The Bath House Traditional Cache
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Castleford is the site of the Roman settlement of Lagentium or Legeolium (the spelling varies according to which Roman source you use)
At Castleford the bath-house lay outside the fort in a defended annexe. It had a series of rooms where the temperature varied from warm to very hot, which would cause dirt to be sweated out of the skin, as in a modern sauna bath.
The bath-house was an important part of a Roman fort. The army encouraged soldiers to use the bathhouse regularly in order to keep them healthy. Bathhouses were also places where the soldiers could relax, play games and socialise.
The Castleford bathhouse was located in the annexe. It was close to the river which would have been important for providing clean water to the baths and draining away the dirty water.
Achaeologists found that the ground plan of the bathhouse was almost complete. The stacks of tiles (pilae) held up the floor of the hot room. They allowed hot air to circulate under the floor and warm the room above.
Bathers entered the changing room (the apodyterium) where they removed their clothes. Then they went into a series of rooms which were heated to different temperatures in order to get the bathers sweating! Heat was produced in the boiler room (the praefurnium) and hot air was circulated beneath the floors of the hot and warm rooms.
Bathers went first into the cold room (the frigidarium), then the warm room (the tepidarium) and then the hot room (the caldarium). Once clean, they cooled down by going back through the warm and cold rooms. Then they could jump into a cold plunge bath to close the pores in their skin.
The Castleford bathhouse was too important to allow it to be destroyed by excavation. The remains of the building are preserved beneath a grassed area at the junction of Church Street and Savile Road.
Magnetic Nano containing log only, tweezers & pen required.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ba gur natyr.
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