As part of the celebrations of the 1900th anniversary of the construction of Hadrian’s Wall, the Hadrian’s Wall Community Archaeology Project (WallCAP) is hosting a conference that celebrates the scholarship of Hadrian’s Wall and how it connects to the archaeology and history of the Roman world more generally.
The conference will be taking place Friday 28 to Sunday 30 January, 2022 at Newcastle University.
The conference will take place in person and follow the latest government and Newcastle University guidance on events during covid. That means:– do not attend if you exhibit any symptoms of covid;– please continue to take regular lateral flow tests before and after attending the conference;– masks will need to be worn inside of buildings during the conference;– the conference venue is large enough to ensure socially distanced seating.
PLEASE NOTE: to ensure the safety of everyone participating in the event, covid passports will need to be presented at registration of the event. If a valid passport (which includes exemptions) is not presented, or if you exhibit symptoms indicative of covid-19 infection, you will not be admitted to the conference.
Any international attendees are expected to adhere to UK travel advice and may present evidence of vaccination/exemption provided by their home country.
The conference is fully booked and registration is now closed.
Please find information about the sessions and events taking place on each day of the conference below.
The full conference programme can be downloaded here.
Time: 12:30-13:30
Registration will be in the Armstrong Building on the Newcastle University campus. Maps of the university campus and Newcastle city centre can be found here https://www.ncl.ac.uk/who-we-are/contact/maps/.
Time: 13:30-14:30
Welcome – Rob Collins, Newcastle University
Keynote Adress:
Hadrian’s Wall: from origins to afterlife – Matt Symonds, Current Publishing
There are two strands to the question of what Hadrian’s Wall did. The first concerns its impact during the Roman period, where the matter of the division it sought to impose remains fertile ground for scholarly debate. Our second strand is the long afterlife of the Wall, stretching from the collapse of imperial control down to today. Far from becoming an irrelevance, the monument’s renown has seen it repeatedly reimagined to suit contemporary needs. Cumulatively, these two strands emphasise that the imposition of the Wall was a game-changer for Britain.
On both levels, the story of Hadrian’s Wall is still being written. Fresh research continues to shed new light on the frontier’s ancient role, while there is every sign that its relevance to contemporary needs will endure far into the future. This talk will introduce the monument and consider some of its key consequences in the Roman period and beyond.
Time: 15:00-16:00
1. The geodiversity of facing stones and core material in Hadrian’s Wall – Ian Kille, WallCAP, Newcastle University/Northumbrian Earth
Abstract: The stone used to face Hadrian’s Wall is almost exclusively sandstone whilst the Wall’s core reflects a wider diversity of geological material from whinstone to fluvio-glacial cobbles. Visual observations, geochemical and petrographic data have been used to carry out a detailed examination of the variation in the sandstones used in the Wall. A similar record has been made of the variation seen in sandstones within the geological succession underpinning the Wall. These have been combined with observations of material from the Wall’s core and observations of Wall-stone dimension and marks made during Wall construction. Together these give a better understanding of the relationship between the Wall and the landscape in which it has been constructed. This has been evaluated as a method to indicate where Wall-stone has been sourced and possible transport routes carrying stone to the Wall. Consideration is also given to the use of this approach to strengthen evidence for possible stone reuse in post Roman structures.
2. The Organisation of Quarrying at Hadrian’s Wall and its Wider Imperial Context – Katy O’Donnell, CFA Archaeology
Abstract: Large-scale studies of quarrying and stone-use across the Roman empire over the last fifty years have considerably advanced our understanding of these processes. While none of these studies have considered a single monument of the scale of Hadrian’s Wall, results from these other studies can inform our approach to this structure and its landscape, especially when it comes to understanding military involvement in quarrying. This paper will look at different types of quarrying systems from across the empire and compare these to the picture at Hadrian’s Wall. It will focus on military involvement in quarrying processes and build on studies that suggest strong organisational links between army units in northern England and the Rhineland. It will also compare the evidence available at Hadrian’s Wall to that presented in regional studies of stone exploitation in the Roman world, and studies which have looked specifically at the sourcing of stone for large engineering projects.
Time: 16:30-18:30
1. Who belongs in the ‘Military Community’ in 2021? Re-evaluating our definitions, expectations and misunderstandings of Roman military settlements – Elizabeth Greene, University of Western Ontario
Please note, this paper will be delivered digitally due to difficulties arising from international travel
Abstract: Over two decades have passed since the ground-breaking volume by Goldsworthy and Haynes began defining concepts of what has now become a (Roman archaeologist’s) household term – the ‘military community’. Still today, however we envision this space, what expectations have come with its definition, and the denial of certain componens of the concept continue to challenge and shift the dialogue. In some corners we have come a long way, while in others there is still a good deal of work to be done. While much consideration has been given to the women found in military communities, we still think very little about the daily lives of children growing up in these spaces and we know almost nothing about servants and slaves. This paper revisits some of our original definitions and re-evaluates our current expectations to provide a clear vision of the military community in 2021 and a road map highlighting future work needed to continue growing our understanding of this critical community.
2. Corbridge at the Crossroads – Urban Communities along Hadrian’s Wall – Catherine Teitz, Stanford University
Please note, this paper will be delivered digitally due to difficulties arising from international travel
Abstract: Frontier sites are an often overlooked example of Roman urbanism. They were small, far from the Mediterranean-urban core, and many were purpose-designed for military occupation. Despite these seeming limitations, settlements of all sizes fulfilled urban roles along the frontier, with relative density, complex communities, and redevelopment that reflects changing uses of space. While military histories are well-understood, I advocate for a consciously urban approach to study the long-term socio-spatial dynamics that shaped frontier sites. I use Everyday Urbanism, a modern city planning approach which analyzes how different interest groups transformed spaces according to their needs over time, to reevaluate the extended use of sites along the Hadrian’s Wall frontier. I present a case study of this approach at Corbridge, with a brief comparative discussion at Vindolanda. While Corbridge is conventionally referred to as a “military town,” suggesting a dual identity, analysis of the site has focused on its early military development and overlooked its importance as an urban center. I evaluate military, public, and private buildings along the Stanegate as individual structures and together as an urban landscape. Through analysis of the standing structures and legacy excavation data, I examine the initial designs and later redevelopments to the granaries, Site XI, and the strip buildings at the western end of the Stanegate. Despite differences in scale, use, and audience, the buildings demonstrate similar modifications along the street. The physical structures reflect the changing nature of public and private space for the inhabitants. These developments are significant both in the life of the individual structure and to the urban landscape along the street. Together these buildings demonstrate how the site continuously adapted over its history to support the needs of the changing populations within Corbridge and along Hadrian’s Wall. The socio-spatial framework of urbanism, at Corbridge and across the frontier, expands our perception of how structures and sites were used, how they transformed, and how they related to one another, shedding light on the lived experience of the built environment.
3. The rural population and other civilians in the Wall-zone – Nick Hodgson, Independent researcher, formerly Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
Abstract: Over the last 20 years radiocarbon dating and newly discovered site types (the products of developer-funded archaeology, only occurring since 1990) have revolutionised knowledge of the indigenous peoples on whom Hadrian’s Wall was imposed. The former view of a continuity of the Iron Age rural settlement pattern during the life of the Wall can no longer be sustained. North of the Wall there was widespread site abandonment, while to the south there is growing evidence for the settlement of outsiders and the forcible reorganisation of local society to meet Roman economic needs. Meanwhile, recent discoveries suggest that the civilian communities attached to Roman forts (the ‘military vici’) had passed their peak of prosperity by the 3rd century and were in fact at their zenith of development in the 2nd century, implanted communities enjoying a bonanza at the same time as a millennium old Iron Age civilisation was being brought to an end.
4. Living between Walls: northern responses to the Roman frontier – Fraser Hunter, National Museums Scotland
Abstract: Any Wall conference needs to look at the people living in the landscape before Rome arrived. The Wall was built “to separate Romans and barbarians”, claims the only ancient reference to its role – but who were these “barbarians”? Other talks at the conference will consider the rural communities in the immediate environs of the Wall, and the military communities that emerged with conquest. This contribution will look north to the Debateable Lands between Tyne-Solway and Forth-Clyde, which direct Roman power repeatedly sought to control and Roman ‘soft power’ tried to influence. The topic is vast. The focus here will be on recent perspectives on the material culture of these ‘barbarian’ groups and their relations with Rome.9
A reception with light drinks and nibbles will be held in the King’s Hall, Armstrong Building, for all registered guests and speakers at the conference, beginning at 18:30.
Time: 9:30-11:00
1. The Building of Hadrian’s Wall: A Tyneside Perspective – Paul Bidwell, Independent researcher, formerly Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
Abstract: Excavations at Wallsend and elsewhere on Tyneside in the last twenty years or so have altered our understanding of how Hadrian’s Wall was built and maintained. Many of these discoveries have been published, but this paper explores their wider implications. For example, why were the original specifications for the Stone Wall altered, and what effect did that have on the overall building programme? How valid are attempts at quantity surveys when the need for timber and lime, and perhaps the height of the Wall, have probably been overestimated? Above all, in our present state of knowledge, is it safe to link changes in the design and building of the Wall directly with historical events such as the visit of Hadrian or warfare in Britain?
2. Decay, depredation and dismantling: The reducing of the curtain Wall. WallCAP investigations 2019-2021 – Jane Harrison, WallCAP, Newcastle University
Abstract: This talk will use the results of the recent WallCAP excavations along Hadrian’s Wall to consider the various processes of decay, depredation and dismantling that have reduced the curtain Wall to its current condition. Case studies, moving from west to east along the Wall, will include Port Carlisle, Cam Beck, Walltown Crags, and Steel Gap. The fate of the curtain Wall will also be compared to that of Corbridge Roman town, focusing n the results of recent WallCAP excavations in the north of the town.
The varied character of the landscape and settlement along the line of the Wall has a bearing on the processes by which the curtain was diminished; the WallCAP excavations have allowed new comparison of the different impacts people, weather, and topography in particular have had on the post-Roman survival of the curtain Wall.
3. Peel Gap – Jim Crow, University of Edinburgh
Abstract: Excavations in Peel Gap revealed one of the best preserved and most complex sequences of wall building, reconstruction and later use, plus the unexpected discovery of an additional tower, a supernumerary turret outwith the known wall sequence. The paper will present the results of a recent study of the stratigraphy and finds, together with a reconsideration of how the structures contribute to our understanding of the role and function of Hadrian’s Wall in the Roman period.
Time: 11:30-12:30
1. Prisoners of ethno-geography: Transnational dynamics of warfare between Late Iron Age Ireland and the Roman frontier in Britain 70-122 A.D. – Al McCluskey, Newcastle University
Abstract: Analysis of contemporary and recent historic warfare has underscored the significance of transnational dynamics, such as diaspora, that interact with or contest the existing political geography of the conflict region in question. This paper will apply the transnational dynamics of conflict to three aspects of the Roman frontier of Central Britain to demonstrate the value of this framework in understanding: (1) the human terrain networks in late Iron Age Britain and Ireland; (2) their relationship with the physical geography of the region; and (3) their relationship with the Roman military strategic response.
The geographic links between Late Iron Age Ireland and Roman Britain are seldom studied in relation to Roman frontiers, with the Irish Sea more often perceived as being a barrier, frequently polarizing research perspectives between either the Late Irish Iron Age or the Romano-British Iron Age. When contact across the Irish Sea has been considered, the inquiry has tended to reflect upon the presence of Roman material in Ireland in the first instance. Although Roman and Iron Age research fields are well developed, they struggle to reconcile with each other beyond the presence – or otherwise – of each other’s material culture on their respective sites. This paper will argue that the transnational and connected character of the North British Iron Age communities around the Irish Sea was exploited by some to pull Rome north as a strategic ally, while others used these connections to resist Rome’s advance and develop their own strategic advantages where possible. In this respect, new perspectives of the frontier emerge which can improve our understanding of the initial Roman moves into the region, the development of the ‘Stanegate frontier’, the ‘Hadrianic War’ and the initial construction of Hadrian’s Wall.
2. The Ungrateful Dead: Violence, murder and the disparate dead on Hadrian’s Wall – Dr Trudi Buck, Durham University & Dr Andrew Birley, The Vindolanda Trust
Abstract: Life on the northern frontier of Roman Britain could be brutal and dangerous, not only for the soldiers who were trained to kill, but also for the civilian population that lived alongside the army. This paper will explore archaeological and osteological evidence for violence and warfare along Hadrian’s Wall, including both at a domestic level and at the level of the wider military community. The intersection of these different levels of violence will be discussed, using specific examples of human remains that have been excavated from contexts other than cemeteries, including the remains of a child found beneath a third century barrack building at Vindolanda. These disparate individuals provide the opportunity to explore narratives of lives and deaths not governed by the usual funerary rituals surrounding the dead body.
Time: 14:00-15:30
1. Stranger than we knew it: Landscapes of Cult Practice on Hadrian’s Wall – Eleri Cousins, Lancaster University
Abstract: Research on the religion of the military communities of Hadrian’s Wall has long stressed the role of the institutions of the army and of the state in structuring the religious lives of soldiers serving on the frontier. These factors were unquestionably important, even central, but in emphasizing them to the exclusion of other considerations we risk creating a normative view of religion on the frontier, which fails to do justice to the site-specific and landscape-specific diversity of ritual practice. This tendency towards emphasizing standardization and glossing over variation is not unique to religion when it comes to scholarship on the Roman army, but cult practice, represented by a rich array of archaeological evidence and endowed with powerful social significance, offers a particular potent way into creative perspectives on the nature of frontier society. To this end, this paper seeks to ‘weird’ our vision of cult practice on the Wall (as performed both by soldiers and by the wider frontier community), exploring our evidence for ritual behaviour, both communal and individual, that complicates our normative understanding of frontier religion. Using the site of Bewcastle as a springing-off point, it considers the role of landscape, ritual practice, and cult continuity in the construction of religious experience on the Wall. In so doing, it also attempts to bring our methodologies for understanding the religion of the frontier into dialogue with scholarship on religion in Roman Britain as a whole.
2. Death and Burial on Hadrian’s Wall – Tony Wilmott, Historic England
Abstract: Remarkably, the only cemetery of a Hadrian’s Wall fort to have been excavated is that at Birdoswald, examined in 1961, 1999 and 2009. With the analysis very close to completion (delayed by Covid), it is possible to attempt to relate trends in this cemetery to the broader Frontier zone. The sample of burials excavated from military sites in the Zone since 1948 is small – 456 cremations and 58 inhumations. Despite this it is possible to see trends and to separate the typical from the exceptional. Ironically the ‘type site’ of Brougham can now be seen as an exception. Concentrating on the Birdoswald evidence, this paper will examine the diversity of burial practice within the Zone with such issues as ethnicity and status as revealed by funerary evidence.
3. Ritual and religion in the frontier zone – Ian Haynes, Newcastle University
Please note, this paper will be delivered digitally due to difficulties arising from international travel
Abstract: A review of evidence for ritual and religion in the frontier zone is now order. Traditionally, much of the discussion has focussed on the epigraphic evidence, some sculpture and a handful of cult buildings. Much of this material has in turn come from areas strongly associated with the military community, most especially from the line of the Wall and its forts. Debate has also tended to concentrate on practice prior to the impact of Christianity. An array of recent fieldwork, ranging from further excavations at Wall sites, such as at South Shields, Vindolanda, Birdoswald and Maryport, to name but four, has augmented this evidence, but also opened up otherways to approach the study of ritual practice too. These are not, however, the only factors that make the time apposite for a reappraisal of the data. First, our understanding of frontier communities more generally is now more nuanced. This applies not simply to a deepened appreciation of the diversity that characterised the army over time and space, and of those who lived in and around military stations, but also our widening knowledge of those who perhaps had only relative marginal connections to the soldiers of the frontier. Second, key initiatives to make key sources of data more available, from Roman Inscriptions in Britain (through RIB Online), through to the completion of the Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani series for Britain, have themselves shown scope for further research. In the latter case, the British Academy Elusive Sculptures project, which is supporting the completion of CSIR for the Hadrian’s Wall Hinterland, has shown that much we thought we knew was wrong, and has in turn revealed other trends previously underestimated. Finally, fresh approaches to the study of sacred architecture in the frontier may yet help scholars better appreciate the spaces in which cult was performed.
Time: 16:00-17:30
1. From the sestertii to the solidi, the coinage of Hadrian’s Wall and Britannia’s northern frontier – Douglas Carr, Newcastle University
Abstract: Coins represent one of the most portable and immediately recognisable parts of Roman material culture and provide a key source of evidence for examining the broader impact of the Roman Empire both beyond and behind its visible frontiers. This paper presents the initial results of my PhD research examining Roman coinage from Hadrian’s Wall itself and the broader frontier ‘zone’ covering a swathe of northern England and southern Scotland. My research has generated a dataset of almost 39,000 coins from over 2,500 separate find events ranging from well known excavations to obscure individual finds. This paper provides a broad overview of this new dataset, including its potential (and also its limitations). A more in depth discussion follows examining two important issues, the practice of hoarding and the presence of coins outside of the main coinage ‘pools’ in forts and towns.
2. Hunting: Roman peregrinations around Central Britain in search of status, glory and salvation – Dr Sue Stallibrass, University of Liverpool
Abstract: Wild animals were perceived in many ways in the Roman period: they could be fierce adversaries for ‘big game hunters’ in search of status-enhancing trophies, or exotic prey for fine dining; they could be military mascots signifying martial acumen and strength; or they could be symbolic protectors of the dead. Some wild animals provided more metaphysical benefits and were conceptually part of various religious beliefs and practices. A range of archaeological evidence is used to investigate how people perceived of, and interacted with, wild animals and landscapes in Central Roman Britain, including animal bones, mausolea, jet bear amulets, soldiers’ writing tablets, shot cattle skulls, inscribed altars, posh mosaics and Samian pottery – with just a little touch of religion and philosophy.
3. A Hadrian’s Wall GIS – Kathryn Murphy, WallCAP, Newcastle University
Abstract: A Wall-wide geodatabase and GIS has been designed, populated, and built through the Hadrian’s Wall Community Archaeology Project. This has brought together detailed information for each turret, milecastle, fort, and every mile of linear features, further incorporating Wall-related sites and information from geological layers, quarry sites, and structures with re-used Roman stone. The underlying geodatabase had bespoke construction to account for many of the unique structural features of the Wall, and data was collected from a range of sources, including previously published data and newly acquired field data. The incorporation of this detail enhances the types of spatial analyses that can be carried out for Hadrian’s Wall, which will be demonstrated through a brief case study. On the completion of WallCAP, the GIS will be made freely available to the public and researchers alike.
Time: 9:00-10:30
1. For the love of archaeology? Using Volunteer Function Inventory to explore motivations to volunteer at Vindolanda – Marta Alberti, Vindolanda Trust/Newcastle University
Abstract: Hadrian’s Wall is uniquely placed in the wider framework of Romano British archaeology, in terms of its scale, multi-site nature, and position within the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site (WHS). These factors contribute to a large the number of stakeholders being involved in, and impacted by, Hadrian’s Wall research and management. Among these stakeholders, little academic attention has so far been paid to the volunteer population of Hadrian’s Wall. At Roman Vindolanda, an archaeological site and museum located within the Hadrian’s Wall WHS and managed by the Vindolanda Charitable Trust, volunteers have been involved in excavating, conserving, researching, and sharing the site’s discoveries since 1970. This paper explores why Vindolanda volunteers should be considered a discrete sub-sample of the volunteer population of Hadrian’s Wall, and discusses how Volunteer Function Inventory (VFI), a quantitative tool based on functionalist theory and developed by Clary et al. (1998), has been adapted to investigate volunteer motivations at Vindolanda and on the Wall. This study was conducted between 2018 and 2020 with the participation of 365 Vindolanda volunteers. Principal Component Analysis of VFI data identified four main factors, or motivations to volunteer: wellbeing and self-worth, interest in Hadrian’s Wall research and its archaeological community, career enhancement, and fulfilment of social needs. Thus, this paper challenges the notion that volunteers at Vindolanda contribute their time and skills to the cause uniquely for the love of archaeology and explores how research into volunteer motivations can pave the way for more sustainable and mutually beneficial volunteer participation in Hadrian’s Wall archaeological heritage.
2. Community Involvement along Hadrian’s Wall: Who Cares? – Kerry Shaw, WallCAP, Newcastle University
Abstract: Local communities are increasingly regarded as essential stakeholders in sustainable heritage management, with an established practice of community archaeology in Britain. This paper will explore how and why local people get involved in Hadrian’s Wall, how that has developed over the last decade, and how we can assess their involvement to be beneficial for the Wall as well as their own well-being. Arguably, the involvement of local communities not only strengthens the bonds between archaeology and heritage management but also in public appreciation and investment. What does the future look like for public participation within the World Heritage Site, and why does that matter?
3. Hadrian’s Wall and the politics of borders – Andrew Gardner, UCL Institute of Archaeology
Abstract: Hadrian’s Wall stands today as a meme for the strong physical border, whether in national or international politics, in fantasy fiction and popular culture, or in academic ‘border studies’. Our specialised academic debates on the function and operation of the Wall have gone back and forth over recent years, but the nuances of Wall life are missing from much of this wider reception – to no-one’s surprise. In this paper, though, rather than chafe against the simplification of the Wall story, I want to turn the dialogue around and ask what the complex politics of modern borders can offer to our understanding of the Wall through its different phases, and beyond that to Roman frontier studies in general. Borders are always double-edged, always connecting as well as dividing, and always constituted by crossings as well as barriers. How are these tensions manifest in the Wall region? And how might combining these insights with our ever-improving understanding of the Wall make some real contributions to the border politics of the 21st century?
Time: 11:00-12:30
1. Envisaging the Wall in the early modern and modern ages – Richard Hingley, Durham University
Abstract: This paper will examine the works of poets, artists and novelists that drew upon Hadrian’s Wall for inspiration in the period from the early seventeenth century to the reign of Queen Victoria. The growth of a greater degree of realism in the portrayal of the Wall in many images is accompanied by an increasingly inventive approach to communicating the Wall in creative account: a prime example of the ‘archaeological imagination’.
2. The Creative Psychogeography of Hadrian’s Wall: Space, Place & Cultural Afterlife – Stacy Gillis, Newcastle University
Abstract: Monuments like Hadrian’s Wall circulate in the cultural imaginary in complex and challenging ways. The earliest piece of writing we have about the Wall is from Procopius’s sixth-century treatise History of the Wars; it has figured in art and literature since then, with a particular swell across the long twentieth century, with numerous articulations of the Wall in prose, poetry, television, film and video games. In this paper, I unpack some of the complexities of the cultural afterlife of the Wall, drawing upon work on chorography in thinking about the connection of past and present through the act of writing, and work on the anthropocene, in thinking about notions of stability and the human. I offer a psychogeographic model of engaging with monuments which have tremendous significance, as well as signification, in our inter/national cultural imaginaries.
3. Hadrian’s Wall in its international context – David J. Breeze, Independent researcher, formerly Historic Environment Scotland
Abstract: The position of Hadrian’s Wall in a variety of international contexts will be considered: research and record, survival, visibility as a monument, cultural resource management, and as the first sector of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site.
Time: 12:30-13:00
The View from the Wall, and Looking Beyond the Wall – Rob Collins, Newcastle University
The sessions and papers across the conference have highlighted a range of new evidence, insights, and interpretations of Hadrian’s Wall that have emerged over the past decade, built upon information and scholarship that has accrued across decades and centuries. Our metaphorical ‘Wall of scholarship’ is quite impressive and very high, yet there are still some gaps in that wall. What are these holes and how do we fill them in? And does our lovely Wall matter to people that do not live beside it or study it?
