How The Roman Army Bridged The North Tyne At Chesters

How to build a mortared structure in a stony river bed 
1. Dig a diversion Channel

2 Dam the river at both ends & Divert the river
3 Constructed mortared stone peers in river bed
4 Construct bridge
5 Remove Dams
6 Block diversion channel

Notes

• 1 The initial Bridge was intended to carry the Wall only.
• 2 In theory, second [undetected] Bridge would have carried the Road south of the Wall. this road is evidenced by its construction trench aka The Vallum.
• 3 [This itself was have replaced another lost bridge for the Staingate road, although piled timber would be adequate for road bridges].  
• 4 This first phase of road, like most of the early “Broad Wall”  was never completed
• 5 Subsequently, a second wider bridge was constructed to carry the Wall & a roadway now represented by the Military Way towards the end of the century.
  

The Diversion Channel encloses an area almost a large as the fort at Chesters on the opposite bank, one of the original forts presumably designed by Hadrian, who would have almost certainly got involved with bridge design.

Standard Disclaimer; Not Available at University

Academics just don’t think about these problems, and are content with reproducing of the ideas previous generations. Thus, as an evidence based form of archaeology using science and engineering  proved incompatible with the faith based archaeology currently practiced at many Russell Brand Universities like Newcastle, the last bastions of Science denial.

Understanding Hadrian's Wall ~ Part III ~ The Hidden Disaster Video . . .

Please excuse the delay, Part III has been on adventure, it disappeared off on a weeks unscheduled leave to digital Neverland.
The Theoretical Structural Archaeology data centre asynchronous binary server farm suffered a failure - a real black screen job.  There are some things in life you can't fix with a trowel or a hammer. However, as a result of my misspent midlife in the real world, my little dark grey Chinese friend now has a new hard disc, and is now operating in new two digit windows environment, which is shedding new light on an old, and as it turns out,  somewhat incompatible system.
To cut a long and stressful week short, all was recovered and rehoused to a new Seagate home with a new windows to look out of by 5.20 am on the Sunday of the following week.
I can only apologise for the quality, particularly the sound, hopefully, this and other technical issues have been addressed.

In the future, I may re-edit these first three this as a single more succinct video, as well as producing a more technical [ / more boring] video about the archaeology of the Wall.

Hopefully, we can get on with some videos about prehistoric buildings, and how this conflicts with the views of the imaginary people interacting the imaginary landscapes in the imagination of academics.  Walk through 3d graphics don't work well in PPS.
I would like to thank my family, and friends, particularly Andy and Raph for their support, even Guy Opperman, for at least being prepared to listen, although Heritage & Higher Education hardly registers MP's corruption radar.
Special Thanks to The Beacon Club, Hexham.

Burnt Bridges
 I do now have a Macmillan nurse and a couple operations coming up soon, so it was important for me to stake a claim to these ideas because Jane Webster and Neill Marshall have ensured they cannot be accepted while I am alive. Thanks to Prof Andrew for explaining the facts of death to my Mother, she now understands this is the only way forward for my work.
I wanted to go into full on iconoclastic mode, but I have railed about duplicitous mendacious academics completely unconscious of their own conceits, and the decent of another institution into the post-truth zeitgeist, many times before.  After all, power, without the freedom to abuse it, is just a responsibility, which is why allowing universities a monopoly and their staff a job for life has been a disaster for archaeology.
I hope this video demonstrates, that while narratives may appear credible to the school leavers, the most credulous of whom will go on teach them, a lot of what you are sold by universities can be debunked in short order by a return to a traditional evidence based approach to archaeology.

Caveat Emptor

Select Bibliography

Arthur E Gordon. 1983, Illustrated Introduction to Latin Epigraphy

Austin L,Egan, S, Clarke, S, & Kirby G & Millward D. The geology and geodynamics of the Northumberland Trough Region: Insights from mathematical modelling, Earth Sciences and Geography, School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, Keele University.

Aviam, M., 2007, The Archaeological illumination of Josephus; in Making History: Josephus And Historical Method, edited by Zuleika Rodgers, pp. 354 -355, 361-2, 381.

Aviam, Mordechai. 2007, The archaeological illumination of Josephus’ narrative of the battles at Yodefat and Gamla.

Bennett, Julian. 2000, (Roman Imperial Biographies) Trajan: Optimus Princeps

Bidwell, P T, 2005 'The system of obstacles on Hadrian's Wall; their extent, date and purpose', Arbeia J, 8, 53-76.

Bidwell, Paul T.; Watson, Moira. 1989 'A Trial Excavation on Hadrian's Wall at Buddle Street, Wallsend'. Archaeologia Aeliana, 5th ser., 17 (1989), 21-28.

Birley, Anthony R, 2005, The Roman Government of Britain

Birley, Anthony, R. 2013; [Roman Imperial Biographies] Hadrian: The Restless Emperor

Birley, R. 2009 Vindolanda: A Roman Frontier Fort on Hadrian’s Wall. Amberley

Bramwell, M., [ed]. 1982. The international book of wood. London.

Breeze, D.J. 2003. "Warfare in Britain and the Building of Hadrian's Wall." Archaeologia Aeliana 32, 13 –16.

Breeze, David J.1982, Northern Frontiers of Roman Britain, Harper Collins

Brown, D. J., 2005, Bridges: three thousand years of defying nature. NB. The Sant'Angelo bridge, built for Hadrian in AD

Burley R 2009, Vindolanda A Roman fort on Hadrians Wall. Amberley ISBN978-1-84868-210-8

Caius Julius Caesar "De Bello Gallico" and Other Commentaries English translation by W. A. MacDevitt, introduction by Thomas De Quincey (1915) ]Lewis, Charlton, T. An Elementary Latin Dictionary. New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago. American Book Company. 1890.

Caius Julius Caesar, Commentaries on the Civil War William Duncan, Ed.

Cambell, Brian. 2008, Roman Britain (Routledge Sourcebooks for the Ancient World)

Codrington, T. 1903 Roman Roads in Britain: the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London.

Collingwood Bruce, J.1966. Handbook to The Roman Wall. J. . Published by Hindson & Andrew Reid Ltd, Newcastle upon Tyne

Conybeare, Edward, 1903 Early Britain--Roman Britain

Dumayne L. and Barber K.E. 1994, The impact of the Romans on the environment of northern England: pollen data from three sites close to Hadrian's Wall, The Holocene, June 1994 vol. 4 no. 2 165-173

Dunning,. G. C. 1945, Two Fires in Roman London', Ant. J. 25 (1945) 48-77.

Frain T. ,McKelvey J. ,& Bidwell P. 2005 Excavations and watching brief along the berm of Hadrian’s Wall at Throckley, Newcastle upon Tyne, in 2001-2002. Arbeia J, 8 53-76.

Frere, S. 1974. Britannia. Cardinal Books. P 156–7

Gibson, J.P. & Simpson, F.G. 1911. "The Milecastle on the Wall of Hadrian at the Poltross Burn"; Trans. CWAAS XI (New Series) Art XXIII pp390–461

Graafstal, Erik P.: 2012, Hadrian's haste: a priority programme for the Wall. Archaeologia Aeliana, 5th Series, vol 41, 123–84

Hanson, C.,O. 1934. Forestry for Woodmen. Oxord press.

Haverfield, F. 1897. "Report of the Cumberland Excavation Committee, 1896," TransCumberland Westmorland Antiq Archaeol Soc, o ser, 14, 413-433

Heywood, B. 1965. "The Vallum- its problems restated," in M G Jarrett and B Dobson (eds). Britain and Rome: essays presented to Eric Birley. (Kendal), 85-94

Hill, P. R. 2006. The construction of Hadrian's Wall. Tempus

Hodgson, E. 1897. "Notes on the Excavations on the line of the Roman Wall in Cumberland in 1894 and 1895," Trans Cumberland Westmorland Antiq Archaeol Soc, o ser, 14, 390-407.

Ireland, Stanley. 2008, Roman Britain (Routledge Sourcebooks for the Ancient World)

Jenkins, J G. 1978. Traditional country craftsmen. Routledge & Kegan Paul

Kay N.W. [ed]. 1946. The Practical carpenter and Joiner Illustrated. Odhams Press

Keppie, Lawrence. 1991 Understanding Roman Inscriptions -

Leutscher, A. 1969. Field natural history: A guide to ecology. Bell, London.

Mattingly, D. 2006. An Imperial Possession; Britain in the Roman Empire 54BC--AD409. Penguin: Allen Lane.

More, D., & Fitter, A. 1980. Trees. Collins Gem Guide

Perring, Dominic. Roman London B (P72).

Platell, A. C.: Excavations on Hadrian's Wall at Melbourne Street, Newcastle upon Tyne. 5th Series, vol 41, 185–206

Powell, Lindsay. 2017 The Bar Kokhba War AD 132–135: The Last Jewish Revolt Against Imperial Rome.

Press, B. 1992. The field guide to the trees of Britain and Europe. New Holland, London.

Publius Papinius Statius, c. AD 95. Extract from Via Domitiana Silvae 4.3

Rayner,Dorothy H.1980 Stratigraphy of the British Isles, Cambridge University Press

Rodgers, Zuleika (ed). 2006 Making History: Josephus and Historical Method (Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism)

Roskams, Steve & Watson, Lez 1981 `The Hadrianic fire of London - a reassessment of the evidence' London Archaeol 4, 1981 62-6

Sigurðardóttir , S. 2008, Building with Turf; English version by Nancy Marie Brown ISBN 978-9979-9757-4-8

Simpson F. G. and I. A. Richmond I.A., 1935, The Turf Wall of Hadrian, 1895-1935, The Journal of Roman Studies Vol. 25, (1935), pp. 1-18

Welfare, H. 2004. ‘Variation in the form of the ditch, and of its equivalents, on Hadrian’s Wall’. Archaeologia Aeliana, ser 5, 33, 9-24

Wilmott, T., [ed]. 2009. Hadrian's Wall: Archaeological Research by English Heritage ; (p. 114 the pollen James Wells p. 116 The plant macrofossils, Allan Hall, )

Wood, Eric S., 1973, Collins Field Guide To Archaeology In Britain, Book Club Associates, (first published 1967) After fig. 7, p132

Woolliscroft, D.J., Excavations at Garnhall on the line of the Antonine Wall., Proc Soc Antiq Scot 138 (2008), 129–176

On Line

Wilmott,T., TheTurfWall https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/archaeological.services/research_training/hadrianswall_research_framework/project_documents/TurfWall.pdf

http://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/archaeological.services/research_training/hadrianswall_research_framework/project_documents/Carrawburghrev.pdf

http://www.roman-britain.org/places/brocolitia.htm

http://www.arbeiasociety.org.uk/journal.htm

Hadrian’s Wall Archaeological Research by English Heritage 1976–2000edited by Tony Wilmott http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-1416-1/dissemination/pdf/9781848021587_all.pdf

Texts

Caius Julius Caesar De Bello Gallico VII.73 [De Bello Gallico and Other Commentaries English translation by W. A. MacDevitt, introduction by Thomas De Quincey (1915) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10657]

C. Julius Caesar, Gallic War

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0001

The Military Institutions of the Romans (De Re Militari) by Flavius Vegetius Renatus, Translated from the Latin by Lieutenant John Clarke, translation published in 1767. Etext version by Mads Brevik (2001)

http://www.digitalattic.org/home/war/vegetius/

Polybius, Histories

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0234

Inscriptions

http://www.romanbritain.org/epigraphy/rib_hadrianswall.htm

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4d/Via_Munita.png Roman Road; Via Munita [from Smith, W. 1875. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. John Murray, London.

Illustrations

This Video uses based on images from Google Earth: http://www.google.com/earth/index.html 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Agricola.Campaigns.78.84.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Bronze_head_of_Hadrian_found_in_the_River_Thames_in_London.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Statue_of_Hadrian_from_Tel_Shalem.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian#/media/File:Roman_Empire_125.png

* * * * * * *

  Special Guest  Non-appearance

                           

Courtesy of Tyne & Wear Museums 

                          

~ Horse Toilets  ~

Hodgson N. & Bidwell P. T. Auxiliary Barracks in a New Light: Recent 

Discoveries on Hadrian's Wall.   Britannia Vol. 35 (2004), pp. 121-157

                           

Truly this is the death of reason 

& the most fantastic  thing ever 

published in a peer reviewed journal

R.I.P Britannia 

The Journal of Romano-British and Kindred Horse Sanitation Studies

De-turfing The Wall at Greenhead

A Date for the Diary
On Wednesday, 26th October, at 6.30pm. I have been very kindly invited by Greenhead Local History Group to give talk on the Wall as described below.

PRESS RELEASE

The Greenhead Local History Group Public Lecture in October returns!

The subject this year will be those two “other” structures that form part of the package we know as “Hadrian’s Wall : the Vallum and the Turf Wall.  We know they existed, we know roughly where they were, and can recognise bits of them as we pass by,  but few of ushave really understood much about them, and visitors often fail to notice them at all.  So we do tend to airbrush both of them from our mental picture of “The Wall” and the facts are rarely questioned.

Geoff Carter, on the other hand, has looked closely - and he has come up with some interesting questions for us to consider.  

Hadrian's Wall; understanding The Vallum

The Vallum is one of the largest earthworks in the world, part of Hadrian's Wall World Heritage site, and yet is seldom discussed, perhaps because while its interpretation may work on paper, it makes less sense on the ground.

It is an excellent example of how in archaeology, what we name something conditions the way we perceive it, and how our literary constructs  can develop independently of the underlying physical evidence. 

The Vallum is one of the oldest concepts in the literature of Hadrian’s Wall, originating with the Venerable Bede in the eighth century, and while this structure is not a vallum in any way shape or form, all subsequent literature would appear to have developed from this idea.

In more recent times, it was apparent that the earthwork was not defensive, but it was nonetheless usually regarded as a boundary or barrier between the Wall and something else, with even the language used to describe the earthwork being shaped to accommodate this underlying assumption.

However, to understand the Vallum you have to look at it with the perspective of a structural archaeologist, luckily, I see it every day, so I know with a reasonable degree of certainty that is a construction trench for an unfinished road, an argument I discussed in detail 5 years ago [here]; subsequently and more generally [here].

Hadrian’s bridging of the North Tyne

Previously, I have discussed the evidence for a temporary timber and earth rampart with associated infrastructure which necessarily predated and facilitated the construction of Hadrian’s Wall in stone, it follows that there was probably a temporary bridge where it crossed the North Tyne at Chollerford, [Chesters].

In addition, unlike a timber bridge built on piles, the construction of a Stone bridge also requires significant temporary works, which are evident from the air.

Hadrian's First Wall - Free download

I am making my research into the earth and timber phase of Hadrian's Wall, covered in the previous three posts, available as a convenient electronic or printable copy. 

Since this amounts to 12,500 words, with 48 of illustrations, it is perhaps too cumbersome to work well as an on-line article.  I hope this may prove useful to those readers who interested in the archaeology of this period.  Please feel free to distribute it as you think fit.

Hadrian’s First Wall

Hadrian’s First Wall [Part 2 of 3]

On Tyneside, between Hadrian’s Wall and the Ditch to the north, archaeologists have found three lines of double postholes, which it is argued, represent an early Timber Wall, which, along with the Ditch, formed part of a temporary frontier while Hadrian’s Wall was being built. Further, it is argued that the Turf Wall represents the continuation of this structure in the western sector of the Wall.  In addition, when the engineering and layout of the Vallum is examined, it appears to be an unfinished road, probably abandoned when warfare interrupted work on the Wall. These insights into the archaeology of Roman military engineering are the key to a new understanding how and why Hadrian’s Wall was built.

An updated  summery of a series of articles from this site on the timber and earth structures predating Hadrian’s stone Wall.

Presented in three parts:

1. The Timber wall

2. Reverse engineering the Vallum

3. The Construction of the First Wall

Hadrian’s First Wall [Part 1 of 3]

On Tyneside, between Hadrian’s Wall and the Ditch to the north, archaeologists have found three lines of double postholes, which it is argued, represent an early Timber Wall, which, along with the Ditch, formed part of a temporary frontier while the Roman Wall was being built. Further, it is argued that the Turf Wall represents the continuation of this structure in the western sector of the Wall.  In addition, when the engineering and layout of the Vallum is examined, it appears to be an unfinished road, probably abandoned when warfare interrupted work on the Wall. These insights into the archaeology of Roman military engineering are the key to a new understanding how and why Hadrian’s Wall was built.

An updated  summery of a series of articles from this site on the timber and earth structures predating Hadrian’s stone Wall.

Presented in three parts:

1. The Timber wall

2. Reverse engineering the Vallum

3. The Construction of the First Wall

40. Reverse engineering the Vallum

As a result of my work on Hadrian's Timber Wall, I was asked recently to take part in a documentary about the period. So, putting prehistory aside, I took another look at this important period in my local archaeology, and in particular at a conspicuous, yet enigmatic, example of Roman military engineering.

The Vallum is a unique linear earthwork to the south of Hadrian’s Wall. When it was constructed, it ran in an unbroken line, following close to the course of the Wall, from Newcastle to Bowness-on-Solway, a distance of about 112km.

It comprises a flat-bottom ditch, roughly 6m wide and up to 3m deep, flanked by parallel mounds, set back about 9m from its edge. These north and south mounds were built of spoil from the ditch and were usually revetted with turf, and occasionally stones.