Hello!  March continues to march on (okay, that may have been done on purpose) and I hope that you are doing well.  So I am going to do a documentary on the Roman Empire, and doing a documentary on the fringes of the Roman Empire.  This is part of the Lost Treasures of the Ancient World series.  The run time for this documentary is 48:05.  It is called Hadrian’s Wall.

The Roman Empire stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the northern British Frontier.  Some Roman soldiers would have been stationed at this British Frontier.  Hadrian’s Wall was this northern border.  What was life like at this northern border?  They would have encountered wild winds that would have chilled the soldier to the bone.  In front of them, there would have been savage tribes that would have attacked at any moment.  It was the greatest of the Roman fortifications.  So what is the history of Hadrian’s Wall?

The Great Wall was ordered to be built by Emperor Hadrian.  This wall would come down through history being known as Hadrian’s Wall.  Emperor Hadrian visited these northern frontiers and noted that the savage tribes would invade the vulnerable Roman settlements.  He wanted a permanent wall to establish a border and protect the Roman settlements.  It would be a wall that would go from coast to coast as a way to establish a firmer border and to demonstrate Hadrian’s authority. 

Building the wall would have been an impressive feat of engineering.  It would have been a bold proposition.  The Romans with their vast materials and plenty of people would get the job done.  It would show that the Roman Empire was going to stay in Britain.  As it was built, the wall continued to evolve into a thick structure with forts and towers along the wall.  It would have dominated the northern landscape.

Then the documentary talks about what buildings made up the fort structure.  There were barracks for the soldiers and bathhouses.  The forts would have been connected by a road between them.  The forts were built fourteen miles apart, otherwise known as a day’s march for a Roman legion.  Typically in the other parts of the Empire, forts were built fourteen miles apart with a road between them, there were no walls.  What was it about the British that forced the Romans to build walls?

It seems that the British tribes, although subjected still had times when they would fight back.  The British would not be civilized, this was especially true with the Britons and the Scots on the Northern Frontier.  Legends would grow out of this frontier and one such legend was the disappearance of the Ninth Frontier.  However, reality was that the Ninth Legion just relocated to another fort further north.  Eventually, the Ninth Legion would be defeated in Syria, not in Britain.  However, it does not stop people from believing that the can hear the ghosts of Roman soldiers standing on the wall.

However, why did Hadrian eventually have the wall built?  It could have simply been a matter of a massive empire with too few resources.  The wall would have protected the forts and the Roman soldiers better therefore they would need fewer soldiers stationed along the wall.  As the wall was built the building plans changed.  So what about the soldiers who lived on Hadrian’s Wall?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out.

This was a documentary near the top of my list that I just needed to get it done, so I am getting it done today.  It was an older documentary that was part of a series I have not been impressed with.  There really was not much of an introduction.  I continue to be unimpressed with this series, so you teacher be glad that you did not have to watch this documentary.   I found myself drifting off during this documentary, it was really slow-moving documentary.  It was annoyingly slow and the description was not accurate.  It was more about the Hadrian’s Wall than the lives of the soldiers who lived on the frontier.  I would not show this documentary to a history class.  It is just too old and too slow-moving.

One summer treat is ice cream, so why not do a Time Team about the Ice Cream Villa?  The Time Team examines a site near an ice cream factory.  Tony Robinson introduces the ice cream-making amateur archeologists who believe they discovered a Roman villa in a nearby field.  Lloyd Wix, one of the ice cream scientists, talks about what they are finding in the field.  Tony jokes that they have a week to explore the field, in reality, it is three days.

Over the years, there have been plenty of Roman Era finds.  The aerial photographs are showing something in the ground.  This site was producing Roman finds for decades.  There was something present on the site.  The geophysics team goes out on the site. 

Typically, Roman villas were built in a U-shape.  The main house was in the middle of the U was flanked by side rooms.  The foundations of the Ice Cream Villa should give the geophysics team something to find.  Unfortunately, the building that should be found easily is proving to be a challenge.  The results are showing a bunch of noise in the ground.  Stewart Ainsworth, a landscape archeologist, questions why a villa would be built where it was.

In the meantime, Tony examines the finds that have come out of the field.  They have found over a ton of Roman material.  Helen Geake and Philipa Walton are examining the artifacts that were discovered.  There were pieces of jewelry and a lot of coins found.  It was the largest discovery of Roman coins in the countryside.

Phil Harding digs out a test pit.  Geophysics is proving to be a challenge for everyone.  The results are confusing.  Tony discusses how closely the field was examined.  So Time Team had no option but to dig a test trench.  They are making quite a few discoveries in the trench.  They open up a second trench to look for a ditch.  Then a third trench is opened.  The first day is proving to be a disappointment.  Tony, Lloyd, and a geophysicist go over the map that Lloyd created of the field.

With Lloyd’s map, they extend trench three.  It was the spot where Lloyd and his team found a high amount of archelogy.  They are finding more archeology in the trench.  Stewart looks for the roads that would have connected the villa to the main roads.  He eventually finds the road that connected the villa to the main road.  They add a fourth trench based on what the local archeologists discussed.  Everything has gone wrong with this dig.  The Time Team is not finding a building. 

To continue to learn more about the mysterious Ice Cream Villa, continue to watch the episode.

This is a humorous episode.  It almost seemed it was anarchy on the field.  There were parts of it you could hear Tony’s exasperated voice.  At the start, the archeologists and geophysics team are frustrated with the results they are getting.  Almost everything was exclaimed with “you haven’t found the villa.”  Everyone was convinced that there was a villa in the field.  However, they could not find a building on the field.  They found evidence of life, but not the house that the life was lived at.

This episode can be shown in both history and science classrooms.  For a science classroom, it could prompt discussion on why the scientific method fails or why the tools could fail.  Everything could go wrong with this dig, went wrong with this dig.  It would be a good example of why things fail, despite overwhelming evidence.  The evidence the Time Team was finding was confusing.

You can access the YouTube Video here.