Running 73 miles from Britain's Wallsend on the North Sea to Bowness-on-Solway on the Solway Firth, the vallum Hadriani, or Hadrian’s Wall, was a significant frontier of the Roman Empire. Constructed by Emperor Hadrian, who ruled between 117 and 138, the boundary marking the northern border of the province of Britannia consisted of curtain walls, forts, and watchtowers, along with deep trenches that made assaulting the frontier itself challenging.
Following the contours of an often-wild landscape, Roman surveyors incorporated natural cliffs and valleys into their artificial boundary. While an impressive example of military fortification, the archaeological remains of this barrier offer insight into wider topics of Roman culture. Well-preserved examples of objects from daily life—birthday invitations, military equipment, and religious artifacts—paint a vivid picture of life at the edge of the Roman imperium.
A diverse population included native Britons, as well as people from the Italian peninsula, Northern Europe, Spain, North Africa, and the Middle East. Relocated to the cool climes of northern England in service to the legions, these differing groups navigated an unfamiliar cultural landscape while simultaneously reshaping the territory around the wall through the processes of Romanization.
Christopher Gregg, a professor of art history at George Mason University, explores the history of Hadrian’s Wall and its associated ruins in an illustrated lecture that includes anecdotes from his 2019 walk along the wall’s full length.
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