Understanding Hadrian's Wall ~ Part 2 ~ Building a Myth by Geoff Carter Structural Archaeologist

This the second part of the video version of the Understanding Hadrian's Wall talk I was giving last year to tourists.
Building a Myth discusses three aspects of the archaeology that have have gone badly wrong, although some of the errors are Victorian or older which have been studiously preserved by the literary approach to the subject adopted by academics. When approached from the perspective of the archaeological evidence, a very different picture emerges.

[geoffhunter]

The other tentative site for Mons Graupius is Dunning is 14 miles south of Bertha where the Almond joins the River Tay at the watershed of Strathallan where waters run south to the Forth and east via the River Earn to the lower Tay there is a rounded eminence on the Ochil Hills named Duncrub and meets all the criteria including a roman camp.The theory being that the Caledonians were hurting badly by the destruction of their crops and agriculture they bypassed the Roman Army headed South to lure them back over the Tay and engage them in battle.A very informative series, well done and keep up the very high standard.

[redf]

Your arguments are very convincing and reasoned. I do wonder about some of this though. How does the model of the vallum as an unfinished road compare with the preparation of the Stanegate road and does the utility of either clash with the need for existence of the other. As a road foundation was there any value in digging deeper than bedrock? My own thoughts about the military zone being encompassed by a vallum boundary are that it would be needed. I can see a definite requirement for a safe space for livestock and horses where they would not easily be sneaked away in the night. I think we would have found some attempt at completion of the road at one end. Also, the reason for Hadrian's Wall to me lies in considering what it achieves that the line of Stanegate forts could not. They don't seem to have suffered major defeat and were renewed over phases. I think that they were controlling but not stopping movement, not halting an attacking force, hence the wall milestone gateways. Your part 1 referred to a buffer zone north of the wall that makes sense, but it might be a mistake to consider that a buffer state could be created north of the wall in isolation of the rest of the local tribe south of it. I would suggest there was a treaty that allowed passage at that time perhaps as a result of the initial timber wall creating unrest. Elizabeth 1 considered building a wall too because an open border was causing problems in tax and excise operations. It was impossible to have a working tax regime and enforced civil law adjacent to an open border where those things did not exist on the other side. I think this is an economic question that existed for the romans and made the wall imperative. Its exactly the sort of issue that would have waited for an imperial visit to notice and get resolved. btw If I remember right Jim Crow determined that there was no ditch in front of Sewingshields crags, I'm not sure what you think happened to the space between wall and ditch at this point but I think Jim Crow was wrong because at a certain time of year you can see the line of a ditch in the flowering vegetation.

[BillSikes.]

Shame about the sound quality, the end of every single sentence just seemed to fade into silence