Context
Tales of the frontier is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council with a major research grant under the Landscape and Environment initiative. It commenced in July 2007 and will be completed by September 2009. Hadrian’s Wall is the one of our most evocative and powerful ancient monuments and the most famous frontier system (materially and culturally) of the Roman Empire. Its international significance is secured by a long tradition of scholarly study and its designation as a World Heritage Site. Since the late C16, the Wall has provided a major focus for antiquarians and archaeologists, with surveys and excavations providing respected and authoritative knowledge of its structure and chronology. But understanding the sequence of its construction and use is only one chapter in this monument’s biography.During the C18, the Wall became a tourist attraction and its popularity continues to grow, providing a significant locus for visitors from the UK and overseas. Like all monuments, the Wall promotes contradictory readings, including ideas of permanence and decay, domination and resistance, stability and mobility. How has this cultural prominence developed through time? How do various individuals and groups, including visitors, locals and scholars, view it? How do the ideas and beliefs of these individuals and constituencies differ?
Aims, objectives & methods
This project provides an exploration of the significance of the Wall and its landscape as both monument and icon from the time of Bede (C8) to today. What role has it played in ideas about the origins of ‘civilization’ and the identities of self (English, British) and others (Scots, colonial subjects, etc)? How has its monumentality shaped the work of scholars and the experiences of locals and visitors? How have understandings shifted as the physical experience of the Wall has changed from north-south (in the past) to east-west (in the present)?The project draws upon histories, handbooks, maps, excavation reports, novels, poems, works of art, photographs, museum displays and websites to explore how understandings have developed. The methodology assesses divergent individual and group claims, including: scholars, local people and foreign visitors. Assessment of the impact of the Wall upon people draws upon approaches to other linear sites (including Roman roads & the Great Wall of China). Through an evaluation of ideas about the linearity and permeability of the monument, the project addresses the historical context within which the Wall has been interpreted, publicised, visited and displayed. It focuses upon:
• The Wall’s use as a symbol of the national boundary of England, defining a barrier against Scots;
• As a monument to an iconic and ancestral empire, symbolic of imperial might and order – a physical and moral metaphor for the imperial frontiers of Britain’s Empire;
• Counter arguments relating to the Wall as an indication of the ancestral valour of the ancient populations of Scotland and their successful resistance to Rome/England;
• The contribution of archaeological works – surveys, excavations & publications – to these national and imperial projects through the creation of sanctioned interpretations;
• Recent ideas that counter the national and imperial myths, relating to the divergent cultures of the Roman military units who served on it, to visitors from other provinces and to the evidence for the indigenous population living close-by.
(Hadrian) was the first to build a wall, eighty miles long, to separate the Romans from the barbarians
Scriptores Historiae Augustae, Vita Hadriani, 11.2
Application and benefits
The project is developing a number of outputs with varied benefits, including:• A detailed case study in the critical assessment of a major ancient monument, to complement work undertaken elsewhere (Stonehenge, Seahenge);
• An advanced methodology for assessing linear monuments/landscapes, a topic not explored in detail in archaeological and landscape studies;
• A case study contributing to the development of a critical Roman archaeology which deals with the complexity of past and present interpretations (R. Hingley 2005 Globalizing Roman Culture);
• A website, exhibition, lectures and publications to communicate the results in an accessible manner to individuals and groups, regionally, nationally and internationally.
