In this stimulating addition to the burgeoning literature of Hadrian’s Wall, Matthew Symonds, editor of Current World Archaeology, brings fresh emphases to the study of this endlessly fascinating Roman monument in the north of Britain, and in doing so shows that continuing research on the frontier constantly alters the way in which the Wall is seen and interpreted. Symonds aims to examine ‘why it was built, what it was intended to do, and what it actually did, both in the Roman period and beyond’. After an introduction to the study, two chapters examine the contrasting cultures of Rome and Britain, and the progress of Roman arms to the point at which Hadrian’s Wall was constructed. A chapter then considers the construction of the Wall, concentrating on the many changes in plan that can be discerned through archaeology. Two further chapters consider the later Roman history of the frontier, including the important phase of the ‘Long 4th Century’, and the final three examine the afterlife of the Wall, from mythical interpretations through the evolution and progress of archaeological research, to the ways in which the Wall has been received in popular culture.
Symonds touches on comparative frontier studies, innovatively evoking the modern land border in Ireland and its role in the Troubles of the 1960s and ’70s to introduce concepts of guerrilla and ‘asymmetric’ conflict, which he sees as key to the genesis of Hadrian’s Wall. He compares the way guerrilla tactics employed against Rome were countered by the imposition of military posts of different sizes to British tactics during the late 19th-century colonial wars. This parallel runs through the book, and the idea of Hadrian’s Wall as the ultimate expression of a long-developing counterinsurgency strategy is closely argued and persuasive. In this interpretation, the Wall sits between the two frequently argued ideas of the function of Hadrian’s Wall: that of a controlled border, or of a fortification against large-scale threat. The problems concerning the relationship between the beginning of construction and actual warfare are discussed in detail, while topographic and practical reasons are found for the many changes in plan that took place as work advanced.
The Wall was built in a peopled landscape, and its practical and cultural impact on the local population is brought to the fore. The Wall had an immediate impact on patterns of settlement in its vicinity, and particularly on freedom of movement. In this context, the book stresses the importance of the 2.55km-wide natural bottleneck the Tipalt–Irthing gap as the only place where the Tyne–Solway isthmus could be crossed from north to south without the need for a substantial river crossing. The concentration of unusual Wall features and the prioritisation of building in this and other potential penetration routes emphasises the Wall’s purpose in preventing ‘longstanding patterns of north–south movement’.
‘Hippy’ archaeologists