The Roman Frontiers _ R.A. Balarezo

Frontiers of the Roman Empire

"During a happy period of more than fourscore years, the public administ ation was conducted by the vir e and abil-ities of Ner a, Trajan, Hadrian, and the t o Antonines. It is the desig of this and of the t o succeeding chapters to de-scribe the prosperous condition of their empire, and aster-wards, om the death of Marcus Antoninus, to deduce the most impor ant circumstances of its decline and fall, a rev-olution which will ever be remembered and is still felt by the nations of the ear h."

Imperator Caesar Traianus Hadrianus Augustus was born on January 24, 76, and he is at the center of what has come to be known as the "five good emperors". Excelling as an army man, his policy was focused on the enrichment of the legions and its soldiers, and the process of consolida-tion of the Empire.

Hadrian’s Wall Description

Hadrian’s Wall Conservation

World Heritage Inscription

Management Plan

Territorial expansion and provincial division of the Roman Empire under Trajan (AD 117)

Frontiers of the Roman Empire

Administrative Capital

Legend

Extent of the Roman Empire modified by R.Balarezo. Source: Purdue University

H R Miller illustration of the Roman gate at Hunnum (Halton Chesters) for Rudyard Kipling’s novel Puck of Pook’s Hill (1906). Source: Durham Center for Roman Studies

The construction of Hadrian’s wall on AD 120-130 at the Northern border would "extended between Wallsend (Tyne and Wear) in the east to Bow-ness-on-Solway (Cumbria) in the west." The wall measured 118 kms (73.32 miles), from 10 to 8 feet wide, and 16 to 20 feet high. It re-quired not only garrisons, mile cas-tles every roman mile, turrets every 1/3 roman mile, a vallum to the south, and a 5 feet ditch to the north. But also dams, baths, air heated floors, water collecting roofs, water tanks, temples, and other daily needs such as hearths and game boards.




Management Plan




Management Plan

In fact, towns developed alongside the wall to accomodate for the lives of soldiers and their families who in-habited it for more than 400 years. Through excavation sites evidence has been found that continues to bear witness to the massive engi-neering works as well as the daily lives displayed by the romans living in the frontier of the vast empire.

Section Through Wall. Source: Roman-Britain.orgSection Through Vallum. Source: Roman-Britain.org

Rainfall Roof harvesting would have supplied 10 litters/capita/day wchic would provide storage capacity of 300 cubi meters whereas 200 cubic meters would be adequate in the most extreme drought conditions. Source: Water Supplu at Housesteads Roman Fort, Hadrian's Wall: the case for Rainfall Harvesting by Peter Beaumont

“The Romans Cause a Wall to be Built for the Protection of the South” by Willian Bell Scott Source: Public domain. Wallington House




Management Plan

By the 18th century a lot of the wall has already disappeared mostly due to rebuilding on adjacent modern sites and governmental infrastruc-ture works such as the Military Road. Most of what is left today, including section in Vindoland and House-teads, were conserved thanks to the efforts of John Clayton (d. 1890) lawyer, town clerk, landowner and antiquarian. He purchased farmland where the wall stood, and success-fully communicated with the farmers and managed the farms to produce revenue for conservation purposes.

Hadrian's wall includes a buffer zone, and myriad institutions dedi-cated to its conservation




Management Plan

The 11,000 plus items from his residence collection are admin-istered now by British Heritage on behalf of the Clayton Trust, and about 1,000 of them are on Display at the Chesters Museum

Hadrian’s Wall on Hosesteads Crags. Source: Richard Hingley




Management Plan

In addition, a national trail and a bike path has been created along the wall, as well as the AD122 bus service which stops at various sites between Hexham Bus Station and Walltown Roman Army Museum. The Newcastle/Carlisle train is proposed to be branded as the Hadrian’s Wall Country Line




Management Plan

Hadrian's wall was first inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1987. In 2005, it was included under the Frontiers of the Roman Empire inscription of UNESCO along with the Antonine Wall in Scotland and the German Limes. The Frontiers of the Roman Empire as a whole fulfill the criteria of having outstanding universsal value as follows:

Criterion ii: The limes as a whole re-flects the development of Roman military architecture and the impact of the frontier on the growth of transport routes, urban-ization.




Management Plan

Criterion iii: The Roman frontier is the largest monument of the Roman Empire, one of the world’s greatest pre-industrial empires. The physical remains of limes, forts, watchtowers, settlements and the hinterland dependent upon the frontier, re-flect the complexities of Roman culture but also its unifying factors across Europe and the Mediterranean world. Unlike the Roman monuments already inscribed, the limes construc tions are evidence from the edges of the Empires and reflect the adop-tion of Roman culture by its subject peo-ples. The frontier was not an impregnable barrier: rather it controlled and allowed the movement of peoples within the mili-tary units, amongst civilians and mer-chants, thus allowing Roman culture to be ransmitted around the region and for it to absorb influences from outside its borders.

Birdoswald Romand Fort Museum. Source: English Heritage




Management Plan

Criterion iv: The limes reflect the power and might of the Roman Empire and the spread of classical culture and Romaniza-tion which shaped much of the subsequent development of Europe." (Frontiers of the Roman Empire 6)

Wallsend: The Hadrianic fort. Scale 1:1250. (Drawing: Tyne and Wear Museums)

Scene overlooking the Segedunum Fort (Wallsend) from the new Vieing tower. Source: Roman-Brit-ain.org

"The work we do is not about sost are. We want to create ex eriences that are magical, and create wonder and sur rise – and give people good dreams."

- Zach Lieber an (Higgins 11)




Management Plan

A management plan has been in effect for Hadrian's wall since 1996. The present plan will run its course until the end of 2014. A new plan is being drafted with consultation from stakeholders and the general public for the 2015-2019 period. Out of the 15 issues involved in the plan six have awakened my attention:

Issue 1: Management of the heritage site has evidenced a strong need for a centralized unit to facilitate implementation of the plan. Implement-ing a centralized unit would facilitate coordination and communication not only amongst the numer-ous national stake holders, but also amongst in-ternational ones




Management Plan

Issue 2: The world heritage site and buffer zone needs to be clarified by explaining how the statement of universal values relates to the ar-cheology, and by orderly incorporating new sites to the World Heritage site. This is important due to the rich archeological evidence found on it.

Issue 9: Research on the site has been fo-cused on archeology, but other subjects such as the natural environment, geology, the local econ-omy, and the ways of life can be learned from the site through a more holistic research.

Issue 11: Developing the visitor's experience and understanding of the buffer zones can be done best on an academic context such as one developed for life long learners. Also, a larger emphasis needs to be made to promote the World Heritage Site as a whole. Many month long hikes such as the Appalachian Trail (2,178 miles) and the Pacific Crest Trail (2,650 miles) are highly valued destinations.






Management Plan

Issue 14: Marketing efforts cannot be done on isolated sites such as: Roman Vindolanda, Three Solway Churches, or Nortumberland, but they have to be done collaboratively. This effort must also be done across national borders to fur-ther increase the understanding of the roman cul-ture as well as to increase the potentiality for the frontiers maintenance and protection.

Issue 15: Education pertaining to the roman limes must be contextual. Roman soldiers mo-tioned not only swords and stonework into the lands they visited. The many towns formed along the wall witness to this. Across generations, an understanding needs to be brought about that relates the presence of the wall not as a coloniza-tion effort, but as an integrated heirloom of na-tional and international worth.



During the London Festival in 2012, 400 color weather balloons lit up along the whole 73 miles of wall. The high tech digital design art collective YesYesNo executed an installation called "Con-necting lights".




Management Plan

Artist Sketch. Source: Connecting Lights

Onsolved questions:

If the romans were the greatest empire on the face of the earth, why did they need a border?

What message did it bring?

What does it mean for the greatest empire to say from this line we will go no further, and to build a

wall not merely for defense, but to demonstrate the point?

This illustration for the need or presence of borders is quite educational for today's humanity where their intrinsic meaning is questioned. Nowadays, the realization of a frontier or a border both intrinsic and external has become not only more blurry, but more needed. It's in the wondering of lands such as the Roman Frontiers, that such questions can be surfaced to the mind to further increase the experience of ever extending frontiers.




Management Plan

The Roman Frontiers _ R.A. Balarezo

Documents

Transcript of The Roman Frontiers _ R.A. Balarezo