ABSTRACT
Hadrian’s Wall dates from AD 122 and stretches over 70 miles between the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Solway and from coast to coast across the north of England, although nowhere now at its full height. It is the most spectacular and best known Roman limes or frontier system (Dudley 1970), and it has been described as “the greatest monument to Roman achievement in Britain” (Hunter Blair 1963:74). The Wall was not a closed frontier and, at regular intervals of one Roman mile, there were fortified gateways called milecastles, which were an adaptation of the normal fortlets constructed throughout Britain by the Roman army (Breeze and Dobson 2000). These milecastles provided a way through the Wall with double gates at front and rear, and the gap between milecastles was evenly divided by two observation towers, usually called turrets. Also, relatively evenly spaced along the Wall were a series of forts, positioned astride the Wall wherever local topography allowed (Breeze and Dobson 2000).
