Hadrian's Wall: Creating Division (Archaeological Histories) - Softcover

Symonds, Matthew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1350105341 ISBN 13: 9781350105348

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021

Synopsis

Over its venerable history, Hadrian's Wall has had an undeniable influence in shaping the British landscape, both literally and figuratively. Once thought to be a soft border, recent research has implicated it in the collapse of a farming civilisation centuries in the making, and in fuelling an insurgency characterised by violent upheaval. Examining the everyday impact of the Wall over the three centuries it was in operation, Matthew Symonds sheds new light on its underexplored human story by discussing how the evidence speaks of a hard border scything through a previously open landscape and bringing dramatic change in its wake. The Roman soldiers posted to Hadrian's Wall were overwhelmingly recruits from the empire's occupied territories, and for them the frontier could be a place of fear and magic where supernatural protection was invoked during spells of guard duty.

Since antiquity, the Wall has been exploited by powers craving the legitimacy that came with being accepted as the heirs of Rome: it helped forge notions of English and Scottish nationhood, and even provided a model of selfless cultural collaboration when the British Empire needed reassurance. It has also inspired creatives for centuries, appearing in a more or less recognisable guise in works ranging from Rudyard Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill to George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones. Combining an archaeological analysis of the monument itself and an examination of its rich legacy and contemporary relevance, this volume presents a reliable, modern perspective on the Wall.

About this title

About the Authors

Matthew Symonds is an internationally respected authority on Hadrian's Wall and editor of Current World Archaeology magazine, as well as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, Scotland, and Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. He has discussed Hadrian's Wall on the popular BBC television show Digging for Britain and served as a guide on the prestigious decennial Pilgrimage of Hadrian's Wall. Among his publications are Protecting the Roman Empire: fortlets, frontiers, and the quest for post-conquest security (2017), and he was co-editor of Frontiers of Knowledge: the Hadrian's Wall Research Framework and Breaking Down Boundaries: Hadrian's Wall in the 21st century (2009).

Thomas Harrison is Professor of Ancient History at the University of St Andrews, UK. His publications include Divinity and History: the religion of Herodotus (2000), The Emptiness of Asia: Aeschylus' Persians and the history of the fifth century (2000); as editor Greeks and Barbarians (2002) and the Edinburgh Companion to Ancient Greece and Rome (2006).

Duncan Garrow is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Reading, UK.

Michele George is Professor in the Department of Classics at McMaster University, Canada.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1350105341
• ISBN 13: 9781350105348
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 232