During a fleeting, yet significant episode in the history of Scotland, the Antonine Wall marked the northernmost border of the Roman Empire. The combined period of the wall's construction and occupation lasted less than the average lifespan of an individual, but it left a legacy that has tantalised generations of scholars. Known to many for his work on Roman military veterans, early colonies and the Bay of Naples, Lawrence Keppie devoted much of his career to the Antonine Wall. Keppie excavated several sites along the wall and published much of its sculpture and epigraphy during his time as a curator at the Hunterian Museum. It is entirely appropriate, then, that his celebratory volume should be dedicated to the Antonine Wall.
The volume's 32 papers make for an impressive collection that is as versatile as the career and interests of Keppie himself. The volume opens with a short reflection on Keppie's career and the path that led him to an interest in the Antonine Wall. This is followed by a detailed contribution by the editors outlining the current state of knowledge about the wall. This chapter introduces key themes that recur throughout the volume and reflects on the significance of advances achieved through new analytical techniques and prospection methods.
Although not formally divided into sections, the volume falls naturally into six thematic parts dedicated to: the situation prior to the construction of the wall; the planning of the frontier; the extant remains; material culture and society; antiquarian activity; and finally the presentation of the Antonine Wall as heritage.
By mapping pre-existing Iron Age societies (Macinnes), using pollen analysis to assess the climate prior to Roman arrival (Davies) and providing negative evidence for Flavian occupation in the area through coin wear analysis (Brickstock), the volume provides reflections on relations between local communities and Roman governance prior to, and at the point of, Rome's arrival. Hanson revisits the dearth of evidence for traditional extramural settlements outside the wall's forts to argue that this does not signal lack of occupation, as this is evidenced through patterns of rubbish disposal, land divisions and the presence of individual structures, but rather that it is symptomatic of the ephemeral nature of the occupation.
A selection of papers dedicated to the planning and construction of the wall (Jones; Graafstal), the materials used (Romankiewicz et al.), temporary camps (Maxwell and Hanson) and fortlets (Symonds; Walker), address current research issues. Particularly interesting are papers reporting on the use of lidar technologies in the ‘Hidden Landscapes of a Roman Frontier’ project to trace the practices of Roman surveyors (Hannon et al.) and the work on Castle Hill, comparing and integrating early map evidence, geophysical survey and lidar mapping (Hanson and Jones).
There are many excellent contributions focusing on material culture, including new insights into the polychromy of sculpture from the wall (Campbell) and reinterpretation of the inscriptions from distance slabs in the context of the role of labour in shaping the conception of the frontier among troops (Ferris). Bidwell's contribution on the supply of pottery and cereals to the wall illustrates the strength of combining existing data with new results derived from more recent methods, a theme prominent throughout the volume. Allason-Jones, van Driel-Murray and Greene's chapter on ‘Roman women in lowland Scotland’ stands out for highlighting the value of utilising a range of sources (epigraphy, small finds and leather finds) to reveal the presence of women, especially where exceptional finds, such as leather footwear, might not be available. The authors demonstrate how factors such as poor preservation of evidence have reinforced the outdated notion that the frontier was ‘no place for women and children’, and provide a useful model for similar studies to be undertaken in other frontier regions.
Chapters considering the presentation of the Antonine Wall to the public provide insights into the development of the underlying storytelling (Devine), the role of reconstructed architecture in shaping collective perceptions of the past (Flügel and Obmann) and the challenges of working with outdated OS maps to interpret the wall following the World Heritage Site nomination (McKeague). Reflections on the Advanced Limes Applications’ (ALAPP) development of georeferenced augmented reality objects accessible via a mobile app provide very interesting practice-based observations regarding the challenge of packaging the remains of the Antonine Wall—which are unassuming compared with those of Hadrian's Wall—into a visitor attraction (Dobat). Weeks provides an excellent example of how heritage can be embedded into the lives of local communities and can cater to the needs of target audiences —in this instance by strategically deploying play parks to increase the appeal of sites to families. Collectively, the papers show that the presentation and marketing of the Antonine Wall as a competitive heritage destination necessitated a comprehensive programme of work involving multiple cross-sector collaborations.
This volume provides a selection of papers that are comprehensive in their presentation of a diverse set of approaches to an equally varied range of topics, from the historiography of the wall to its presentation to the public via archaeology, epigraphy and art. With few sites excavated in recent years, the volume does an excellent job of utilising legacy data, remote-sensing results and finds analyses to deepen the understanding of the Antonine Wall and its environs. The only notable absence is an archaeobotanical review, but this is determined by circumstance and cannot be a criticism. The volume's strength lies in its collaborative approach with dialogue between contributors evident in the many joint papers and the overall coherence of the narrative throughout the book. No doubt this volume will become a go-to source of information on the state of knowledge and research on the Antonine Wall, and on Limes research more broadly.
