A Day Out Along the Wall - Part One

I came to see the wall - and was not disappointed. Yesterday I spent a solid 12 hours journeying to, along and back from Hadrian’s Wall. Getting there was an adventure - I was grateful for the friendly driver of the AD122 bus. It felt like I had a personal chauffeur as quite often I was the only person on the bus!. It took 90 minutes to get to the Roman Army Museum in Walltown (appropriately named, eh?) from Newcastle but beautiful country views and lots of English gardens to look at.

Arrived at the museum and shared the space with two school groups and a dozen other visitors. It’s all very well done, interactive and appeals to history buffs and students alike.   The museum itself is in an old farmhouse and modern additions on the site of Carvoran, a large army garrison. Here’s what it looks like today:

Lots of sheep, not a lot of Romans.

Yes, a sheep’s meadow. There are plans in the near future to begin excavating the site, but for now, the Vindolanda Charitable Trust (which runs the museum) is focusing its work on their primary site, seven miles east of here. The museum was a treasure trove of information and the 3D film (!) was well done and not too gimmicky. You get a much better appreciation for the hardships Roman soldiers and the auxiliaries had to face, hundreds if not thousands of miles from their homes. 

Roman auxiliaries lacked the segmented armor often found in legionary or centurion uniforms.

Most of the units housed here were not Latin (Italia), but from the neighboring provinces of Gaul, Dalmatia and Hispania - even from as far away as Mesopotamia. They know from records recovered and artifacts found that Syrian archers fought for Rome in the British north!

Hamian archer’s helmet - it and its owner traveled 4,800 km from home to defend the Empire. 

There was a lot of background on Hadrian - including the stuff you don’t read about in history books - and his reasoning for building the wall. Spoiler alert: It was a projection of power and used to defend the Romans and their allies in Britain against the barbaric tribes to the north (by this time the southern tribes had been conquered). There was no love lost between the Romans and the Caledonii living in Scotland. In fact, there was this artifact from Vindolanda that reinforces this: 

Yikes!

Based on forensic evidence, the skull is most likely (no 100% guarantees in archaeology, I suppose) a Scotsman who saw a gruesome end; attacked on both sides of the head with a sharp AND blunt tool, decapitated and THEN had a pike driven through the base of his skull, most likely so others would heed the warning of crossing the Roman Empire. Horrible history, indeed! But I guess old Skully here had the last laugh - he’s still here and the Romans are gone!

The museum was worth the 90 minutes I spent there - missing the first bus to my next destination, but as it turned out, the weather was good and I had two more hours to kill. Let’s go for a hike - what could go wrong?