and must have been of a temporary nature. The large empty insula to its east should have been the site for the Praetorium, the commander's house. However, no signs of building foundations for such a large structure were found though the site had been levelled and prepared. Inchtuthil was only briefly occupied and was evacuated around summer AD 86 and certainly no later than early in AD 87. The reason for this was probably that Legio II Adiutrix had been called to Moesia from its base in Deva Victrix (Chester) to deal with a Dacian invasion in 86 and XX Valeria Victrix was obliged to move back south to take its place. However recent archaeology has cast some doubt on this, indicating that the fortress may have been in use for considerably longer than previously thought. The Inchtuthil hoard When it was excavated in the 1950s by Richmond, a large pit was found in the summer of 1960 containing 875,400 complete iron nails (Square shaft) ranging from plus another 28 (round shaft nails) weighing 7 tons, together with other iron objects, including cartwheel rims weighing a combined total weight of ten tonnes (Inchtuthil Nails by “Roddy Fraser”). The pit was elaborately concealed, and the nails and ironwork were almost certainly buried by the troops to deny them to the local tribes when they dismantled the fortress before they finally left. Many of the nails were sent to museums as a gift and the rest of the hoard was sold to the public and other interested organisations with an offer of 5 shillings for a nail and 25 shillings for a boxed set of five nails. Colville's (Iron and Steel refiners) who had been given the task of sorting and storing the nails state quite clearly that all the complete nails had been "sorted gifted and sold" within 3 years of their discovery, i.e. c.1963. The almost 2000-year-old iron Inchtuthil nails have been used by atomic scientists to estimate the corrosion effects on barrels of nuclear waste. Bibliography Breeze, D. 1982 Northern Frontiers of Roman Britain. London: Batsford Fraser, Roddy. Inchtuthil Nails, A hoard from the Roman Fort. Pub 2018. Pitts, L. F. and St.Joseph, J. K. 1985. Inchtuthil. The Roman Legionary Fortress Excavations 1952-65 (Britannia Monograph Series 6). London: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. Shirley, E. A. M. 1996. "The Building of the Legionary Fortress at Inchtuthil", Britannia