.. murumque per octoginta milia passuum primus duxit, qui barbaros Romanosque divideret' (Scriptores Historiae Augustae, Hadrian xi, 2). 'Hadrian was the first to build a wall, eighty miles long, to separate the Romans from the barbarians'. * This paper had its genesis in the annual course 'Hadrian's Wall' sponsored by the Durham University Department of ExtraMural Studies and on which the two authors act as tutors. We would like to thank all the students who took part in discussion on the problems examined in this paper, especially Messrs. B. G. Harris, P. R. Hill, F. C. Lofts and R. Sinclair. Part I is primarily the work of B. Dobson, part IV of D. J. Breeze; parts II and III are joint products, but D. J. Breeze played the major part in preparing them for publication, so the order of names at the head of this paper reflects the share of work as in all our joint publications. The responsibility we are content to share equally.
The lectures on which this publication is based were delivered as the Rhind Lectures to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in May 2019. The annual Rhind Lectures commemorate Alexander Henry Rhind (1833-1863), a Fellow of the Society renowned for his excavations (finds from which are now in the National Museum of Scotland) and publications. The 2019 lectures were generously sponsored by AOC Archaeology Group. The first two lectures – chapters in this book – provide the historiographical background to our present understanding of Hadrian’s Wall. They start with John Collingwood Bruce, the leading authority on the Wall, from 1848 until his death in 1892, who gave the Rhind lectures in 1883 and whose influence continues to this day. Research on the Wall in the field and in the study from 1892 to the present day are covered in the second lecture. The third and fourth lectures consider the purpose(s) and operation of Hadrian’s Wall from the first plan drawn up soon after Hadrian became emperor in 117 through to the final days of its existence as a frontier shortly after 400. Five distinct ‘plans’ for the Wall are promulgated. The fifth lecture examines the impact of the frontier on the people living in its shadow and beyond. The last lecture reviews the processes which have brought us to an understanding of Hadrian’s Wall and considers the value of research strategies, with some suggestions for the way forward. The chapters in this book reflect closely the lectures themselves with the main change being the addition of references.
The two boys who made the initial discovery, David Vause and Wallace Wright, took a collection of bones and ironwork home, and their parents informed Camelon constabulary. The police took the matter up with Mr. J. M. Sanderson of Falkirk Museum and he asked the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland and the Ancient Monuments Inspectorate of the Department of the Environment for assistance in excavating the grave. Because of the risk of sandfalls, the excavation of what turned out to be the burial of two soldiers accompanied by their weapons was undertaken the following day by Dr. J. Close-Brooks, National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, Dr. D. J. Breeze, Department of the Environment, and Dr. J. N. G. Ritchie, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Under Scottish law, objects of archaeological importance (not necessarily of precious metal) may be claimed as Treasure Trove, and the finders appropriately rewarded; accordingly the Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer claimed the weapons for the Crown and Mr. Vause and Mr. Wright have been rewarded for their prompt reporting of the cist. A second sword found by a bulldozer driver in the gravelworkings at a rather earlier date was handed over at the same time, and also claimed by the Crown. Two other deposits, one of them in a cist, were found at Camelon in 1922 on the southeast side of the site, and the opportunity has been taken here to publish new illustrations of these finds. This report comprises a discussion of the known history of the fort, a description of the excavation of the most recent cist and of the deposits found in 1922, a discussion of the mode of burial, the status of the soldiers and of the weapons, and finally a detailed description of the individual objects.
published a short paper on 'The Military Occupation of Roman Wales." It discussed the documentary evidence relating to the Roman conquest of the Welsh tribes and the differing attitudes of these tribes to Rome, but its main importance lay in the six distribution maps illustrating the forts occupied in A.D. 80, 100, 130, 150, 220 and 330. Subsequently Dr J. L. Davies has published a series of nine maps covering the first and second centuries. 2 Two papers have recently extended the same treatment to Scotland. 3 The north of England has never been afforded the same discussion. The most detailed distribution maps published to date are the five which appear in Professor Frere's Britannia.* However, there have been maps and discussions of certain areas such as northwest England, 5 or particular periods. 6 It seems appropriate that a portrayal of the changing face of military deployment in north England over nearly 350 years should appear in a volume dedicated to John Gillam, who has done so much to illuminate the history of the area, not least through his work on that basic dating material, coarse pottery. The placing of symbols on a map, by its very nature, begs some questions, and in particular the nature of the evidence for the occupation of each site. An inscription will indicate activity at a particular point in time but not how long occupation lasted. Only datable artefacts from the fort can do that. While there are few forts which have not been at least trenched, at many the body of dating evidence is too small for statistical analysis. Moreover, many sites were investigated 50 or more years ago and their finds have not, as a body, been re-evaluated since through examination of the objects themselves rather than perusal of the excavation reports. It is a matter of regret that such an examination has not been possible for this paper. However, ' Conventions. On all maps the following conventions are used. A black square indicates occupation at that time. A half-filled square suggests that there is some evidence for occupation at that time, but not sufficient to warrant certainty. Uncertainty is demonstrated by an open square. Forts abandoned since the date of the previous map are scored through and their names given in smaller letters. However, this procedure has not been adopted for uncertain forts as it might be felt that this would give a spurious authority to the available information. Uncertain forts are simply dropped from the maps when it is thought they were abandoned. All maps are reproduced to the scale of 1:2,000,000. Land over 250 m is shaded.
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