Roman column capital from Scotland

This top from a Roman column is decorated with a carved design and some traces of red paint were also seen when it was recovered from the well at Bar Hill Roman Fort. Together with a shaft and a bottom section, this capital would have made up a whole column. Columns were used in Roman architecture in colonnades - rows of evenly spaced columns - which were common features on Roman buildings. The columns from Bar Hill are thought to have been on the side of the headquarters building which faced onto the main street of the fort. The columns and building, like the rest of the fort, would have been magnificent yet alien features in the Scottish landscape as the local settlements in Scotland were very different in style. The Iron Age inhabitants of Scotland would not have seen anything like this before.