissions are the personal views of the individuals and not necessarily the views of North Lanarkshire Council. All comments are moderated. To understand how your data will be used view our privacy statement here.

1
Add image
Explore similar items