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Landscape Revealed Hadrian's Wall Over the past 150 years Hadrian's Wall One of the best selling books of 2000 has already been featured in CA: A Landscape Revealed, 10,000 years on a Chalkland Farm, (Tempus £14.99) Martin Green's account of his excavations at his home at Down Farm. His most recent work was has changed, from being something known only to a few scholars, to a monument of widespread cultural interest, and in Hadrian's Wall, a Social and Cultural History, (Centre for NW. Regional Studies, Leicester University, LA1 4YF, £8.50) Alison Ewin explores these changes. In the late 19th century Hadrian's Wall was dominated by two towering figures. John summarised in the last issue of CA, his earlier work formed a major article in was a wealthy Clayton, and successful Newcastle CA138. Here he pulls it all together in solicitor who bought up much of the central a sweeping account of the archaeology on his farm and on Cranborne portion of the wall to Chase. Inevitably the major emphasis is on the Neolithic and Bronze Age. The Dorset cursus runs through the farm and it was at the heart of the preserve it and whose estate forms the heart of the public holdings today. In contrast to the introvert great ritual area of Cranborne Chase, but his account goes from the Mesolithic down to the present day. What is remarkable is that Martin Green is indeed a farmer. He never went to University, he has never formally studied archaeology. However, when Richard Bradley and John Barrett began excavating on Cranborne Chase they joined up with Martin and trained him on the job, since when he has received wide- spread help and support from fellow archaeologists, notably Mike Alien of the Wessex Archaeological Unit. It is amazing however in the last years how he has grown in confidence and indeed in authority. This book is a triumph. One is Clayton, Collingwood Newcastle John Bruce, a headmaster was an extrovert who conducted the first pilgrimages of the Wall and set in train the tourist interest. The intervention of the State came in the 1930s. John Clayton never married and after his death his estate was dissipated and much of it was even- tually rescued and passed into state and National Trust ownership. But this ownership was exploited not for the benefit of the massesbut for the benefit of the few, the university scholars who carried out scholarly excavations and wrote scholarly guidebooks. What is the situation today? The tempted to say that it is academic; it is author explores five particular sites. in no way 'popular', but it lacks the academic jargon and academic Three of them, Chesters, Corbridge and Housesteads, are in state ownership and have a subdued presentation. South Shields, municipally owned, hasa far more outgoing profile, rebuilding a gateway in the teeth of English Heritage opposition. A big surprise however comes at Vindolanda, a privately owned site which is nevertheless by far the best presented to the public. Alison Ewin is, I fear, far too kind to the current plans for the Wall as a World Heritage Site. She writes, 'a co- ordinated approach to the management of the Wall is obviously desirable'; she has clearly not read my comments in CA144, and the subsequent letters, pointing out that the World Heritage Plan means squeezing out the local archaeological societies who have done so much, and indeed the Birleys. Nor has she read my book Who Owns the Past, even though her final chapter, 'Whose Wall is it Anyway?' covers much the same ground. Though she appears to come to the conclusion that amateurs and tourists have an interest as well as the professionals, I think she underplays the possibilities of amateur involvement. She should look again at the funding of South Shields and the role played by Earthwatch, the American organisation that brings over volunteers, each of whom contributes substantial funding, which has paid for much of the excavation there. But this is a fascinating account with many new insights.1I pretentiousness. It is what every academic book should be. It provides a splendid introduction to the archae- ology of Cranborne Chase and indeed anyone looking for an introductory textbook on the archaeology of southern England might well start here. This book is available from Current Archaeology at the special price of £ 72.99 (inc P&P). Call us on 020 7435 7577 to order your copy. Officers and Gentlemen implicitly, British archaeologists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries made comparisons between the experiences of the British Empire and the Roman Roman Officers and English Empire. His approach, defined in his Gentlemen by Richard Hingley initial chapters on imperialism, is to take (Routledge, £16.99) would have been a texts, notably novels and schoolboy pioneering work had it been published thirty years ago. He sets out to explore novels, and see how they promoted the idea of imperialism and the relationship the imperial origins of Roman archae- between imperial Rome and Britain. ology, and to see how, explicitly or 70 , ---"-'-"-'-"---~'--"--'-'(M{rent=; ', mL0i~lliJ[}J~@~@@17V0
page 27
books He has two tu de to the Romans. Thus those with medieval world. The stone stayed in following themes: the imperialist guilt complexes feel uncom- fortable at the idea of imperialists and first is colonisers being so successful. A study Westminster Abbey, apparently used in almost every coronation, including the 'installation' of Oliver Cromwell, until Englishness. Whereas in the 19th century it was generally assumed that the w ere English descended from the Anglo-Saxons, yet in the early 20th century, as admiration grew for the achievements of Rome, so writers began to suggest that there was at least some inheritance from Roman Britain to the modern day. The second main them is that of Romanisation and concentrates on the figure of Francis Haverfield, the Camden Professor of Roman History at Oxford in the early part of the century. Haverfield wrote a pioneering book, The Romanisation of Britain, and he shows how this was taken up, first by Collingwood, then by Leo Rivet,then by Shepherd Frere and down to Martin Millet who wrote a very different book on the same title. I find this part rather unsatisfactory. Part of the trouble is that he seems to imply that any comparison between the BritishandtheRomanEmpiresisinvalid and that any interpretation that sees the Romans bringing civilisation and their departure bringing a return to barbarism is somehow wrong. Yet he never openly argues the reverse. Does he really believe that Roman Britain was a decline from its Iron Age predecessor and that in the fifth century Britain suddenly became civilised again? He never says this openly but simply snipes at the reverse and thus the whole chapter has a somewhat 'snide' feel to it. The early 20th century writers no doubt went too far in their imperialism, but he goes far too far in the opposite direction. What he should really do now is to write a history of Britishattitudes to the Romans over the second half of the 20th century, to see how our post-imperial guilt has in its turn permeated our atti- of the spread of this myth would be far more interesting -and relevant. The Stone of Scone Scotland's Stone of Destiny by Nick Aitchison (Tempus £19.99) is an account of the Stone of Scone, a slab of sand- stone removed by Edward Ifrom Scone near Perth in 1296, and brought back to Westminster Abbey where it formed part of the Coronation Throne on which English kings have been crowned for the past 700 1951 when it was stolen by a group of Glasgow students who successfully took it to Scotland, and eventually five months later, having fooled the authori- ties, deposited it in Arbroath Abbey, after which it was taken back to Westminster Abbey where it remained until its removal in 1996. Nick Aitchison has produced an excellent account, bringing together history, mythology and archaeology, and it is a book that even Englishmen may enjoy. years. However in 1996 a weak Prime Minister sent it to Edinburgh, a city with which it has no connection, where it is now called the Stone of Destiny. Despite legends that the stone had a mythical origin in Egypt, or possibly Ireland, it is in fact a block of old red sandstone of a type that outcrops extensively around Scone. Scone, near Perth was an ancient Pictish royal centre, indeed it was here that the Scots treacherously defeated the Picts. However by the time it emerges into history it is a monastery - a stone church was built in 1114. Today it is a private residence - the home of the Earlsof Mansfield The stone itself has been dressed, and at either end there is an iron ring by which it can be lifted. The author suggests, surely with some plausibility, that it could have been the lid of a crypt which was removed on suitable occa- sions. The upper side is smooth as if it had been walked over, or perhaps prayed over. Edward I removed it to London where it was built into a Coronation Chair which even in its Rievaulx Abbey Rievaulx Abbey was the first, and would be the most glamorous, of the Cistercian abbeys was it not overshad- owed by its neighbour at Fountains. After it was taken into guardianship in 1917,itwas stripped by the MinistryofWorks,buttheresultsof their excavations were never properly published. It has now been magnifi- cently published as Rievaulx Abbey by Peter Ferguson, an American Professor of Art and Stuart Harrison, a Yorkshire archaeologist. with contributions from Glyn Coppack (Yale University Press, £60, for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in BritishArt). This is a successful marriage of high scholarship with a readable approach. There is one section of colour illustra- tions and numerous black and white. In particular there is a fascinating account of what happened after the Suppression and later how in the twentieth century it was wrested by the Ministry of Works from a reluctant owner, and what has happened to the abbey since it has curr~nt vandalis~dform r~mainson~ of the finest Coronation Chairs from the been in state ownership. ffiW~~~ 71

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Landscape Revealed

Hadrian's Wall

Over the past 150 years Hadrian's Wall

One of the best selling books of 2000 has already been featured in CA: A Landscape

Revealed,

10,000

years on a Chalkland Farm, (Tempus

£14.99) Martin Green's account of his excavations at his home at Down Farm. His most recent work was has changed, from being something known only to a few scholars, to a monument of widespread cultural interest, and in Hadrian's Wall, a Social and Cultural History, (Centre for NW.

Regional Studies, Leicester University,

LA1 4YF, £8.50) Alison Ewin explores these changes. In the late 19th century

Hadrian's Wall was dominated by two towering figures. John summarised in the last issue of CA, his earlier work formed a major article in was a wealthy

Clayton, and successful Newcastle

CA138. Here he pulls it all together in solicitor who bought up much of the central a sweeping account of the archaeology on his farm and on Cranborne portion of the wall to

Chase. Inevitably the major emphasis is on the Neolithic and Bronze Age. The Dorset cursus runs through the farm and it was at the heart of the preserve it and whose estate forms the heart of the public holdings today. In contrast to the introvert great ritual area of Cranborne Chase, but his account goes from the Mesolithic down to the present day.

What is remarkable is that Martin

Green is indeed a farmer. He never went to University, he has never formally studied archaeology.

However, when Richard Bradley and

John Barrett began excavating on Cranborne Chase they joined up with Martin and trained him on the job, since when he has received wide-

spread help and support from fellow archaeologists, notably Mike Alien of the Wessex Archaeological Unit. It is amazing however in the last years how he has grown in confidence and indeed in authority.

This book is a triumph. One is

Clayton,

Collingwood Newcastle

John

Bruce, a headmaster was an extrovert who conducted the first pilgrimages of the Wall and set in train the tourist interest.

The intervention of the State came in the 1930s. John Clayton never married and after his death his estate was dissipated and much of it was even-

tually rescued and passed into state and National Trust ownership. But this ownership was exploited not for the benefit of the massesbut for the benefit of the few, the university scholars who carried out scholarly excavations and wrote scholarly guidebooks.

What is the situation today? The tempted to say that it is academic; it is author explores five particular sites.

in no way 'popular', but it lacks the academic jargon and academic

Three of them, Chesters, Corbridge and

Housesteads, are in state ownership and have a subdued presentation.

South Shields, municipally owned, hasa far more outgoing profile, rebuilding a gateway in the teeth of English Heritage opposition. A big surprise however comes at Vindolanda, a privately owned site which is nevertheless by far the best presented to the public.

Alison Ewin is, I fear, far too kind to the current plans for the Wall as a

World Heritage Site. She writes, 'a co-

ordinated approach to the management of the Wall is obviously desirable'; she has clearly not read my comments in CA144, and the subsequent letters,

pointing out that the World Heritage Plan means squeezing out the local archaeological societies who have done so much, and indeed the

Birleys. Nor has she read my book Who Owns the

Past, even though her final chapter,

'Whose Wall is it Anyway?' covers much the same ground. Though she appears to come to the conclusion that amateurs and tourists have an interest as well as the professionals, I think she underplays the possibilities of amateur involvement. She should look again at the funding of South Shields and the role played by Earthwatch, the

American organisation that brings over volunteers, each of whom contributes substantial funding, which has paid for much of the excavation there. But this is a fascinating account with many new insights.1I

pretentiousness. It is what every academic book should be. It provides a splendid introduction to the archae-

ology of Cranborne Chase and indeed anyone looking for an introductory textbook on the archaeology of southern England might well start here.

This book is available from Current

Archaeology at the special price of £ 72.99 (inc P&P). Call us on 020 7435

7577 to order your copy.

Officers and

Gentlemen implicitly, British archaeologists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries made comparisons between the experiences of the British Empire and the Roman

Roman

Officers and

English

Empire. His approach, defined in his

Gentlemen by Richard

Hingley initial chapters on imperialism, is to take

(Routledge, £16.99) would have been a texts, notably novels and schoolboy pioneering work had it been published thirty years ago. He sets out to explore novels, and see how they promoted the idea of imperialism and the relationship the imperial origins of Roman archae- between imperial Rome and Britain.

ology, and to see how, explicitly or

70

,

---"-'-"-'-"---~'--"--'-'(M{rent=;

',

mL0i~lliJ[}J~@~@@17V0

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