Walking the Wall: An MA Adventure--- Episode 2.5: Wall Trek

Saturday afternoon was a very athletic experience. After leaving Chesters, we headed over to the Housesteads visitor's center. After piling out of the Land Rover, we realized that the fort was not anywhere near the parking lot. It was, in fact, a long, steep climb up to the fort, through fields full of sheep (and their droppings). I was very thankful for my wellies.

You can see how steep a climb it was up to the fort in this picture. We walked all the way from that stand of trees down at the bottom of the valley. If you think about it, having a fort up high on a hill is really quite bright, as you can keep an eye on the landscape for miles around. However, I imagine the soldiers weren't always happy to haul supplies up there and march all the way up in their heavy armor.

The fort itself is probably the most famous fort along the wall. In Roman times, it was know as "Vercovicium". It was built two years after the wall (in AD 124) over the original wall foundation, using the wall as its Northernmost border (which is weird, since most forts were built within the wall and sticking out on either side). Another odd feature that resulted from the fort's location is its lack of running water supply, which was a common feature of other forts along the wall. Due to its elevation, there was just no way to pump water all the way uphill. Instead, there was an ingenious system of rainwater collection. You can see the complex drain system and one of the large wells here on the left hand side of the photo.

We were all stumped as to what the little dips in the stone might be for. They were rounded, and fairly regular, but they didn't look entirely purposeful. What could have caused this? Professor Mattingly filled us in- the grooves were made while soldiers were washing their clothing, and rubbing it against the stone walls of the water tank!

We were lucky to get a full guided tour of the fort from Professor Mattingly, who has been here with many groups of students over the years. During our visit, we had to stay a few steps ahead of a huge tour group from Nottingham, which was quite the task. Still, we got some good information about life in the fort, and some of its mysteries. Apparently, in the settlement outside the fort's walls, there is a place known as "the Murder House", where the body of a man and woman were found beneath the floor's flagstones. Ancient murder mystery!


Housesteads is also famous for having one of the best-preserved Roman latrines in Britain. The holes in the wall would have held beams to support the row of wooden seats. Basically, you came in to the communal latrine (which did not have divided stalls), sat down, did your business, and then wiped with a sponge-on-a-stick. Soldiers each had their own sponge-on-a-stick, but cleaned them in the common drain that ran along the floor (ew). Then, you washed your hands in the basin in the middle. Fortunately, with all the water being used across the fort, the waste underneath would be washed away with some frequency. Still, doesn't sound entirely hygienic...

I'm still weirded out by the fact that they let sheep graze on the ruins. It makes the place seem even more ancient and abandoned, as sheep nonchalantly munch on grass in places once bustling with commerce and life. We would encounter more sheep along our wall walking adventure.

Photo by Lee G.

We set off from Housteads walking on top of the Broad Wall. It was a bit of an adventure, as one side fell steeply into a drop-off. I was very glad of the fence between me and a fall into the wild abyss.

There was a lot of up and down involved with walking the wall. The Romans seemed to have built the wall in a zig-zag both horizontal and vertical. I can't believe they managed to build something this massive in this sort of terrain. It is really impressive when you see it first-hand. Pictures can't even capture the depth and scale of its construction. There are some paths that have been cobbled for ease of travel, or had steps cut in, but this does little to change the very steep angles of the path and the fact that it rains all the time up in these highlands, making the cobbles very slippery. It was a bit perilous, but the views were worth it.

Photo by Ian M.

Along the way, we stopped at certain sites of interest. Every mile along the wall, there was a milecastle, a mini-fort that overlooked the landscape and managed traffic between the two sides. Every 1/3 mile, there were turrets, manned by temporary garrisons on guard duty. Unsurprisingly, there were lots of finds like dice, gaming pieces, and containers for beer found in these distant turrets. It must have been a bit lonely, and often uneventful. The photo to the left is one of the arched gates at a milecastle, looking out into "barbarian lands".

Even though it was a bit drizzly and chilly, we quickly warmed up from all the exercise. Up and down, up an down... It was a very long walk. I must admit, I usually brought up the rear of the party, taking my time climbing over fences and edging down steep slopes. I did not, however, get stuck in the mud at any point, which is really an improvement over previous archaeological outings!

Lots of other people were walking along the wall- it's a very popular tourist site. Now I know why...

The vistas were beautiful. This is a small loch, where water collects at the base of a cliff. When the sun came out, it glittered below us, the color set off against the vibrant greens and stark greys around it. It was breathtaking, walking along the landscape. That is, until you stepped in sheep dung.

Photo by John W.

I like this photo because it not only shows the insane verticality of the walk, but some of the sheep-proof passage devices along the way. We had to climb a lot of these triangular ladders, which were a bit awkward at times. You had to hang on to the railing, and swing yourself over the top, and it tended to hold up traffic a little. This made it good for people who had to catch up (like me!). There were also lots of one-person-at-a-time gates that were designed to keep sheep in. I think most of the structures along Hadrian's Wall have sheep in mind more than humans.

As we neared the midpoint of our walk, Professor Mattingly left us to go get the Land Rover, which had been left back at Housesteads fort. He walked down the first road we came to and caught a bus back to the parking lot. We were left under the supervision of Matt, the PhD student, who shepherded our increasingly-weary group along while taking some very nice pictures with a very fancy camera (I should see if he'll send me some of those...).

At last, we came to a spot known as Sycamore Gap, or as many people refer to it: Kevin Costner's Tree. There is apparently a scene in the 1991 movie "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" where Kevin Costner and Moorish friend Morgan Freeman have returned to England after captivity during the Crusades. They land at Dover (southeast coast of England), and on their way to Nottingham, are pictured walking along Hadrian's Wall. Now, if you remember the lovely map from the previous entry: Nottingham is about half an hour's drive north of Leicester. Hadrian's Wall is four hour's drive north of Leicester. Either Robin Hood has the world's worst sense of direction (you'd think he would have picked up some sense from the Lakota in Dances with Wolves) or they just picked a pretty spot to shoot and hoped audiences wouldn't realize where it was (I'm betting on the latter). It was very cinematic, I have to admit.

I even managed to get all the boys to stand together for a group photo. From left to right, the guys are:

Flavio Bacci (Italian)
Dave Walsh (Brit)
Matt Manditch (American/honorary Italian)
Ian Marshman (Brit)
John Wall (American, SC)
Lee (Spanish/British)
Matt Hobson (PhD student- Brit).



After Sycamore Gap, I think we were all quite ready to be sitting in the warmth of the Once Brewed Inn with a pint and a proper meal. All that stood between us was another short stretch of hilly terrain and a herd of cows.

Picture by Dave W.

Being from Iowa, I am quite used to cows. They are usually pretty friendly animals. I wouldn't want to make them too mad, but I'm generally not afraid of them. Some of the guys were a littler nervous, as we made our way through a pass occupied by what seemed to be an older female cow and some younger cows. I wasn't worried, but seeing this picture, perhaps I should have been...


We made it past the bovine gauntlet, and finally reached our destination. Victory! Well... not completely. I realized upon arrival that I had left my shoes in the Land Rover, which had not yet returned by the time we set out for dinner. So I got to wear my wellies to the pub. A lovely fashion statement, to be sure... Oh well. At that point, I didn't really care- I was ready for a good hearty meal sitting in a warm, dry place!

The Once Brewed tavern certainly did provide a hearty meal and a good drink. The food was traditionally British. I had an Irish Stew on Saturday (excellent!) and fish and chips the night before, although I wish I'd gone for the Steak pie, which looked delicious, too. This was also the beginning of my exposure to the wide variety of British ciders: sweet, dry, sparkling... It's been a beautiful voyage of discovery. This tavern also boasted over 65 varieties of rum, which was extremely impressive. We felt obligated to thoroughly test the quality of several of their selections...

The meals after our day on the wall were great. For the first part of the meal, we talked about what we had seen and what we thought about it. David Mattingly also introduced some of the ideas that have been debated with regard to the wall, and we started to delve into discussion of current issues in the field. It was a great opportunity to try out our analytical wings, so to speak. After David Mattingly left for the evening, the talk usually became less archaeological (although lots of crazy field school stories came out). We got to know each other, and start forming our identity as a group at those meals and on this trip. This field trip was brilliantly designed that way, both as an introduction to the field and what is expected of Masters students, as well as a forced socialization period. I have to say: it was one of the best trips I've ever taken, and one I know I'll be telling stories about in years to come.

Walking the Wall: An MA Adventure--- Episode II: Attack of the Sheep!

Before I start this entry, I figured it might be useful to give everyone an idea about where all these places before I keep throwing new place names at you. I've modified a few maps off of Google to help orient my readers.

First off, here's a map of where Hadrian's Wall is located in Britain. It runs along the narrowest part of England, from the Solway Firth (inlet) in the west to the mouth of the River Tyne in the east. Although it is close to Scotland, it is actually entirely in England. The eastern side is very close to the Scottish border, but the border starts a little north of the wall, but then angles up toward Edinburgh as you move west, while the wall just cuts straight across.

You can see how far the wall was from Leicester: a 4 hour drive!

Here is a map of the forts and sites along Hadrian's Wall. I've marked the sites we visited with yellow/red squares, and listed their current and Roman names below. The Hostel is marked with a blue circle.

Saturday was a very full day for the MA crew. Therefore, we all decided to start the day with a proper English breakfast. The Youth Hostel we were staying at offered a full breakfast in the morning. Having never before experienced the legendary English breakfast, I was curious as to what it consisted of.

Protein. That is the key to English breakfast. Lots and lots of protein. You start out with eggs, then sausage and bacon (which is really more like canadian bacon), and baked beans. Yogurt, toast, and fruit was also available. Probably a good meal for people who are planning to hike all over steep crags and across the chilly British landscape.

We started our day with a long drive out to Birdoswald. When we arrived at the fort, we discovered the front was covered by a series of old brick farm buildings. They felt pretty historic, too!

The photo to the left should give you an idea of the standard state of preservation at the fort. There wasn't much above the level of foundations, but there was still a lot to see. The site has been well excavated (although there's still more to discover!)

The granaries were really impressive. They were huge, with large stone buttresses along the side to support the weight of the grain pressing out. In an uncertain landscape, you wanted to make sure the people inside the fort had enough food to hold out for quite a while if they had to. The flat stones you see in the foreground on the left are the loading dock for wagons to pull up and transfer their cargo of grain into the granary. Pretty clever!

We went to explore the walls around the fort next. This is one of the gateways that led into the fort. You can see where the two main arches would have sprung up, although there's little left of them now. All forts had four of these gates. That seems like a lot for a place you have to defend from angry Scots, and there is indeed evidence that many of the gateways were built to plan and then blocked up. Our theory is that the emperor demanded all forts be built to a standard plan, and then once he was gone, people adjusted things to make more sense.

Photo by Ian M.

 The East Gate was a little more impressive than the other one, with the first stone of the arch left. Apparently, this source of nicely cut stone was just too tempting for local inhabitants after the Roman period. Sometimes, whole arches were stolen for use in churches and other medieval buildings!













This is the view out the back gate of the fort. Yes, the back gate opened onto a steep drop-off. Why they really needed a gate here is beyond me. None of us could picture an army of angry barbarians desperate enough to mount a large scale attack by scaling this really steep bank. Maybe they just had a gate there to go out and enjoy the really nice view of the river valley below....

Photo by Ian M.

As we wandered around the walls, we soon noticed that we had company. Most of the site was also in a giant field, and we found out very quickly that this field was inhabited by a very large herd of sheep. As they moved the sheep into the fort's pasture, we suddenly found ourselves facing a veritable ovid army. After that, we decided it was probably best to explore the inner parts of the fort, and yielded ground to the sheep. Run away!!!




 Our last exploration inside the fort was a strange arrangement of timber posts inside one of the granaries. During excavation, large postholes were discovered along the stone footings. These were not from a Roman building, but a later Anglo-Saxon hall built over the foundations. After the Romans abandoned the fort, a new group of people came along and decided to use these perfectly nice foundations for a building of their own. Although the wood and thatch buildings would have looked quite different from the imposing stone structures, it's cool to see such continuity in British sites.

Photo by Ian M.

Photo by Dave W.

We briefly explored the museum, which featured artefacts discovered during the excavations, and a few recreations of what fort life would have been like. We found the wax figures of a soldier yelling down at a British guy patching the wall odd, but entertaining.

After Birdoswald, we set off in the Land Rover once more. After stopping for a quick lunch (during which I learned that British corned beef is a strange mushy stuff that smells a bit like cat food), we headed out toward Chesters, one of the best-preserved forts along the wall. Before we got to the proper fort, we stopped along the road and got out to explore a peculiar structure across the river. To get to it, we tromped across a busy road and then down a narrow aisle between fields (again, full of grazing sheep). Some of us brought the remains of our lunch along to finish by the river.



The river bank was much different in Roman times, and would have come right up to the edge of this stone structure. Professor Mattingly, whom you can see in the distance in this picture, asked us what we though this might be. Eventually, we stumbled onto the right answer: it was the footings of a very wide bridge across the river toward the fort at Chesters. You can barely make out the dim outline of the fort's baths in the distance.




The very clever Romans even used part of the bridge footings to power a mill, with a large channel for water to rush in and grind flour. I can only imagine how grand this all must have looked when it was fully operational!

After viewing this side of the river, we crossed back through the various gates and corridors in the fencing. Lots of the wall monuments stand in farmland, so there are a lot of sheep-proof gates you can only go through one at a time, and ladders over walls. Adventure!

Our next stop was the fort of Chesters, a cavalry fort situated along the wall and the river. The ruins here were the most impressive we'd yet seen. There were more than just foundations! We got to see all the basic buildings of a proper Roman fort: the barracks, the stables, the granaries, the praetoria (commander's house), the principium (main headquarters and offices)...

Photo by Ian M.

Here, you can see the way the granaries were built, on stone pillars to hold up the floor and let air flow under it to keep out vermin and damp. We'd seen foundations for these pillars previously, but never the whole floor.

This is one of the only still-roofed Roman buildings in Britain. It is the strong room of the principia, one of the innermost rooms in the headquarters building. The legionary standards and sacred images of the emperor would have been stored in the room upstairs, as well. Guarding this room was a sacred duty, and rather important, since the strong room
would have contained the legionaries' pay...

Photo by Ian M.

Photo by Ian M.

After visiting the fort proper, we walked down to the baths, located outside the walls of the fort down by the river. When you imagine Roman baths without any previous knowledge of them, it's very easy to let your imagination run away with you and paint a picture of huge chambers with statues and fine stone and fountains. Then, when you see the real thing, you're at the same time amazed that it could be so massive and so complex, and yet at the same time, nothing like your imagination. You can see a few people over on the left for scale.


Baths actually had several different rooms, all with different heat settings. You had the tepidarium, which was fairly warm, the caldarium (pictured on the right), which was steaming hot, and the frigidarium, which was cold. Progressing through the baths at these highly variant temperatures must have been quite the experience, like jumping into a pool after sitting in a hot tub.

The caldarium here shows the main pool area, as well as the beginnings of a window well up top. It was closest to the hypocausts, where the water in massive tanks (probably lined with lead) would have been heated. After going to the caldarium, the water would have gone to the tepidarium after cooling a bit.

Photo by Ian M.

All this required some pretty good drainage systems. These met up with drainage systems from the fort, and flowed into the river. Maybe not the most sanitary by today's standards, but the drains certainly were efficient at carrying waste and water away from the fort. Plus, they were fun to climb over.

We did a lot of climbing and exploring on this trip. I was very thankful for my sturdy pair of Wellies. Through wind and rain and fields of sheep dung, they made the trip far more pleasant.

Above three photos by Ian M.

Next, we saw some indoor sights. A 19th century barrister (or lawyer, for my American audience) and town official from Newcastle was an avid Classics enthusiast. When he realized how much of the wall and forts were being destroyed, he started buying up land. He owned at least three forts and a good portion of wall, which he worked to restore. On Mondays, he would excavate on his properties, uncovering various artefacts and some very fine works of art. He assembled the best of these as a prestigious collection, which his heirs set up in a museum on the site of Chesters. This museum seriously hasn't changed much since Victorian times, which makes it almost a museum of a museum. Still, it was fascinating to see old-fashioned displays and some really cool pieces. Many were altars to various deities, especially marine goddesses.

Although this educational and scenic day was not yet over, I will have to save the grand conclusion of that October Saturday for another entry. After Chesters, we packed up and headed to Housesteads for our final fort of the day and our scenic walk back to the Youth Hostel. It proved to be quite an athletic adventure, and really deserves its own entry.

Walking the Wall: An MA Adventure--- Prologue and Day 1

At last, I've gotten around to blogging about my trip on October 8-10th! I was quite thrilled to find out that the first weekend after school started, all the Rome and Its Neighbors MA students would embark on a journey up to and along Hadrian's Wall with our program director, Professor David Mattingly. Having picked up a copy of Mattingly's book and seen his name in National Geographic before coming over here, this was quite exciting. It also promised to be a good way to get to know all the other MA students in my program. Who happen to be entirely male.

There are only seven of us in the program. Three of us are Americans: myself, John from South Carolina, and Matt from California. Matt almost doesn't count, though, since he's been living in Rome the past few years, and is practically an honorary Italian. We also have an actual Italian in our group, Flavio, and Lee is representing the fine country of Spain (although he has lived in England for most of his life). There are only two Brits in our little program: David and Ian. Funny that we're mostly here to study the Romans in Britain, and so few of us are British. Guess the Brits get sick of all the Roman history they are put through in school!

My story doesn't actually begin on the day we leave, as I feel the ramp-up to the trip is equally important. We each had to prepare two short presentations on different sites along the wall, which wasn't too bad. We also received informational packets to read, to help us get an idea about what we would be seeing. Not bad. We also learned that boots were a necessity. So on Thursday, I set off in search of a good pair of Wellies. Harder task than I thought: I wandered about downtown Leicester, and searched the huge shopping mall without success. Then, I was pointed toward a lovely store called TK Maxx, where I found their shoe clearance section. By this point, I was feeling a little off, but I purchased my navy blue boots (8 pounds!!!) and trial sized shampoo and headed home.

I got a bit lost on the way home, but eventually made it. As soon as I got home, I tried to focus on getting ready, but really couldn't. For some reason, I wasn't feeling well. I had a headache, and was feeling pretty nauseous. Finally, I decided to lie down for a bit, and pack later... Minutes after my head hit the pillow, I was sprinting to the bathroom and emptying my stomach contents into the toilet. Over the next hour that I spent in my bathroom, all I could think of was "There is just no way I'm missing out on this trip!" When  I was sure the worst was over, I crawled back to bed, and set my alarm for 5am, hoping that I felt better in the morning.

The next morning, I woke up and felt fine. Words cannot describe how thankful I was. I even ate breakfast and felt fine. Strange mystery illness conquered! I threw things into my pack with some trepidation. It was only a three-day trip, but we would be getting quite dirty and gross during our trek, it sounded like. Then again, I didn't want to be teased as "the girl" who brings too much stuff. I ended up cramming all my stuff into my computer bag, with my Amsterdam bag for a purse/day bag. Pretty good, I thought.

When I arrived at the archaeology department, I saw a Land Rover waiting in the parking space. I blinked. 7 students, one professor, and one PhD student, on a four hour trip. In a Land Rover? I counted the seats. Two in front, bench seat for three in the middle, and four pull-down seats in the back. Oh my... I was about to become very close with my colleagues. We had to strap all the luggage down on the top of the Land Rover, carefully wrapped in tarps to keep out the rain. I was a bit relieved to find that I packed lighter than the boys. One point for feminine efficiency! We all piled in, and to my great amazement, there was enough room for everyone, but only just. It was... cozy!

 

On the way up to the wall, we had a packet and some books about Hadrian's Wall to read. That, and conversation kept us occupied on the trip up. We were very thankful for a stop about half of the way through, and untangled ourselves for a hit-and-run lunch and bathroom break. Then, it was back into the van for the rest of the trip up to the northeast end of the Wall.

Our first stop was South Shields, on the sea. The site was once the Roman fort of Arbeia, a few miles east of the end of the Wall. It guarded the entrance to the Tyne River from the North Sea, and was a major supply base. It had row after row of granaries in the fort. However, the first thing you notice when you arrive at the site is a gigantic reconstruction of what they think the main gate into the fort might have looked like. The reconstruction is probably a little extravagant; the real gate is unlikely to have been quite that tall and opposing. It made for an excellent view of the site, though.

This is what's left of the site: mostly just the foundations of buildings. You can see one of the granaries in the foreground. You can tell it's a granary because of all the little squares on the floor. Those were originally supports that held up the floor and created airspace underneath. This would have kept the grain dry and prevented rodents from getting in. In the top right corner of the photo, you can see reconstructions of the barracks and the commander's house. These stand right in front of the actual barrack foundations.



Beds for 8 soldiers: cozy!

Here's a closer shot of the barracks. Each of those blocks (represented by a door and window) would have housed 8 soldiers. The centurion would live on the end, and had bigger quarters to accommodate a family and slaves. Scholars used to think that soldiers couldn't have family, but there is growing evidence that they did, and even lived inside the fort in some places.

These are pictures from the inside of the commander's house. This is just a reconstruction based on a tentative amount of evidence. There might have been some wall painting (they've discovered a few little patches) but this recreation is probably a little too elaborate.

Still, it was very pretty and colorful. I particularly like the garden scene in the atrium! The commander had a much fancier place than the rank and file, but I guess those are the perks.
 



The site also had a great museum, with some very cool tombstones. One interesting one featured a woman who looks like a respectable Roman matron. The inscription on her stone, however, reveals that she was a slave, who was finally freed and married by her owner. That kind of thing was apparently quite common in Britain after the Roman conquest. The Romans often made a habit of enslaving some native people, and soldiers with enough money could buy a "companion." This guy appears to have gone out of his way to honor his wife properly after her death, which is kind of sweet, but there are still lots of power-imbalances that make the situation a bit uncomfortable.




After our adventure at South Shields/Arbeia, we piled back into the Land Rover and headed west to Wallsend, a few miles away. The place is aptly named. It represents the very end of Hadrian's Wall, and was once the fort of Segedunum.

This is a picture of the eastern end of the wall where it trails off. They didn't quite build it all the way to the sea, but I guess there wasn't too much of a problem in those few miles.


It seems like a somewhat anti-climatic end to such a massive monument, really.

Here's a reconstruction of the wall near Wallsend. They've found post-holes from some kind of timber posts. They are obviously some kind of anti-personnel measure, probably directing them toward an ideal area for the soldiers to control movement.

They've also used this portion of wall to test different construction methods. Some people even think the wall might have been plastered over originally. That would look pretty imposing!

 After walking along the wall and looking at the reconstructions, we headed up to the viewing tower. They had a really nifty computer program that showed how the site had changed through time, from the Iron Age to Roman times, all the way up to the shipyards that once stood here in the 1800s. Those shipyards are the reason there isn't much left but the foundations.

Wallsend also has a reconstructed bath house, which was modeled on the bath house found at Chesters, further along the wall. It was pretty spectacular. The walls inside were beautifully painted, some in brightly colored panels and one room was painted blue and covered with little paintings of sea creatures.Seeing the construction of the bath house was really cool. It's amazing how much technology the Romans had: enough to supply running water for a large public bath complex and the heating system to keep it all warm. This is a picture of the under-floor structure. The reddish-brown clay structures in the side of the wall are conduits for the heat. They funnel the steam under the floor, warming it. Brilliant!

By the time we were done exploring Wallsend, it was almost 4:30 or so. We were very ready to get settled in at the Youth Hostel and get some food. Back in the Land Rover... The guys all roomed together, and I shared a room with two other women. It was pretty comfortable, and when I needed to leave things behind, I left it in the guys room, since they were the only ones in there. Very useful.

The Hostel is called the "Twice Brewed", and the next door tavern is the "Once Brewed". We were very grateful for a pint and some food. The food there was epic. Fish and chips, meat with potatoes and vegetables, steak pie... Delicious! We stayed in the tavern for some time, discussing various issues, and finally stumbled back and fell into bed, getting some much needed sleep before the long Saturday ahead.