Hadrian’s Wall: Creating Division

Description

Over its venerable history, Hadrian’s Wall has had an undeniable influence in shaping the British landscape, both literally and figuratively. Once thought to be a soft border, recent research has implicated it in the collapse of a farming civilisation centuries in the making, and in fuelling an insurgency characterised by violent upheaval. Examining the everyday impact of the Wall over the three centuries it was in operation, Matthew Symonds sheds new light on its underexplored human story by discussing how the evidence speaks of a hard border scything through a previously open landscape and bringing dramatic change in its wake. The Roman soldiers posted to Hadrian’s Wall were overwhelmingly recruits from the empire’s occupied territories, and for them the frontier could be a place of fear and magic where supernatural protection was invoked during spells of guard duty. Since antiquity, the Wall has been exploited by powers craving the legitimacy that came with being accepted as the heirs of Rome: it helped forge notions of English and Scottish nationhood, and even provided a model of selfless cultural collaboration when the British Empire needed reassurance. It has also inspired creatives for centuries, appearing in a more or less recognisable guise in works ranging from Rudyard Kipling’s Puck of Pook’s Hill to George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones. Combining an archaeological analysis of the monument itself and an examination of its rich legacy and contemporary relevance, this volume presents a reliable, modern perspective on the Wall. Cover page Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page Dedication CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Maps 1 Introduction Into Darkness The writing on the Wall A fragmented picture Murus mystery 2 Rome and Britain When Worlds Collide Attraction of opposites Going mobile Magic and miracles Town and country 3 Battling for Britain Conflict and Collaboration UnRoman warfare There and back again Stanegate system 4 Drawing a Line Hadrian and His Wall The division bell Wonder Wall Made of stone Highways to the danger zone Walk the line Like a wheel within a wheel Wall to Wall Creating division 5 A New Normal War and Peace Crossing the line Foundations for the future All quiet on the north-west frontier? The times they are a-changing 6 The Long 4th Century An End and a Beginning Continuity and change Conspiracy theory The centre cannot hold 7 The Mythmakers From Limitanei to Legend Fall and rise Mural controversies 8 Wall Renaissance Evidence from the Earth Reading the monument To protect and present 9 Romancing the Stones A Media Murus Vallum visions 10 Long Division The Many Lives of the Wall NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX