Skylar Arbuthnot
I am a Newcastle University PhD student and former U.S. Army Captain. My research concerns Roman defensive artillery and fortification architecture as well as extra-mural settlements on the Wall.
Location Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Newcastle University)
Activity
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Unfortunately, Ramona, without the excavation report to hand I can't offer you any details about what was found. More generally, however, I can say that one cannot normally date the act of abandonment. Instead, one must infer this from a lack of evidence of continued occupation. For example, if you have lots of coin finds from the extramural settlement at...
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Unfortunately Stephen, I don't have any particular knowledge on how to find available community digs. Perhaps some others on the platform will have experience in this area, however. The CBA has a small selection of digs listed on their site (linked below) and there are annual excavations at Vindolanda which are available to the...
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I suppose, being a tree, it will have to spend the thousand pounds all in one place. Simply amazing! Thanks for sharing Pauline.
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to Judith Ballard
Fear not Judith. If you're still interested when things are a little calmer, you will still be able to go back to any step. Today is the last day of the course but all the materials will still be available, including these comments.
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to Trevor Davies
Hi Trevor. I'm glad you enjoyed the course but am, of course, sorry to read that the mentors did not provide as much input as you would have liked. We try our best but only have a few hours in a given sitting to read lots and lots of comments and try to help out where we can. It can take a surprisingly long time to answer even a simple question. Often, if...
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to John Bennett
Hi John. Subjective it is indeed. It is a bit uncomfortable that we rarely have a definitive answer and mostly make due with a 'best answer' and a series of other possibilities. On the other hand, if everything was worked out and set in stone there could be no joy of new discovery (and also nothing for us to write our PhDs on). Glad you enjoyed the course...
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to Derek Thomas
Hi Derek. In 410, the Emperor Honorius replied to a British request for aid with what is known as the 'Rescript of Honorius'. This reply essentially told them to see to their own defense. We mark this as the end of Rome's rule of Britain but the message seems to acknowledge the status quo rather than indicate any great change. Most of the troops, though...
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Your larger point, that there is far less excavation going at EH sites compared to independent ones, is certainly valid John, but Corbridge probably isn't a good example of this. While EH operates the excavated visitor area, the land is privately owned. In fact, the land owner has recently allowed Ian and Newcastle University to conducted geophysical survey...
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Hi Graham. It seems that the model is in error, rather than predating discovery of the 'spur' or Branch Wall. Part of the Branch Wall was excavated in 1903 and 'word of mouth' reports predated that. The model is really more schematic than strictly accurate in any case. I certainly wouldn't rely on any of its details.
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Unfortunately, I'm not sure what would survive in the archaeological record to give us that kind of information. There is the famous 'murder house' where two bodies were found under the floor in settlement outside Housesteads. This doesn't tell us anything about the relationship of the victims to their assailant(s) however. As we saw in section 5.8,...
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Hi Chris. Some of us student reenactors (and not just Frigidianus) are old enough to remember when the world's data available to one's finger tips was the outdated Encyclopedia Britannica moldering on the living room shelf. Nevertheless, I certainly agree with your point that all interpretations run though the filter of our own knowledge and experience. ...
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Hi Gillian, Diane asked this question in a reply below and I tried to give a brief answer there. Here is a link. I hope it provides some clarification.
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/hadrians-wall/4/comments/18469147
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to Liz Pardey
Hi Liz. Roman coins do not list the mint date, as ours do, but do provide information that allows us to narrow down when they were issued, to a greater or lesser degree. The coin in question one is described as dating from 348-361. I'm not an expert on this but I assume the coin is securely dated to only that period. The interpretation that it...
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Hi Jim. At Vindolanda the evidence shows exactly that. However, Vindolanda is also the only site that has seen enough excavation of both its extra and intra-mural areas to allow for that kind of correlation. Andy Birley has made as strong an archaeological argument as you could hope for that people at Vindolanda moved inside the fort. Did the same thing...
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Hi Bill. Large numbers of coins have been excavated in the extramural areas at Vindolanda and Housesteads (which are very near to each other). This data points strongly to abandonment in the early 270s. Elsewhere on the Wall the situation is much less clear. Settlements may have disappeared all at the same time, but the evidence also supports later...
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Hi Deborah and Michael. If my thesis had produced THE ANSWER we would have given it to you in the paragraphs above but let me try and give 15,000 words in 1,200 characters: My research focused on closely dating WHEN the settlements were abandoned (not why). I found that the 270s date held up for the central sector (i.e. Housesteads and Vindolanda mostly). To...
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Hi Diane. The Romans copied this practice from the Greeks 'symposium', an aristocratic, all-male dinner and entertainment party. The Romans modified it in a number of ways, including allowing women to join in the dining (rather than only serving as entertainment). This was a method of eating only practiced by the wealthy or those emulating or aspiring to be...
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The short answer to your question, Janet, is 'yes'. Local recruitment, however closely you wish to define local, would have become increasingly common over time.
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Hi Iain. For most people it probably made very little difference who was, or was no longer, the Emperor. On the other hand, the civil wars to determine the issue could probably be quite disruptive. The government would always be interested in tax revenues and therefore would have made its presence known to every part of the empire, eventually. The most...
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You're right, Neil, that Romans are known to have used fire as a means of demolition when abandoning their forts or camps. Some antiquarian explanations of forts destroyed by fire have been reinterpreted on this basis. The fort at South Shields was not abandoned after the fire, however. We must thus consider if we are looking at an attempt at some kind of...
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Coastal defence is certainly an interesting issue Krisztina. As we've already discussed, the Cumbrian coast, south-west of Hadrian's Wall, was defended by an integrated system of forts, towers and milefortlets (the same as milecastles but given a different name). Obviously the narrow Solway was not considered a sufficient barrier yet, to the east, the Wall...
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Unfortunately, this is one of those (many) questions that I have no answer for. To be honest, I know absolutely nothing about the priests of Maryport, Birdoswald, Wallsend etc. and (again, as far as I know) neither does anyone else. My earlier statement is based on a generalization that Roman community leaders were also, generally, religious leaders and vice...
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Hi Julian. You are absolutely right that our story did focus on the upper echelons of society. Written history is strongly biased in this fashion and thus the events of our banquet (an interpretation of historical events) is also biased in this way. Our story does include one regular soldier in a speaking part and also one slave (Urbanus in 5.15), however a...
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The answer is YES! It is terribly uncomfortable, or it is to those of us who are unused to it. We were all quickly exhausted from laying around. I think the Greeks and Romans, with practice, probably found it normal however. As for the food, a chef helped us prepare a number of authentic Roman dishes, all of which were outstanding.
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Our own Rob Collins wrote the script for this little production and one of the finer details he included was to assign those of us with North American accents to characters from Gaul. Fidelis Ursus, I believe, is the only exception. Perhaps his Mainer accent is meant to help convey what a northern barbarian he is, though I suspect it was the fearsome beard...
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to Neil Hardie
Here is a quick link to a plan of Housesteads. Building XV is to the right of the principia.
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to Neil Hardie
Hi Neil. You are absolutely right that we should not imagine we are actually calculating how much grain/foodstuffs was stored at a Roman fort. Instead, the calculations give us an idea of what is possible. There is obvious room for variation in the numbers involved and, as you point out, the underlying assumptions as well. I would thus argue that the...
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V. Brinkmann has been doing some very interesting work on revealing the original paints on statues using ultraviolet light and extreme raking angles. I think his, and others', reconstructions are useful talking points but I don't think that they colors they employ necessarily recreate the ancient appearance. While I accept that the statues were probably...
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to Susan Squires
Hi Susan, you're right, the identification of the statue is an interpretation, one that could be incorrect. Nearly every identification has some level of uncertainty, however, from the statue that looks like a particular emperor (or doesn't) to the lump of iron shaped like an axe head - are we 'certain' it was an axe and not a door stopper? In the case of...
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Hi Kieth. We found Roman coins in the cobbled pavement outside the circular building's entrance so we can be fairly sure that the building was in use during the Roman period. Post excavation work is ongoing, so I have no more information than that I'm afraid.
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Hi Jonathan. Mechanical diggers are a common feature of British excavations, though not without some controversy for the reasons you describe. It is absolutely vital that it be done correctly, by a skilled operator, and under the direct supervision of the site supervisors. It requires tremendous skill and experience to cut as close as possible to the...
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Hi John and Jonathan. I believe the altars were found inside the well itself. I have tried to find an 'open source' document with more detail on the excavation but have met with no success. The best I can offer is bit of a summary in the form of a book review, by David Breeze, of Lindsay Allason-Jones and Bruce McKay's 'Coventina's Well: A Shrine on...
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You're right Jim, (I take it you prefer Jim to James) the sheep in the visualization is not long for the world. The men (they are likely to be men, though we do know of priestesses) have covered their heads to signify their role as priests. In most cases these would have been the local worthies of the community, rather than members of a full-time profession.
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to Nadine L.
Hi Nadine and Katherine, your research has gotten me interested as well. It would seem that 'the original' bathing Venus by Diodalsas is known, not from an extant example, but from a reference by Pliny. Apparently the the Latin in this section is obscure, so even the attribution is unclear.
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Hi Julian, you are absolutely right. Not only Roman, but most other pre-modern religious practice fundamentally differs from our concept of a division between the sacred and secular. Its a running joke in archaeology that anything we don't understand is 'ritual' but the truth is that the inner lives of ancient people were just as complex and vibrant as our...
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to Graham Pude
Hi Graham. I think my fiancee wishes I was also unaware of all the Anglo Saxon churches in the Tyne and Wear region. (How convenient that St. Peter's just happens to be right next to the Sunderland Glass Museum, what a perfect Saturday trip!) The following website should help you find them, though how you get someone to come with you is entirely up to...
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to Julie Watt
You're right Julie, the image to the left is a laser scan.
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Thanks for the link Rhiannon. As for your question Stuart, as Rhiannon says, even if a site is scheduled it is often still used for agriculture. In the case of the Maryport temples, they are once again just a small part of a large hay-field. (Though Ian did have some trouble, with multiple seedings of an awkward bit behind the hedgerow.)
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Hi Celia, don't feel bad, I've been to Carrawburgh a number of times and never seen the exact site of Coventina's Well. It is down in the fairly inaccessible marshy area east of the fort and north of the Mithras Temple but I'm not sure there is much, or anything, to see on the ground now.
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Hi all, just a note to say that the ancients did develop blue pigment using 'synthetic' materials, Egyptian Blue being a famous example.
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to Margaret Jacobs
That's exactly right Margaret. The head from Benwell was found inside a temple which the altars, also found there, indicate was dedicated to a god named Antenociticus. We will be looking at a laser scan of one in Section 4.12 and there is a picture on the English Heritage site linked below. ...
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Your skepticism, Anthony, is just the attitude we hope to encourage. “How do ‘they’ know that?” is a question that gets to the heart of archaeological practice, as is its corollary, “do ‘they’ really know that?”. In this course we have tried to go beyond just offering a block of information about ‘the Romans’ by explaining the methods and sources of...
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to Phil Benaiges
There are few moments less exciting in archaeology than finding willow pattern ceramics at the bottom of the 'Roman' pit you spent the last two days excavating or evem a candy wrapper beneath the 'layer of cobbles' you spent the last hour drawing. Nevertheless, these are all part of understanding the 'site formation processes'. Things are rarely as neat and...
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Hi Sean. I don't doubt new methods will continue to amaze. As it stands, geophysical survey still needs to be 'ground truthed' by excavation as the results can be misleading. New and improved technologies may make this unnecessary some day. At the site of Burnswark, John Reid is pioneering a technique using metal detectors to distinguish lead sling shot...
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Hi Terry. As you say, the comments posted here are a valuable resource, but you don't need to worry about losing access to the insight of your fellow learners. The course, and everything associated with it, will remain available to everyone who has signed up. All the posts will still be here so you can check back at your leisure. In fact, you will even be...
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to Margaret H
Bamburgh Castle claims to have a small table/desk made out of it as well.
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My own research is on Roman defensive artillery, Anthony. It is probably best not to get me started. We'll be here all day. Glad you enjoyed the link.
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Hi Kristin. We will be talking a bit more about extramural settlements, particularly their disappearance (see section 5.10). Learning about these settlements has become a major research objective for archaeologists as it has been identified that we know relatively little about them. I expect that the future holds some exciting discoveries and that more...
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to John Bennett
Hi John, her age is given in the second line, "ANNOS XXXXI", so it translates to "lived 41 years". The 's' in 'vixsit' is the unusual bit.
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to Rupert Dyer
Hi Rupert. The fort platform is still a very significant mound. As such, it is both an obvious feature in the landscape and (perhaps more importantly for its preservation) a serious obstacle to construction. It was also a part of the large Senhouse estate, a notable antiquarian family whose collection forms the site museum. It is also worth noting that...
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Hi Greg and Steve. Unfortunately, I can't replicate the issue you're having with the site/link so I'm not sure what can be done to help. Perhaps it works with some browsers and not others. I'm currently using Firefox v.50.0 and have no issues. If it is still not working you could try downloading the latest update for your browser to see if that helps.
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Hi Richard. The geophys certainly does indicate buildings north of the Wall but it cannot tell us what their relationship to the other structures was. It has been suggested that these buildings are likely to be post-Roman. Without excavation, however, there is simply no way to know.
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Hi Sheila. You're absolutely right, that is a bust of Ian Richmond on Ian's windowsill. I'm pleased we solved a minor mystery for you. You've also solved one for me, as I've always vaguely wondered where that statue came from. This is what I love about this course. You honestly never know what you are going to learn the next time you log in.
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Ok, well that's a bit odd. I don't know if we will be able to help but I'll pass your issue on to our team and see if they can figure out what's wrong.
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Hi John. Stirrups were not used in Europe until the early medieval period. Romans saddles had four horns to help them keep their seat.
Here's a link to the Comitatus reconstruction group who have some first hand experience using reconstructions of these saddles.
http://www.comitatus.net/cavalryrecreate.html -
Don't worry about being 'behind' Kathryn. The course materials will continute to be available, even after week 6. We encourage people to go at their own pace and to enjoy their progress. Keep up the good work.
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Hi Helen. Have you had problems with other videos or is it just this one?
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Baths are a standard feature of Roman forts, generally located outside the ramparts. They do vary in size, shape and layout however.
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Unfortunately, Elisabetta, we do not know the Roman name for the Stanegate. Vindolanda is the Roman name for the fort, which we know from an altar found in 1914. The modern name for the site is Chesterholm. Older archaeological reports use that name but Vindolanda is now preferred. Persumably this is to avoid confusion with the many other Roman sites with...
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Hi Elaine. In 212 AD, the Edict of Caracalla granted citizenship to almost all freeborn people in the Empire. This both watered down the value of citizenship and made the granting of it unnecessary for most soldiers.
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Hi everyone. When I first came to Britain to study (I'm American), I was also surprised that many historical monuments are privately owned. It had never occurred to me the you could own your own Roman fort, even if it is legally protected. In addition to those mentioned by Trevor, a number of forts in the frontier zone are owned by private individuals,...
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Hi Janice. We have some good evidence that women and children were around and about inside the forts (very small shoes from Vindolanda, for example) but exactly where they were living is less clear. We will be looking at this subject in depth next week, particularly in section 3.5. As for towns, where there was not one nearby, facilities sprung up outside...
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Religion and the Roman army is certainly an interesting topic. So interesting, and varied, that we are devoting a whole week to it. Hopefully some of your questions will be answered in Week 4: Ritual, Religion, and the Roman Wall. Better yet, I hope it generates even more questions to be answered.
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Hi Alan. The first fort at South Shields was fairly traditional in its design. However, at the turn of the 3rd century, the fort saw a significant remodelling suggesting a new role as a supply depot, just as you say. We will be discussing the interesting implications of this development in week 5 (section 5.4).
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Hi Sharon. Don't worry about being late. We're glad you could joins us.
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Some, but certainly not all, of the forts on Hadrian's wall had buildings we identify as 'valetudinaria' or hospitals. We also have evidence for the medics. For example, the tombstone of Ancius Ingenuus from Housesteads (RIB 1618) tells us he was a 'medicus ordinarius' or military doctor. How this system, if there was a system, worked is unknown, however. ...
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The Romans tracked the passage of years by who the two consuls were for that year. The calendar was based the traditionally recognized 'ab urbe condita' (from the foundation of the city) which is 753 BC to us.
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]
Hi Michael. The answer is yes. We believe Roman soldiers of all stripes paid for their own kit during the Principate.
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Hi all. This is a very intereting issue and one that we will be looking at more in Week 5. Feel free to have a look ahead if you can't contain your excitement.
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/hadrians-wall/4/steps/93255 -
Hi everyone. I think the idea behind a 'long mile' is not that a Roman mile varied in length but rather that milecastles (a modern name), clearly seem to be planned at one mile intervals but that there is some variation in how far apart they are located. Some 'miles' (i.e. the distance between milecastles) are thus longer than others. The issue is one of...
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Hi Gill. All our evidence points to the stone (or, in the west, turf) wall being part of the origial plan.
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Hi Zane. I think you make an important point. We all too often buy into the Romans' own propaganda that they were an all conquering, unstoppable force on the permanent offensive. We need not imagine Roman soldiers huddled in fear beneath the shadow of the Wall to appreciate that they may have been keenly aware of the possibility of facing an enemy with...
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Hi Liz. The museum is down the hill to the south east of the visible fort with a landscaped garden and reconstruction exhibits to the south of that.
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The name Vindolanda might, or might not, mean something like 'white field'. It has been suggested that the site, lying in the shadow of a hill to the east, may have retained its frost or snow longer than the surrounding fields, leading to the name. This is more than a bit of a stretch however and not to be taken as a fact. The people of Vindolanda would not...
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Hi Claire. Nothing lasts forever, of course, though I think we are all amazed by how long some things can still leave their mark on the landscape. Plowing can do quite a bit to damage to archaeology, both leveling out earthworks and seriously disturbing underground remains if they are close enough to the surface. Modern plows penetrate deeper than their...
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Hi all. It is a typo, yes. I'll look into getting it fixed. Thanks for the help.
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Hi Hilary. We've done our best to edit and correct typos but we certainly aren't too proud to admit when we've made a mistake. If you could you direct me to error you've found, I'll see about getting it fixed. EDIT: Ah, I see. Eileen just below has pointed it out.
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Hi all. Archaeologists, particularly British Archaeologists, often use the term 'copper alloy' for objects that might be called 'bronze' in other contexts. Ancient metal smiths frequently recycled their raw materials and thus the presence and percentages of various metals was uncontrolled. It is thus not always an obvious distinction between objects of...
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to Nora Allegue
Hi Nora and Jean. The names sound a bit Latin because we get them from Roman sources. We have no way of knowing how how similar these names are to how locals would have pronounced them, or even how accurate they are all all.
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to Bruce Cotter
You're right Bruce, there have been a few studies suggesting that the chief concern for the towers was line-of-sight signalling back to forts on the Stanegate road. They were clearly also concerned with looking forward, however, as we shall see in section 1.19.
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Hi Judith. The central sector of the Wall, where most of the photos are taken and where most of us go for our walks, is quite rural (for England at least). However, we must remember that to the east and west, the Wall runs through Newcastle and Carlisle, the two largest cities in the north of England. Little survives on the ground now but we must consider...
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Hi Sheila, we have a one page pdf outlining the various phases of the Wall to help you keep track. You can find it at the bottom of section 1.4 or in the direct link below. We also have a glossary of terms available in 1.1 (and the second link). I hope these are of some...
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Hi everyone, you're right that the Stanegate, (along with Dere Street, Maiden Way and others) don't have Latin names. We use the medieval names for these roads, so the reference to a 'stone road' was what was significant to later travelers rather than the Roman builders.
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As you say Tracey, we do only have a tiny proportion of all the objects and texts produced in the ancient world. The problem is even more intractable, as our small percentage does not survive at random (which might make it representative). The texts that survive are those that were chosen, copied, and curated by a series of later people with different and...
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A lot of interesting ideas here, everyone. We will be looking at some of these questions in section 1.8 and next week's 'Mons Graupius: A Decisive Battle?'. As we shall see, the issue is how far we can rely on Tacitus, our only source for these events.
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That's a really interesting personal connection Roger. I've spent quite a bit of time in and around that museum myself while on Ian's dig there. I hope you enjoy Week 4 (section 4.11) when we use Ian's Roman Temples Project at Maryport as a case study.
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Here's a link to the British Museum's replica of the Rudge Cup. The original is in Alnwick.
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=817259&partId=1 -
Hi Joyce. I'm afraid I don't know if there are any 'Ease of Access' settings on the iPad that you would find useful but perhaps some more of our fellow learners will have suggestions regarding that. I have forwarded your issue on to our FutureLearn team as well. My thanks to Lauren and Julian for helping out. Our course's strength is in its community.
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Hi Julian. You are quite right that we don't have any good evidence for crenelations along the course of the wall. We don't even know if there was a wall walk on top, which is very significant for understand how the Wall functioned. Stones, interpreted as the caps for individual merlons, have only been found in the vicinity of towers and milecastles. This...
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Hi Wendy. There is probably a button you can use to zoom in on the 'Northern Britain' PDF. Unfortunately, we are probably not using the same internet browser or PDF reader to view the file, so I won't be able to suggest where it is on your screen. Have a look around (at the top of the screen?) and see if you can find a 'digital magnifiying glass' before you...
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to Sandra Bock
Hi Sandra. You definitely have the right attitude. We've put a lot of information in our course while trying to keep it in manageable, bite sized, sections. If you find you can't complete every section in a given week, don't worry, just come back and look at the sections you missed when you have the time.
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Hi Vicki. If, on your future bus trip, you get a chance to drop by Segedunum in Wallsend, have a look at the section of Wall just west of the fort. While excavating in 1998, archaeologists also uncovered a 19th century colliery pit entrance which is now on display as well. In one spot you can see ancient and industrial heritage. We will be discussing the...
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Hi Susan, I'm pleased you're excited to work with some inscriptions. Many people find the idea intimidating but Ian likes to stress that anyone can get quite a lot of information from them, even if they don't read Latin. They tend to follow certain patterns that we can quickly recognize. We'll be practicing our skills reading Roman altars in Week 4. I look...
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As I've said above Susan, I heartily recommend the archaeology (as well as the specific Roman Frontier studies) programs here, having finished mine a year ago. Keep at it, and maybe I'll run into you in the corridors of the Armstrong building. Hope to see you then.
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to Ruth Brewis
Hi Ruth. I hope we have helped sharpen your interest in archaeology and that you stick with it. I greatly enjoyed my MA program here at Newcastle and I hope you give us serious consideration for furthering your studies.
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Skylar Arbuthnot replied to Ed Townes
That's great, Ed. I thought the Roman Frontiers program and my other archaeology classes at Newcastle were wonderful. I wholeheartedly recommend it and hope to see you around campus some day.
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We hope you have a lovely time visiting, Jane. Feel free to take a spin about the Newcastle campus while you're here. We're right next to the Great North Museum. (P.S. Hexham Abby's small museum is not only lovely and informative, but they have a dress-up as well. If you feel the need, I won't tell, I promise.)
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Hi Eve and Penny. I'm not much of an expert on early medieval history but a quick internet search tells me that indeed, the Danelaw did not include the kingdom of Northumbria/Northumberland (not to be confused with the smaller modern county). I think it is important to note that the Danelaw relates to a later period and a later event of invasion and...
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Hi Elizabeth. A timely example of "getting it wrong" could be the reconstructed bathhouse at Wallsend. The reconstruction there is excellent but is based on the well preserved remains at Chesters. The original structure at Wallsend was uncovered and then immediately "lost" in 1814 due to mining construction. It has since been rediscovered and excavated by...
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Thanks for the encouragement Penny, but I sincerely hope I make a better scholar than an actor. I know everyone involved has appreciated the kind words from learners like you.
