Roman Nail

This is one of some 2 million iron nails found during excavation of the foundations of an unfinished Roman building at Inchtuthill Fort. Many of the nails were given to museums and the remainder went to British Steel in Motherwell who kept some of them. The fort was built (and abandoned) by the legion Valeria Victrix ('Victorious Valeria') in the wake of Agricola's successful campaigns in the north, famously documented by his son in law, Tacitus. It is not clear why the legion withdrew, though it is likely that they had to cover for troops moved to deal with unrest elsewhere in the empire.