Queen’s Crag is a sandstone outcrop north of Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, UK. It is known to have been used as a Roman quarry to provide building stone for Hadrian’s Wall and associated forts. Quarrying techniques were relatively simple and involved the use of wedges, separation trenches and percussion to split lumps of rock from the parent material. Irregular blocks of stone were usually dressed to shape before being transported from the quarries. An inscription under the overhang, 1.4 metres above the ground, bears the names of three leaders of a quarrying party, two Centurions (Saturninus and Rufinus) and an Optio (Henoenus):
SATVRNINVS RUFINVS HIINOIINVS OPTIO
The carving of the first line has been carefully executed and on average the letters are 5cm high. The following three lines are more crudely carved and are thought to be the work of a second person.
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