The view from Vienna
Last year, in Vienna, we visited the salt mines at Hallstatt and the site beside the Danube where the Venus of Willendorf was discovered.
frontier
From the fringes of the Roman Empire: Locally crafted empires
In our high-speed modern world, it can be easy to forget that the ancient world was experienced at a slower speed. Rubina Raja shares the insights that can spring from exploring the edges of the Roman world on foot.
Apsaros Roman fort: Guarding a distant shore
The Roman frontier in Georgia follows the edge of the Black Sea. Matthew Symonds visited the remains of Apsaros fort to find out more.
The Rocks at the Edge of the Empire: 50 extraordinary rocky places that tell the story of the Romans and the landscape of their northern frontier
REVIEW BY ROB IXER Many recent popular archaeology books are text-heavy, with indifferently reproduced black-and-white illustrations printed on poor-quality paper, and with a few token colour plates. This wonderful paperback, a landscape book in both senses of the word, is…
Ancient Egypt Letters 146
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine.
Current Archaeology’s December Listings: exhibitions, events, and heritage from home
There are many brilliant archaeological events coming up into the New Year, from new exhibitions to conferences, talks, and more. If you would prefer to get your history and heritage fix at home, though, there is a wide variety of offerings to choose from, including virtual museum- and site-tours, digital collections, podcasts, and TV shows. Amy Brunskill has put together a selection of some of the options available.
Looking death in the face: The battle for Beecher Island, September 1868
Amid the turmoil of the American Indian wars, a tiny band of US Army irregulars held out against a far larger force of Native American warriors. Fred Chiaventone tells the remarkable story of Major George Forsyth’s desperate last stand on an island in the Arikaree River.
Surveying Khirbet al-Khalde: Global trade and ancient mobility in southern Jordan
Fresh knowledge about global trade and travel is coming to light in the Jordanian desert. A survey project is revealing information about the chronology of a small fort or fortlet and presumed caravanserai at the site of Khirbet al-Khalde in southern Jordan. Taking us through archival data, new archaeological finds, and the use of drone imagery, the co directors of the project Craig Harvey, Emanuele Intagliata, and Rubina Raja unravel new narratives about this fascinating desert site.
Rooted in the future: A cultural ecology of the Sycamore Gap tree
Do archaeological remains represent static monuments, or do they remain ‘alive’ in their natural and cultural landscapes? Emily Hanscam and Cornelius Holtorf discuss how Hadrian’s Wall and the Sycamore Gap tree can encourage us to rethink the relationships between humanity, nature, and the planet.
Fabric of the Frontier: Prospection, use, and re-use of stone from Hadrian’s Wall
REVIEW BY ANTONY LEE This volume, an output of the WallCAP project (2018-2022), directly and successfully addresses historic disconnects between archaeological and geological studies of Hadrian’s Wall. It presents a thoughtful and accessible study into how consideration of the Wall’s…
Magnifying Milecastle 46: First modern excavations of the Hadrian’s Wall site begin
A new five-year project by the Vindolanda Trust is shedding unprecedented light on Magna Roman fort and nearby Milecastle 46, as well as providing invaluable data about how the local environment – and the underlying archaeology – is being affected by climate change. Carly Hilts visited Rachel Frame and Franki Gillis on site to hear the story so far.
The Eagle and the Bear: a new history of Roman Scotland
REVIEW BY MATTHEW SYMONDS Roman Scotland has long been a battleground. The remarkable remains of military works testify to the manpower that Rome committed to northern Britain, while the ancient literature reports fighting of varying intensity. An absence of any…
Surprises from the Roman frontier: excavating Hadrian’s Wall in urban Tyneside
As Hadrian’s Wall is a protected World Heritage Site, opportunities to excavate across the line of the Roman fortifications are rare. In the summer of 2021, however, planned development works in the Ouseburn area of Newcastle upon Tyne offered the possibility to do just that – and Pre-Construct Archaeology’s investigations revealed not only the first turret to be uncovered along the Wall in over 40 years, but the largest example identified to date, together with other defensive features. Project Officer Scott Vance discusses the background to the discovery and its implications for the study of Hadrian’s Wall within urban Tyneside.
Roman fortlet rediscovered on Scotland’s Antonine Wall
The discovery is only the tenth known fortlet to have been found along the wall.
Multi-hued Roman gatehouse marks anniversary of Hadrian’s Wall
The installation is part of the HW1900 Festival and will be open to the public until 30 October.
New Hadrian’s Wall turret discovered in Newcastle
It is one of the largest turrets yet discovered, and the only known example lying east of Newcastle.
The Congress of Roman Frontier Studies
Discussions were prematurely halted by the receipt of a coded telegram from the War Office summoning Birley home to join Military Intelligence, to which he had previously been recruited owing to his fluent German and knowledge of the Roman army.
Warfare and the Wall: the genesis of a Roman frontier
Matthew Symonds examines the resistance that Roman forces faced as they strove to conquer Britain.
On the edge of empire: exploring indigenous experiences on the Roman frontier
An investigation stretching from Durham to the southern Scottish Highlands is illuminating the lives of communities who lived under Roman occupation, and on the fringes of imperial influence. The first phase of this work has already identified more than 130 previously unknown settlements, as Carly Hilts reports.
‘I never saw braver men’: black soldiers in the American West
Fred Chiaventone recalls the service of the US Army’s first black regiments.
New light on Trimontium: building a museum against the odds
The recent renovation of Trimontium Museum in Melrose has given archaeologists the opportunity to re-examine the enduring mystery of what happened at the nearby Roman fortress of the same name – as John Reid explains.
The Hadrian’s Wall Military Way: a frontier road explored
It is always stimulating to be reminded how much more remains to be said about Hadrian’s Wall, a Roman frontier system that is often believed – from an archaeological perspective – to have been ‘done’. Despite centuries of scholarly scrutiny,…
Recognising historic landscapes
The idea that there was no pre-existing Roman settlement on the site of medieval Venice is hard to credit when you realise that the Italian peninsula was heavily populated under the Roman Empire
Section of Hadrian’s Wall unearthed in Newcastle
Built in AD 122, Hadrian’s Wall stretched 73 miles from the North Sea to Solway Firth and marked the furthest limit of the Roman Empire.
Visions of the Roman North: art and identity in northern Roman Britain
This remarkable and important study of the art and culture of northern Roman Britain has been published almost two decades after my own – The Heirs of King Verica (Tempus, 2002; 2nd edition: Amberley, 2010), which dealt almost entirely with…
This week: Fortresses and invasions
Those with even a cursory knowledge of ancient history will recall that Julius Caesar made his first expedition to Britain in 55 BC. Others may also be aware that the process of Rome's permanent conquest of Britannia did not begin until 43 AD, during the reign of Emperor Claudius. What is more mysterious, however, is what happened to Rome's invasion plans in the almost 100 years between those two dates.
Hadrian’s Wall: A Roman frontier revisited
How much do we really know about Hadrian’s Wall? After more than a century of scientific research into this magnificent Roman monument, it might be suspected that few mysteries remain. Instead, the recent ‘Pilgrimage’ along the Wall showed that debate is still in rude health, as Matthew Symonds reveals.
Roman-inspired sculptures installed at the Antonine Wall
In an online campaign, the public voted to name the sculpture ‘Silvanus’, after the Roman god of woodlands.
The wider Wall: a decade of discoveries and debates
Excavation and survey along Hadrian’s Wall are casting doubt on old certainties, and setting new questions for the future. But how are our views of the monument changing, and why? Current World Archaeology's Matthew Symonds reports.
This week: Hadrian’s Wall
When construction began in AD 122, Hadrian's Wall marked the furthermost limit of the Roman Empire. Stretching 73 miles from the North Sea to the Solway Firth, it divided conquered territory to the south from that occupied by unbeaten tribes to the north. Almost 2,000 years on, the Wall remains a potent symbol of the north-south divide between England and Scotland, referenced frequently in the ongoing and often-heated debate over Scottish independence.
Offa’s Dyke Journal, Volume 1
The archaeological societies founded in the 19th century embraced all aspects of the discipline, and from about the beginning of the 20th century societies came to be formed. In recent years, they have been joined by more-specialist societies and journals.…
An unfinished frontier? Was Hadrian’s Wall completed in his lifetime?
During the 2019 Pilgrimage of Hadrian’s Wall (see CA 353), participants considered a key question relating to the ancient fortification: did the eponymous emperor who commissioned its construction live to see it completed? David Breeze and Erik Graafstal explore the evidence.
Great North Museum: Hancock
From Roman temples dedicated to Mithras to Anglo-Saxon stone crosses, Newcastle’s Great North Museum: Hancock explores an array of beliefs and ways of life in the north of England, as Lucia Marchini found out.
Community spirit: Hadrian’s Wall, Cumbria
For Historic England, Hadrian’s Wall has always been a site needing active research – many questions about the frontier remain unanswered, and only by the kind of refreshed understanding that research brings, and by addressing the interests and concerns of the public, can the frontier remain relevant.
Reconstructing Roman Carlisle: Fort life on a shifting frontier
The Roman fort at Carlisle was founded decades before the construction of Hadrian’s Wall. How did the site’s use change as the frontier was fortified, and what can we learn about the lives of its inhabitants? John Zant reports.
Buried at Birdoswald: excavating a Roman cremation cemetery outside the fort
To-date, the 3rd-century cremations discovered above Birdoswald fort remain the only Roman cemetery to have received major archaeological attention along the line of Hadrian’s Wall. What light does it shed on the people who lived and died on the frontier? Tony Wilmott explains.