“The Twentieth Century: The Age of Archaeology” by Professor David Breeze
The year of Bruce’s death in 1892 saw the first excavation of the modern era. Foremost of the excavators were Francis Haverfield, who sought to understand the earthworks comprising the Wall, and J. P. Gibson, who examined its structures. Hadrian’s Wall became the subject of discussion in German as well as British journals. The 1960s saw the advance of the first of a new series of ‘heretical’ views that reached its apogee in the mid-1970s, when those promulgated in Breeze and Dobson’s Hadrian’s Wall became the new ‘paradigm’. Over recent decades, research excavations have been overtaken not only by rescue work but also ‘tourism’ archaeology, now undertaken by commercial units rather than societies or universities.
The 2019 Rhind Lectures, entitled “Hadrian’s Wall: A Study in Archaeological Exploration and Interpretation” and presented by Professor David Breeze OBE, BA, PhD, Hon DLitt, FSA, Hon FSA Scot, FRSE, Hon CIfA. Recorded in the National Museums Scotland auditorium at 11am on 11 May 2019 by Mallard Productions Ltd. Sponsored by AOC Archaeology Group.
The Lectures
Hadrian’s Wall was written about even when it was occupied. The Romans produced souvenirs of the Wall, medieval scribes placed it on maps, antiquarian visitors recorded the remains, scholars from the Renaissance onwards argued about its date and purpose, and early archaeologists uncovered its walls. The age of modern discoveries started in the 1830s and over the succeeding 150 years a very substantial archaeological dataset has been created. The addition of new material, combined with new approaches to archaeological investigation, ensures that interpretations constantly require review.
These Rhind lectures examine the ways that data has been created, and then to move on to examine specific aspects of Hadrian’s Wall in depth, in particular its purpose and operation over time and its effect on the local population. In the final lecture, we look at the Wall today and some aspects of its future.
The Lecturer
Professor David J Breeze OBE, BA, PhD, Hon DLitt, FSA, Hon FSA Scot, FRSE, Hon CIfA was President of the Society from 1987-90. He served as Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments for Scotland from 1989 to 2005 and as Chairman of the International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies until 2015. He has excavated on both Hadrian’s Wall and the Antonine Wall and published books on both as well as on Roman frontiers generally and on the Roman army.