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Once Brewed (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Nineteen hundred year after it was built to repel barbarian hordes of barbarians, archaeologists at Hadrian’s Wall, northern England, are facing a new enemy: climate change. This threatens their vast treasure troves of Roman artifacts.
Many thousands of soldiers and their families lived in the vicinity of the stone wall. It runs 73 miles (118 km) from west coast to coast of England and marks the end of the Roman Empire. It is Britain’s largest Roman archaeological site.
The wall was built during the reign of Hadrian in 122 AD. It marked the border between Roman Britannia (unconquered Caledonia) and helped to keep barbarian raiders from entering the empire.
Roman soldiers who lived there left behind more than just wooden structures. Archaeologists can reconstruct their lives in the windswept north of empire using the fascinating detritus of daily life.
They include the fort at Vindolanda (33 miles west of Newcastle upon Tyne), a Roman settlement at Pons Aelius’ original eastern end.
Andrew Birley, chief executive of Vindolanda Trust and director of excavations, stated to AFP that many of Hadrian’s Wall’s landscapes are preserved under peat bog or marsh.
He said, “But as global warming occurs, climate change also takes place.”
Ground heats up quicker than air temperature, caking previously moist soil and letting in oxygen through the resulting cracks.
Birley said, “When that oxygen gets into there, things which are really delicate, made of leather, textile or items of wood, crack and decay and are lost for ever.”
Under threat
The dramatic landscape surrounding the wall has seen stone and wood structures, leather shoes, clothing, weapons, and even handwritten wooden tables, giving insight into Roman life in Britain.
Vindolanda’s site has only been excavated around 25% of the time. The fort is one 14th along Hadrian’s Wall. This site has been designated UNESCO World Heritage since 1987 and is one Britain’s most well-known tourist attractions.
“All of that, all this masonry and all of the ground behind was under the ground. Birley said that it was under a farmer’s field 50 years back.
“Less then one percent of Hadrian’s Wall was explored archaeologically. A lot is protected in this peatland environment. That’s a landscape that’s really in danger.”
There are dozens of Roman shoes for all ages, genders and social classes displayed behind him. This is just a small selection of the more than 5,500 leather items that have been found at the site.
Many artifacts have retained a remarkable level of detail due to their black, peaty soil.
He said that they were “fantastic because they’ve completely transformed our perception of Roman Empire the Roman Army, they’ve changed from it being a male preserve and they’ve made it a lot more family-friendly.”
“And without these artifacts surviving we wouldn’t be able to have that information and that’s what’s under threat due to climate change.”
Race is on
To mark 1,900 years since the construction of the wall began, events are being held throughout the year.
Birley said that the anniversary is a time to reflect on the best ways to ensure that the wall and its artifacts are still around in 1,900 years.
He said that the Roman army had embarked on one the largest construction projects in the empire’s history.
“In this wonderful rural landscape all about me, they transformed them, creating Hadrian’s Wall, a barrier right through the heartland of the country.”
Instead of defending Roman Britain’s north from unconquered Caledonian Caledonia, the race is now between archaeologists to find climate change and archaeologists.
“Can we find out what is happening to these sites?” Can we intervene to protect these sites? And can we rescue material before its gone forever?
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© 2022 AFP
