Hadrian’s Wall, © 2002, Charles Crowther
In July of 2002, Charles Crowther took this photograph of Hadrian’s Wall late in the afternoon, looking east along the wall from a point just west of its intersection with the Roman fort at Housesteads (ancient Vercovicium, BAtlas 9 E5). Charles is the Assistant Director of the Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents at the University of Oxford. We thank him for letting us reproduce his photograph here.
Learn More about Hadrian’s Wall and the Surrounding Area
There are a number of websites that provide information about Hadrian’s Wall. The Hadrian’s Wall Tourism Partnership has a recently updated website called Hadrian’s Wall Country. It provides travel guidance, maps and sites along the wall, a research and archaeology section, an events guide, links to excavation and museum websites. Similar information is available from another website, also called Hadrian’s Wall Country, which was produced by the Tynedale Council in 2002. Official information relating to Hadrian’s Wall and Housesteads Fort is available from the National Trust.
One example of the many Roman-era sites in the vicinty of Hadrian’s Wall is Vindolanda ( BAtlas 9 E6). The Vindolanda Trust maintains an extensive Vindolanda website, which provides information about the excavations they conduct there (including volunteer opportunities). Oxford’s Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents has produced Vindolanda Tablets Online, an extensive illustrated presentation of many of the precious Roman documents from Vindolanda. The website includes images, transcriptions, translations and discussions of all the tablets published in the first two print volumes. The third print volume has recently appeared, and its contents will eventually be added to the site as well. The online publication "is now the definitive edition of the Vindolanda writing tablets published in Volumes I and II."
Britain’s national mapping agency, the Ordnance Survey, publishes a number of detailed print maps that cover the area around and near the wall, including Explorer OL43: Hadrian’s Wall .
There are a number of excellent books available about Hadrian’s Wall, Vindolanda and other Roman sites in the region. These include:
- Guy de la Bédoyère, Hadrian’s Wall: History and Guide (Stroud: Tempus, 1998), ISBN: 0752414070
- R. Birley, Vindolanda: fort and civilian settlement on Rome’s northern frontier (Roman Army Museum Publications: 2002), ISBN: 187313696X.
- A.K. Bowman and J.D. Thomas, Vindolanda: the Latin writing tablets (London: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, 1983), ISBN: 0907764029.
- A.K. Bowman and J.D. Thomas, The Vindolanda Writing Tablets (Tabulae Vindolandenses II) (London: British Museum Press, 1994), ISBN: 0714123005.
- A.K. Bowman and J.D. Thomas, The Vindolanda Writing Tablets: (Tabulae Vindolandenses III) (London: British Museum Press, 2003), ISBN: 0714122491
- J. Crow, Housesteads (Batsford: English Heritage, 1995), ISBN: 0713460857.
- G.D.B. Jones, et al., Hadrian’s Wall from the Air (Stroud: Tempus, 2002), ISBN: 0752419463
