However, for a variety of reasons and interests, mostly academic, the existence of the Vallum as a textural construct is not wholly dependent on evidence, being more akin to the product of a literary tradition.īy far the most significant development in Wall Scholarship is the idea of Dislocations, periods of disruption, probably caused by continuing warfare along the Northern frontier, which resulted in significant changes in the speed, specification and quality of the work. In terms of the assessment above, the conventional explanation, that the Vallum was constructed as a boundary, is evidently erroneous if this was an exam, it would have failed, as it cannot account for evidence, and is clearly the wrong answer, irrespective of whether a better answer was available.
Dislocations are key idea in the understanding the confusing structural sequence and changes of plan apparent in the archaeology of Hadrian’s Wall they also explain why a road project requiring as much material as the Wall itself should be abandoned.Įven if we argue that there is no reason that a boundary should not have gentle corners, moderate gradients, vertical sides and a flat bottom, allocating an extra couple of marks, this explanation still only offers 43%. If we accept that the marginal mounds result from the removal of crossings, then this was not an engineering decision, although as far as possible it does preserve the integrity of the lanes, it can be only seen in the context of a “Dislocation”, a gap in the construction program presumably caused by warfare. Similarly, the reversed profile at White Moss is only intelligible if the intention was to build a corded road between the two banks there was probably no need for additional lanes, as all traffic would have had to use the road. The section at limestone corner shows the desired profile cut into the hard bedrock at the crest of the hill, while a few yards away the Roman Army left the Wall Ditch unfinished this is engineering, if it is not done this way, the combination of the crest of the hill and the transition in the underlying ground could have been problematic.
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